Fiwe system

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In computing, a fiwe system or fiwesystem (often abbreviated to fs) controws how data is stored and retrieved. Widout a fiwe system, data pwaced in a storage medium wouwd be one warge body of data wif no way to teww where one piece of data stops and de next begins. By separating de data into pieces and giving each piece a name, de data is easiwy isowated and identified. Taking its name from de way paper-based data management system is named, each group of data is cawwed a "fiwe." The structure and wogic ruwes used to manage de groups of data and deir names is cawwed a "fiwe system."

There are many different kinds of fiwe systems. Each one has different structure and wogic, properties of speed, fwexibiwity, security, size and more. Some fiwe systems have been designed to be used for specific appwications. For exampwe, de ISO 9660 fiwe system is designed specificawwy for opticaw discs.

Fiwe systems can be used on numerous different types of storage devices dat use different kinds of media. As of 2019, hard disk drives have been key storage devices and are projected to remain so for de foreseeabwe future.[1] Oder kinds of media dat are used incwude SSDs, magnetic tapes, and opticaw discs. In some cases, such as wif tmpfs, de computer's main memory (random-access memory, RAM) is used to create a temporary fiwe system for short-term use.

Some fiwe systems are used on wocaw data storage devices;[2] oders provide fiwe access via a network protocow (for exampwe, NFS,[3] SMB, or 9P cwients). Some fiwe systems are "virtuaw", meaning dat de suppwied "fiwes" (cawwed virtuaw fiwes) are computed on reqwest (such as procfs and sysfs) or are merewy a mapping into a different fiwe system used as a backing store. The fiwe system manages access to bof de content of fiwes and de metadata about dose fiwes. It is responsibwe for arranging storage space; rewiabiwity, efficiency, and tuning wif regard to de physicaw storage medium are important design considerations.

Origin of de term[edit]

Before de advent of computers de term fiwe system was used to describe a medod of storing and retrieving paper documents.[4] By 1961, de term was being appwied to computerized fiwing awongside de originaw meaning.[5] By 1964, it was in generaw use.[6]


A fiwe system consists of two or dree wayers. Sometimes de wayers are expwicitwy separated, and sometimes de functions are combined.[7]

The wogicaw fiwe system is responsibwe for interaction wif de user appwication, uh-hah-hah-hah. It provides de appwication program interface (API) for fiwe operations — OPEN, CLOSE, READ, etc., and passes de reqwested operation to de wayer bewow it for processing. The wogicaw fiwe system "manage[s] open fiwe tabwe entries and per-process fiwe descriptors".[8] This wayer provides "fiwe access, directory operations, [and] security and protection".[7]

The second optionaw wayer is de virtuaw fiwe system. "This interface awwows support for muwtipwe concurrent instances of physicaw fiwe systems, each of which is cawwed a fiwe system impwementation".[8]

The dird wayer is de physicaw fiwe system. This wayer is concerned wif de physicaw operation of de storage device (e.g. disk). It processes physicaw bwocks being read or written, uh-hah-hah-hah. It handwes buffering and memory management and is responsibwe for de physicaw pwacement of bwocks in specific wocations on de storage medium. The physicaw fiwe system interacts wif de device drivers or wif de channew to drive de storage device.[7]

Aspects of fiwe systems[edit]

Space management[edit]

Note: dis onwy appwies to fiwe systems used in storage devices.

An exampwe of swack space, demonstrated wif 4,096-byte NTFS cwusters: 100,000 fiwes, each five bytes per fiwe, which eqwaw to 500,000 bytes of actuaw data but reqwire 409,600,000 bytes of disk space to store

Fiwe systems awwocate space in a granuwar manner, usuawwy muwtipwe physicaw units on de device. The fiwe system is responsibwe for organizing fiwes and directories, and keeping track of which areas of de media bewong to which fiwe and which are not being used. For exampwe, in Appwe DOS of de earwy 1980s, 256-byte sectors on 140 kiwobyte fwoppy disk used a track/sector map.[citation needed]

This resuwts in unused space when a fiwe is not an exact muwtipwe of de awwocation unit, sometimes referred to as swack space. For a 512-byte awwocation, de average unused space is 256 bytes. For 64 KB cwusters, de average unused space is 32 KB. The size of de awwocation unit is chosen when de fiwe system is created. Choosing de awwocation size based on de average size of de fiwes expected to be in de fiwe system can minimize de amount of unusabwe space. Freqwentwy de defauwt awwocation may provide reasonabwe usage. Choosing an awwocation size dat is too smaww resuwts in excessive overhead if de fiwe system wiww contain mostwy very warge fiwes.

Fiwe systems may become fragmented

Fiwe system fragmentation occurs when unused space or singwe fiwes are not contiguous. As a fiwe system is used, fiwes are created, modified and deweted. When a fiwe is created, de fiwe system awwocates space for de data. Some fiwe systems permit or reqwire specifying an initiaw space awwocation and subseqwent incrementaw awwocations as de fiwe grows. As fiwes are deweted, de space dey were awwocated eventuawwy is considered avaiwabwe for use by oder fiwes. This creates awternating used and unused areas of various sizes. This is free space fragmentation, uh-hah-hah-hah. When a fiwe is created and dere is not an area of contiguous space avaiwabwe for its initiaw awwocation, de space must be assigned in fragments. When a fiwe is modified such dat it becomes warger, it may exceed de space initiawwy awwocated to it, anoder awwocation must be assigned ewsewhere and de fiwe becomes fragmented.

In some operating systems, a system administrator may use disk qwotas to wimit de awwocation of disk space.


A fiwename (or fiwe name) is used to identify a storage wocation in de fiwe system. Most fiwe systems have restrictions on de wengf of fiwenames. In some fiwe systems, fiwenames are not case sensitive (i.e., de names MYFILE and myfiwe refer to de same fiwe in a directory); in oders, fiwenames are case sensitive (i.e., de names MYFILE, MyFiwe, and myfiwe refer to dree separate fiwes dat are in de same directory).

Most modern fiwe systems awwow fiwenames to contain a wide range of characters from de Unicode character set. However, dey may have restrictions on de use of certain speciaw characters, disawwowing dem widin fiwenames; dose characters might be used to indicate a device, device type, directory prefix, fiwe paf separator, or fiwe type.


Fiwe systems typicawwy have directories (awso cawwed fowders) which awwow de user to group fiwes into separate cowwections. This may be impwemented by associating de fiwe name wif an index in a tabwe of contents or an inode in a Unix-wike fiwe system. Directory structures may be fwat (i.e. winear), or awwow hierarchies where directories may contain subdirectories. The first fiwe system to support arbitrary hierarchies of directories was used in de Muwtics operating system.[9] The native fiwe systems of Unix-wike systems awso support arbitrary directory hierarchies, as do, for exampwe, Appwe's Hierarchicaw Fiwe System, and its successor HFS+ in cwassic Mac OS, de FAT fiwe system in MS-DOS 2.0 and water versions of MS-DOS and in Microsoft Windows, de NTFS fiwe system in de Windows NT famiwy of operating systems, and de ODS-2 (On-Disk Structure-2) and higher wevews of de Fiwes-11 fiwe system in OpenVMS.


Oder bookkeeping information is typicawwy associated wif each fiwe widin a fiwe system. The wengf of de data contained in a fiwe may be stored as de number of bwocks awwocated for de fiwe or as a byte count. The time dat de fiwe was wast modified may be stored as de fiwe's timestamp. Fiwe systems might store de fiwe creation time, de time it was wast accessed, de time de fiwe's metadata was changed, or de time de fiwe was wast backed up. Oder information can incwude de fiwe's device type (e.g. bwock, character, socket, subdirectory, etc.), its owner user ID and group ID, its access permissions and oder fiwe attributes (e.g. wheder de fiwe is read-onwy, executabwe, etc.).

A fiwe system stores aww de metadata associated wif de fiwe—incwuding de fiwe name, de wengf of de contents of a fiwe, and de wocation of de fiwe in de fowder hierarchy—separate from de contents of de fiwe.

Most fiwe systems store de names of aww de fiwes in one directory in one pwace—de directory tabwe for dat directory—which is often stored wike any oder fiwe. Many fiwe systems put onwy some of de metadata for a fiwe in de directory tabwe, and de rest of de metadata for dat fiwe in a compwetewy separate structure, such as de inode.

Most fiwe systems awso store metadata not associated wif any one particuwar fiwe. Such metadata incwudes information about unused regions—free space bitmap, bwock avaiwabiwity map—and information about bad sectors. Often such information about an awwocation group is stored inside de awwocation group itsewf.

Additionaw attributes can be associated on fiwe systems, such as NTFS, XFS, ext2, ext3, some versions of UFS, and HFS+, using extended fiwe attributes. Some fiwe systems provide for user defined attributes such as de audor of de document, de character encoding of a document or de size of an image.

Some fiwe systems awwow for different data cowwections to be associated wif one fiwe name. These separate cowwections may be referred to as streams or forks. Appwe has wong used a forked fiwe system on de Macintosh, and Microsoft supports streams in NTFS. Some fiwe systems maintain muwtipwe past revisions of a fiwe under a singwe fiwe name; de fiwename by itsewf retrieves de most recent version, whiwe prior saved version can be accessed using a speciaw naming convention such as "fiwename;4" or "fiwename(-4)" to access de version four saves ago.

See comparison of fiwe systems#Metadata for detaiws on which fiwe systems support which kinds of metadata.

Fiwe system as an abstract user interface[edit]

In some cases, a fiwe system may not make use of a storage device but can be used to organize and represent access to any data, wheder it is stored or dynamicawwy generated (e.g. procfs).


Fiwe systems incwude utiwities to initiawize, awter parameters of and remove an instance of de fiwe system. Some incwude de abiwity to extend or truncate de space awwocated to de fiwe system.

Directory utiwities may be used to create, rename and dewete directory entries, which are awso known as dentries (singuwar: dentry),[10] and to awter metadata associated wif a directory. Directory utiwities may awso incwude capabiwities to create additionaw winks to a directory (hard winks in Unix), to rename parent winks (".." in Unix-wike operating systems),[cwarification needed] and to create bidirectionaw winks to fiwes.

Fiwe utiwities create, wist, copy, move and dewete fiwes, and awter metadata. They may be abwe to truncate data, truncate or extend space awwocation, append to, move, and modify fiwes in-pwace. Depending on de underwying structure of de fiwe system, dey may provide a mechanism to prepend to or truncate from de beginning of a fiwe, insert entries into de middwe of a fiwe, or dewete entries from a fiwe. Utiwities to free space for deweted fiwes, if de fiwe system provides an undewete function, awso bewong to dis category.

Some fiwe systems defer operations such as reorganization of free space, secure erasing of free space, and rebuiwding of hierarchicaw structures by providing utiwities to perform dese functions at times of minimaw activity. An exampwe is de fiwe system defragmentation utiwities.

Some of de most important features of fiwe system utiwities are supervisory activities which may invowve bypassing ownership or direct access to de underwying device. These incwude high-performance backup and recovery, data repwication, and reorganization of various data structures and awwocation tabwes widin de fiwe system.

Restricting and permitting access[edit]

There are severaw mechanisms used by fiwe systems to controw access to data. Usuawwy de intent is to prevent reading or modifying fiwes by a user or group of users. Anoder reason is to ensure data is modified in a controwwed way so access may be restricted to a specific program. Exampwes incwude passwords stored in de metadata of de fiwe or ewsewhere and fiwe permissions in de form of permission bits, access controw wists, or capabiwities. The need for fiwe system utiwities to be abwe to access de data at de media wevew to reorganize de structures and provide efficient backup usuawwy means dat dese are onwy effective for powite users but are not effective against intruders.

Medods for encrypting fiwe data are sometimes incwuded in de fiwe system. This is very effective since dere is no need for fiwe system utiwities to know de encryption seed to effectivewy manage de data. The risks of rewying on encryption incwude de fact dat an attacker can copy de data and use brute force to decrypt de data. Additionawwy, wosing de seed means wosing de data.

Maintaining integrity[edit]

One significant responsibiwity of a fiwe system is to ensure dat de fiwe system structures in secondary storage remain consistent, regardwess of de actions by programs accessing de fiwe system. This incwudes actions taken if a program modifying de fiwe system terminates abnormawwy or negwects to inform de fiwe system dat it has compweted its activities. This may incwude updating de metadata, de directory entry and handwing any data dat was buffered but not yet updated on de physicaw storage media.

Oder faiwures which de fiwe system must deaw wif incwude media faiwures or woss of connection to remote systems.

In de event of an operating system faiwure or "soft" power faiwure, speciaw routines in de fiwe system must be invoked simiwar to when an individuaw program faiws.

The fiwe system must awso be abwe to correct damaged structures. These may occur as a resuwt of an operating system faiwure for which de OS was unabwe to notify de fiwe system, a power faiwure, or a reset.

The fiwe system must awso record events to awwow anawysis of systemic issues as weww as probwems wif specific fiwes or directories.

User data[edit]

The most important purpose of a fiwe system is to manage user data. This incwudes storing, retrieving and updating data.

Some fiwe systems accept data for storage as a stream of bytes which are cowwected and stored in a manner efficient for de media. When a program retrieves de data, it specifies de size of a memory buffer and de fiwe system transfers data from de media to de buffer. A runtime wibrary routine may sometimes awwow de user program to define a record based on a wibrary caww specifying a wengf. When de user program reads de data, de wibrary retrieves data via de fiwe system and returns a record.

Some fiwe systems awwow de specification of a fixed record wengf which is used for aww writes and reads. This faciwitates wocating de nf record as weww as updating records.

An identification for each record, awso known as a key, makes for a more sophisticated fiwe system. The user program can read, write and update records widout regard to deir wocation, uh-hah-hah-hah. This reqwires compwicated management of bwocks of media usuawwy separating key bwocks and data bwocks. Very efficient awgoridms can be devewoped wif pyramid structures for wocating records.[11]

Using a fiwe system[edit]

Utiwities, wanguage specific run-time wibraries and user programs use fiwe system APIs to make reqwests of de fiwe system. These incwude data transfer, positioning, updating metadata, managing directories, managing access specifications, and removaw.

Muwtipwe fiwe systems widin a singwe system[edit]

Freqwentwy, retaiw systems are configured wif a singwe fiwe system occupying de entire storage device.

Anoder approach is to partition de disk so dat severaw fiwe systems wif different attributes can be used. One fiwe system, for use as browser cache or emaiw storage, might be configured wif a smaww awwocation size. This keeps de activity of creating and deweting fiwes typicaw of browser activity in a narrow area of de disk where it wiww not interfere wif oder fiwe awwocations. Anoder partition might be created for de storage of audio or video fiwes wif a rewativewy warge bwock size. Yet anoder may normawwy be set read-onwy and onwy periodicawwy be set writabwe.

A dird approach, which is mostwy used in cwoud systems, is to use "disk images" to house additionaw fiwe systems, wif de same attributes or not, widin anoder (host) fiwe system as a fiwe. A common exampwe is virtuawization: one user can run an experimentaw Linux distribution (using de ext4 fiwe system) in a virtuaw machine under his/her production Windows environment (using NTFS). The ext4 fiwe system resides in a disk image, which is treated as a fiwe (or muwtipwe fiwes, depending on de hypervisor and settings) in de NTFS host fiwe system.

Having muwtipwe fiwe systems on a singwe system has de additionaw benefit dat in de event of a corruption of a singwe partition, de remaining fiwe systems wiww freqwentwy stiww be intact. This incwudes virus destruction of de system partition or even a system dat wiww not boot. Fiwe system utiwities which reqwire dedicated access can be effectivewy compweted piecemeaw. In addition, defragmentation may be more effective. Severaw system maintenance utiwities, such as virus scans and backups, can awso be processed in segments. For exampwe, it is not necessary to backup de fiwe system containing videos awong wif aww de oder fiwes if none have been added since de wast backup. As for de image fiwes, one can easiwy "spin off" differentiaw images which contain onwy "new" data written to de master (originaw) image. Differentiaw images can be used for bof safety concerns (as a "disposabwe" system - can be qwickwy restored if destroyed or contaminated by a virus, as de owd image can be removed and a new image can be created in matter of seconds, even widout automated procedures) and qwick virtuaw machine depwoyment (since de differentiaw images can be qwickwy spawned using a script in batches).

Design wimitations[edit]

Aww fiwe systems have some functionaw wimit dat defines de maximum storabwe data capacity widin dat system. These functionaw wimits are a best-guess effort by de designer based on how warge de storage systems are right now and how warge storage systems are wikewy to become in de future. Disk storage has continued to increase at near exponentiaw rates (see Moore's waw), so after a few years, fiwe systems have kept reaching design wimitations dat reqwire computer users to repeatedwy move to a newer system wif ever-greater capacity.

Fiwe system compwexity typicawwy varies proportionawwy wif de avaiwabwe storage capacity. The fiwe systems of earwy 1980s home computers wif 50 KB to 512 KB of storage wouwd not be a reasonabwe choice for modern storage systems wif hundreds of gigabytes of capacity. Likewise, modern fiwe systems wouwd not be a reasonabwe choice for dese earwy systems, since de compwexity of modern fiwe system structures wouwd qwickwy consume or even exceed de very wimited capacity of de earwy storage systems.

Types of fiwe systems[edit]

Fiwe system types can be cwassified into disk/tape fiwe systems, network fiwe systems and speciaw-purpose fiwe systems.

Disk fiwe systems[edit]

A disk fiwe system takes advantages of de abiwity of disk storage media to randomwy address data in a short amount of time. Additionaw considerations incwude de speed of accessing data fowwowing dat initiawwy reqwested and de anticipation dat de fowwowing data may awso be reqwested. This permits muwtipwe users (or processes) access to various data on de disk widout regard to de seqwentiaw wocation of de data. Exampwes incwude FAT (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32), exFAT, NTFS, HFS and HFS+, HPFS, APFS, UFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, btrfs, Fiwes-11, Veritas Fiwe System, VMFS, ZFS, ReiserFS and ScoutFS. Some disk fiwe systems are journawing fiwe systems or versioning fiwe systems.

Opticaw discs[edit]

ISO 9660 and Universaw Disk Format (UDF) are two common formats dat target Compact Discs, DVDs and Bwu-ray discs. Mount Rainier is an extension to UDF supported since 2.6 series of de Linux kernew and since Windows Vista dat faciwitates rewriting to DVDs.

Fwash fiwe systems[edit]

A fwash fiwe system considers de speciaw abiwities, performance and restrictions of fwash memory devices. Freqwentwy a disk fiwe system can use a fwash memory device as de underwying storage media but it is much better to use a fiwe system specificawwy designed for a fwash device.

Tape fiwe systems[edit]

A tape fiwe system is a fiwe system and tape format designed to store fiwes on tape. Magnetic tapes are seqwentiaw storage media wif significantwy wonger random data access times dan disks, posing chawwenges to de creation and efficient management of a generaw-purpose fiwe system.

In a disk fiwe system dere is typicawwy a master fiwe directory, and a map of used and free data regions. Any fiwe additions, changes, or removaws reqwire updating de directory and de used/free maps. Random access to data regions is measured in miwwiseconds so dis system works weww for disks.

Tape reqwires winear motion to wind and unwind potentiawwy very wong reews of media. This tape motion may take severaw seconds to severaw minutes to move de read/write head from one end of de tape to de oder.

Conseqwentwy, a master fiwe directory and usage map can be extremewy swow and inefficient wif tape. Writing typicawwy invowves reading de bwock usage map to find free bwocks for writing, updating de usage map and directory to add de data, and den advancing de tape to write de data in de correct spot. Each additionaw fiwe write reqwires updating de map and directory and writing de data, which may take severaw seconds to occur for each fiwe.

Tape fiwe systems instead typicawwy awwow for de fiwe directory to be spread across de tape intermixed wif de data, referred to as streaming, so dat time-consuming and repeated tape motions are not reqwired to write new data.

However, a side effect of dis design is dat reading de fiwe directory of a tape usuawwy reqwires scanning de entire tape to read aww de scattered directory entries. Most data archiving software dat works wif tape storage wiww store a wocaw copy of de tape catawog on a disk fiwe system, so dat adding fiwes to a tape can be done qwickwy widout having to rescan de tape media. The wocaw tape catawog copy is usuawwy discarded if not used for a specified period of time, at which point de tape must be re-scanned if it is to be used in de future.

IBM has devewoped a fiwe system for tape cawwed de Linear Tape Fiwe System. The IBM impwementation of dis fiwe system has been reweased as de open-source IBM Linear Tape Fiwe System — Singwe Drive Edition (LTFS-SDE) product. The Linear Tape Fiwe System uses a separate partition on de tape to record de index meta-data, dereby avoiding de probwems associated wif scattering directory entries across de entire tape.

Tape formatting[edit]

Writing data to a tape, erasing, or formatting a tape is often a significantwy time-consuming process and can take severaw hours on warge tapes.[a] Wif many data tape technowogies it is not necessary to format de tape before over-writing new data to de tape. This is due to de inherentwy destructive nature of overwriting data on seqwentiaw media.

Because of de time it can take to format a tape, typicawwy tapes are pre-formatted so dat de tape user does not need to spend time preparing each new tape for use. Aww dat is usuawwy necessary is to write an identifying media wabew to de tape before use, and even dis can be automaticawwy written by software when a new tape is used for de first time.

Database fiwe systems[edit]

Anoder concept for fiwe management is de idea of a database-based fiwe system. Instead of, or in addition to, hierarchicaw structured management, fiwes are identified by deir characteristics, wike type of fiwe, topic, audor, or simiwar rich metadata.[12]

IBM DB2 for i [13] (formerwy known as DB2/400 and DB2 for i5/OS) is a database fiwe system as part of de object based IBM i[14] operating system (formerwy known as OS/400 and i5/OS), incorporating a singwe wevew store and running on IBM Power Systems (formerwy known as AS/400 and iSeries), designed by Frank G. Sowtis IBM's former chief scientist for IBM i. Around 1978 to 1988 Frank G. Sowtis and his team at IBM Rochester have successfuwwy designed and appwied technowogies wike de database fiwe system where oders wike Microsoft water faiwed to accompwish.[15] These technowogies are informawwy known as 'Fortress Rochester'[citation needed] and were in few basic aspects extended from earwy Mainframe technowogies but in many ways more advanced from a technowogicaw perspective[citation needed].

Some oder projects dat aren't "pure" database fiwe systems but dat use some aspects of a database fiwe system:

  • Many Web content management systems use a rewationaw DBMS to store and retrieve fiwes. For exampwe, XHTML fiwes are stored as XML or text fiewds, whiwe image fiwes are stored as bwob fiewds; SQL SELECT (wif optionaw XPaf) statements retrieve de fiwes, and awwow de use of a sophisticated wogic and more rich information associations dan "usuaw fiwe systems." Many CMSs awso have de option of storing onwy metadata widin de database, wif de standard fiwesystem used to store de content of fiwes.
  • Very warge fiwe systems, embodied by appwications wike Apache Hadoop and Googwe Fiwe System, use some database fiwe system concepts.

Transactionaw fiwe systems[edit]

Some programs need to eider make muwtipwe fiwe system changes, or, if one or more of de changes faiw for any reason, make none of de changes. For exampwe, a program which is instawwing or updating software may write executabwes, wibraries, and/or configuration fiwes. If some of de writing faiws and de software is weft partiawwy instawwed or updated, de software may be broken or unusabwe. An incompwete update of a key system utiwity, such as de command sheww, may weave de entire system in an unusabwe state.

Transaction processing introduces de atomicity guarantee, ensuring dat operations inside of a transaction are eider aww committed or de transaction can be aborted and de system discards aww of its partiaw resuwts. This means dat if dere is a crash or power faiwure, after recovery, de stored state wiww be consistent. Eider de software wiww be compwetewy instawwed or de faiwed instawwation wiww be compwetewy rowwed back, but an unusabwe partiaw instaww wiww not be weft on de system. Transactions awso provide de isowation guarantee[cwarification needed], meaning dat operations widin a transaction are hidden from oder dreads on de system untiw de transaction commits, and dat interfering operations on de system wiww be properwy seriawized wif de transaction, uh-hah-hah-hah.

Windows, beginning wif Vista, added transaction support to NTFS, in a feature cawwed Transactionaw NTFS, but its use is now discouraged.[16] There are a number of research prototypes of transactionaw fiwe systems for UNIX systems, incwuding de Vawor fiwe system,[17] Amino,[18] LFS,[19] and a transactionaw ext3 fiwe system on de TxOS kernew,[20] as weww as transactionaw fiwe systems targeting embedded systems, such as TFFS.[21]

Ensuring consistency across muwtipwe fiwe system operations is difficuwt, if not impossibwe, widout fiwe system transactions. Fiwe wocking can be used as a concurrency controw mechanism for individuaw fiwes, but it typicawwy does not protect de directory structure or fiwe metadata. For instance, fiwe wocking cannot prevent TOCTTOU race conditions on symbowic winks. Fiwe wocking awso cannot automaticawwy roww back a faiwed operation, such as a software upgrade; dis reqwires atomicity.

Journawing fiwe systems is one techniqwe used to introduce transaction-wevew consistency to fiwe system structures. Journaw transactions are not exposed to programs as part of de OS API; dey are onwy used internawwy to ensure consistency at de granuwarity of a singwe system caww.

Data backup systems typicawwy do not provide support for direct backup of data stored in a transactionaw manner, which makes de recovery of rewiabwe and consistent data sets difficuwt. Most backup software simpwy notes what fiwes have changed since a certain time, regardwess of de transactionaw state shared across muwtipwe fiwes in de overaww dataset. As a workaround, some database systems simpwy produce an archived state fiwe containing aww data up to dat point, and de backup software onwy backs dat up and does not interact directwy wif de active transactionaw databases at aww. Recovery reqwires separate recreation of de database from de state fiwe after de fiwe has been restored by de backup software.

Network fiwe systems[edit]

A network fiwe system is a fiwe system dat acts as a cwient for a remote fiwe access protocow, providing access to fiwes on a server. Programs using wocaw interfaces can transparentwy create, manage and access hierarchicaw directories and fiwes in remote network-connected computers. Exampwes of network fiwe systems incwude cwients for de NFS, AFS, SMB protocows, and fiwe-system-wike cwients for FTP and WebDAV.

Shared disk fiwe systems[edit]

A shared disk fiwe system is one in which a number of machines (usuawwy servers) aww have access to de same externaw disk subsystem (usuawwy a SAN). The fiwe system arbitrates access to dat subsystem, preventing write cowwisions. Exampwes incwude GFS2 from Red Hat, GPFS, now known as Spectrum Scawe, from IBM, SFS from DataPwow, CXFS from SGI, StorNext from Quantum Corporation and ScoutFS from Versity.

Speciaw fiwe systems [edit]

A speciaw fiwe system presents non-fiwe ewements of an operating system as fiwes so dey can be acted on using fiwe system APIs. This is most commonwy done in Unix-wike operating systems, but devices are given fiwe names in some non-Unix-wike operating systems as weww.

Device fiwe systems [edit]

A device fiwe system represents I/O devices and pseudo-devices as fiwes, cawwed device fiwes. Exampwes in Unix-wike systems incwude devfs and, in Linux 2.6 systems, udev. In non-Unix-wike systems, such as TOPS-10 and oder operating systems infwuenced by it, where de fuww fiwename or padname of a fiwe can incwude a device prefix, devices oder dan dose containing fiwe systems are referred to by a device prefix specifying de device, widout anyding fowwowing it.

Oder speciaw fiwe systems[edit]

  • In de Linux kernew, configfs and sysfs provide fiwes dat can be used to qwery de kernew for information and configure entities in de kernew.
  • procfs maps processes and, on Linux, oder operating system structures into a fiwespace.

Minimaw fiwe system / audio-cassette storage[edit]

In de 1970s disk and digitaw tape devices were too expensive for some earwy microcomputer users. An inexpensive basic data storage system was devised dat used common audio cassette tape.

When de system needed to write data, de user was notified to press "RECORD" on de cassette recorder, den press "RETURN" on de keyboard to notify de system dat de cassette recorder was recording. The system wrote a sound to provide time synchronization, den moduwated sounds dat encoded a prefix, de data, a checksum and a suffix. When de system needed to read data, de user was instructed to press "PLAY" on de cassette recorder. The system wouwd wisten to de sounds on de tape waiting untiw a burst of sound couwd be recognized as de synchronization, uh-hah-hah-hah. The system wouwd den interpret subseqwent sounds as data. When de data read was compwete, de system wouwd notify de user to press "STOP" on de cassette recorder. It was primitive, but it (mostwy) worked. Data was stored seqwentiawwy, usuawwy in an unnamed format, awdough some systems (such as de Commodore PET series of computers) did awwow de fiwes to be named. Muwtipwe sets of data couwd be written and wocated by fast-forwarding de tape and observing at de tape counter to find de approximate start of de next data region on de tape. The user might have to wisten to de sounds to find de right spot to begin pwaying de next data region, uh-hah-hah-hah. Some impwementations even incwuded audibwe sounds interspersed wif de data.

Fwat fiwe systems[edit]

In a fwat fiwe system, dere are no subdirectories; directory entries for aww fiwes are stored in a singwe directory.

When fwoppy disk media was first avaiwabwe dis type of fiwe system was adeqwate due to de rewativewy smaww amount of data space avaiwabwe. CP/M machines featured a fwat fiwe system, where fiwes couwd be assigned to one of 16 user areas and generic fiwe operations narrowed to work on one instead of defauwting to work on aww of dem. These user areas were no more dan speciaw attributes associated wif de fiwes; dat is, it was not necessary to define specific qwota for each of dese areas and fiwes couwd be added to groups for as wong as dere was stiww free storage space on de disk. The earwy Appwe Macintosh awso featured a fwat fiwe system, de Macintosh Fiwe System. It was unusuaw in dat de fiwe management program (Macintosh Finder) created de iwwusion of a partiawwy hierarchicaw fiwing system on top of EMFS. This structure reqwired every fiwe to have a uniqwe name, even if it appeared to be in a separate fowder. IBM DOS/360 and OS/360 store entries for aww fiwes on a disk pack (vowume) in a directory on de pack cawwed a Vowume Tabwe of Contents (VTOC).

Whiwe simpwe, fwat fiwe systems become awkward as de number of fiwes grows and makes it difficuwt to organize data into rewated groups of fiwes.

A recent addition to de fwat fiwe system famiwy is Amazon's S3, a remote storage service, which is intentionawwy simpwistic to awwow users de abiwity to customize how deir data is stored. The onwy constructs are buckets (imagine a disk drive of unwimited size) and objects (simiwar, but not identicaw to de standard concept of a fiwe). Advanced fiwe management is awwowed by being abwe to use nearwy any character (incwuding '/') in de object's name, and de abiwity to sewect subsets of de bucket's content based on identicaw prefixes.

Fiwe systems and operating systems[edit]

Many operating systems incwude support for more dan one fiwe system. Sometimes de OS and de fiwe system are so tightwy interwoven dat it is difficuwt to separate out fiwe system functions.

There needs to be an interface provided by de operating system software between de user and de fiwe system. This interface can be textuaw (such as provided by a command wine interface, such as de Unix sheww, or OpenVMS DCL) or graphicaw (such as provided by a graphicaw user interface, such as fiwe browsers). If graphicaw, de metaphor of de fowder, containing documents, oder fiwes, and nested fowders is often used (see awso: directory and fowder).

Unix and Unix-wike operating systems[edit]

Unix-wike operating systems create a virtuaw fiwe system, which makes aww de fiwes on aww de devices appear to exist in a singwe hierarchy. This means, in dose systems, dere is one root directory, and every fiwe existing on de system is wocated under it somewhere. Unix-wike systems can use a RAM disk or network shared resource as its root directory.

Unix-wike systems assign a device name to each device, but dis is not how de fiwes on dat device are accessed. Instead, to gain access to fiwes on anoder device, de operating system must first be informed where in de directory tree dose fiwes shouwd appear. This process is cawwed mounting a fiwe system. For exampwe, to access de fiwes on a CD-ROM, one must teww de operating system "Take de fiwe system from dis CD-ROM and make it appear under such-and-such directory." The directory given to de operating system is cawwed de mount point – it might, for exampwe, be /media. The /media directory exists on many Unix systems (as specified in de Fiwesystem Hierarchy Standard) and is intended specificawwy for use as a mount point for removabwe media such as CDs, DVDs, USB drives or fwoppy disks. It may be empty, or it may contain subdirectories for mounting individuaw devices. Generawwy, onwy de administrator (i.e. root user) may audorize de mounting of fiwe systems.

Unix-wike operating systems often incwude software and toows dat assist in de mounting process and provide it new functionawity. Some of dese strategies have been coined "auto-mounting" as a refwection of deir purpose.

  • In many situations, fiwe systems oder dan de root need to be avaiwabwe as soon as de operating system has booted. Aww Unix-wike systems derefore provide a faciwity for mounting fiwe systems at boot time. System administrators define dese fiwe systems in de configuration fiwe fstab (vfstab in Sowaris), which awso indicates options and mount points.
  • In some situations, dere is no need to mount certain fiwe systems at boot time, awdough deir use may be desired dereafter. There are some utiwities for Unix-wike systems dat awwow de mounting of predefined fiwe systems upon demand.
  • Removabwe media awwow programs and data to be transferred between machines widout a physicaw connection, uh-hah-hah-hah. Common exampwes incwude USB fwash drives, CD-ROMs, and DVDs. Utiwities have derefore been devewoped to detect de presence and avaiwabiwity of a medium and den mount dat medium widout any user intervention, uh-hah-hah-hah.
  • Progressive Unix-wike systems have awso introduced a concept cawwed supermounting; see, for exampwe, de Linux supermount-ng project. For exampwe, a fwoppy disk dat has been supermounted can be physicawwy removed from de system. Under normaw circumstances, de disk shouwd have been synchronized and den unmounted before its removaw. Provided synchronization has occurred, a different disk can be inserted into de drive. The system automaticawwy notices dat de disk has changed and updates de mount point contents to refwect de new medium.
  • An automounter wiww automaticawwy mount a fiwe system when a reference is made to de directory atop which it shouwd be mounted. This is usuawwy used for fiwe systems on network servers, rader dan rewying on events such as de insertion of media, as wouwd be appropriate for removabwe media.


Linux supports numerous fiwe systems, but common choices for de system disk on a bwock device incwude de ext* famiwy (ext2, ext3 and ext4), XFS, JFS, and btrfs. For raw fwash widout a fwash transwation wayer (FTL) or Memory Technowogy Device (MTD), dere are UBIFS, JFFS2 and YAFFS, among oders. SqwashFS is a common compressed read-onwy fiwe system.


Sowaris in earwier reweases defauwted to (non-journawed or non-wogging) UFS for bootabwe and suppwementary fiwe systems. Sowaris defauwted to, supported, and extended UFS.

Support for oder fiwe systems and significant enhancements were added over time, incwuding Veritas Software Corp. (journawing) VxFS, Sun Microsystems (cwustering) QFS, Sun Microsystems (journawing) UFS, and Sun Microsystems (open source, poowabwe, 128 bit compressibwe, and error-correcting) ZFS.

Kernew extensions were added to Sowaris to awwow for bootabwe Veritas VxFS operation, uh-hah-hah-hah. Logging or journawing was added to UFS in Sun's Sowaris 7. Reweases of Sowaris 10, Sowaris Express, OpenSowaris, and oder open source variants of de Sowaris operating system water supported bootabwe ZFS.

Logicaw Vowume Management awwows for spanning a fiwe system across muwtipwe devices for de purpose of adding redundancy, capacity, and/or droughput. Legacy environments in Sowaris may use Sowaris Vowume Manager (formerwy known as Sowstice DiskSuite). Muwtipwe operating systems (incwuding Sowaris) may use Veritas Vowume Manager. Modern Sowaris based operating systems ecwipse de need for vowume management drough weveraging virtuaw storage poows in ZFS.


macOS (formerwy Mac OS X) uses de Appwe Fiwe System (APFS), which in 2017 repwaced a fiwe system inherited from cwassic Mac OS cawwed HFS Pwus (HFS+). Appwe awso uses de term "Mac OS Extended" for HFS+.[22] HFS Pwus is a metadata-rich and case-preserving but (usuawwy) case-insensitive fiwe system. Due to de Unix roots of macOS, Unix permissions were added to HFS Pwus. Later versions of HFS Pwus added journawing to prevent corruption of de fiwe system structure and introduced a number of optimizations to de awwocation awgoridms in an attempt to defragment fiwes automaticawwy widout reqwiring an externaw defragmenter.

Fiwenames can be up to 255 characters. HFS Pwus uses Unicode to store fiwenames. On macOS, de fiwetype can come from de type code, stored in fiwe's metadata, or de fiwename extension.

HFS Pwus has dree kinds of winks: Unix-stywe hard winks, Unix-stywe symbowic winks, and awiases. Awiases are designed to maintain a wink to deir originaw fiwe even if dey are moved or renamed; dey are not interpreted by de fiwe system itsewf, but by de Fiwe Manager code in userwand.

macOS 10.13 High Sierra, which was announced on June 5, 2017 at Appwe's WWDC event, uses de Appwe Fiwe System on sowid-state drives.

macOS awso supported de UFS fiwe system, derived from de BSD Unix Fast Fiwe System via NeXTSTEP. However, as of Mac OS X Leopard, macOS couwd no wonger be instawwed on a UFS vowume, nor can a pre-Leopard system instawwed on a UFS vowume be upgraded to Leopard.[23] As of Mac OS X Lion UFS support was compwetewy dropped.

Newer versions of macOS are capabwe of reading and writing to de wegacy FAT fiwe systems (16 and 32) common on Windows. They are awso capabwe of reading de newer NTFS fiwe systems for Windows. In order to write to NTFS fiwe systems on macOS versions prior to Mac OS X Snow Leopard dird party software is necessary. Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and water awwow writing to NTFS fiwe systems, but onwy after a non-triviaw system setting change (dird party software exists dat automates dis).[24]

Finawwy, macOS supports reading and writing of de exFAT fiwe system since Mac OS X Snow Leopard, starting from version 10.6.5.[25]


OS/2 1.2 introduced de High Performance Fiwe System (HPFS). HPFS supports mixed case fiwe names in different code pages, wong fiwe names (255 characters), more efficient use of disk space, an architecture dat keeps rewated items cwose to each oder on de disk vowume, wess fragmentation of data, extent-based space awwocation, a B+ tree structure for directories, and de root directory wocated at de midpoint of de disk, for faster average access. A journawed fiwesystem (JFS) was shipped in 1999.


PC-BSD is a desktop version of FreeBSD, which inherits FreeBSD's ZFS support, simiwarwy to FreeNAS. The new graphicaw instawwer of PC-BSD can handwe / (root) on ZFS and RAID-Z poow instawws and disk encryption using Gewi right from de start in an easy convenient (GUI) way. The current PC-BSD 9.0+ 'Isotope Edition' has ZFS fiwesystem version 5 and ZFS storage poow version 28.

Pwan 9[edit]

Pwan 9 from Beww Labs treats everyding as a fiwe and accesses aww objects as a fiwe wouwd be accessed (i.e., dere is no ioctw or mmap): networking, graphics, debugging, audentication, capabiwities, encryption, and oder services are accessed via I/O operations on fiwe descriptors. The 9P protocow removes de difference between wocaw and remote fiwes. Fiwe systems in Pwan 9 are organized wif de hewp of private, per-process namespaces, awwowing each process to have a different view of de many fiwe systems dat provide resources in a distributed system.

The Inferno operating system shares dese concepts wif Pwan 9.

Microsoft Windows[edit]

Directory wisting in a Windows command sheww

Windows makes use of de FAT, NTFS, exFAT, Live Fiwe System and ReFS fiwe systems (de wast of dese is onwy supported and usabwe in Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10; Windows cannot boot from it).

Windows uses a drive wetter abstraction at de user wevew to distinguish one disk or partition from anoder. For exampwe, de paf C:\WINDOWS represents a directory WINDOWS on de partition represented by de wetter C. Drive C: is most commonwy used for de primary hard disk drive partition, on which Windows is usuawwy instawwed and from which it boots. This "tradition" has become so firmwy ingrained dat bugs exist in many appwications which make assumptions dat de drive dat de operating system is instawwed on is C. The use of drive wetters, and de tradition of using "C" as de drive wetter for de primary hard disk drive partition, can be traced to MS-DOS, where de wetters A and B were reserved for up to two fwoppy disk drives. This in turn derived from CP/M in de 1970s, and uwtimatewy from IBM's CP/CMS of 1967.


The famiwy of FAT fiwe systems is supported by awmost aww operating systems for personaw computers, incwuding aww versions of Windows and MS-DOS/PC DOS, OS/2, and DR-DOS. (PC DOS is an OEM version of MS-DOS, MS-DOS was originawwy based on SCP's 86-DOS. DR-DOS was based on Digitaw Research's Concurrent DOS, a successor of CP/M-86.) The FAT fiwe systems are derefore weww-suited as a universaw exchange format between computers and devices of most any type and age.

The FAT fiwe system traces its roots back to an (incompatibwe) 8-bit FAT precursor in Standawone Disk BASIC and de short-wived MDOS/MIDAS project.[citation needed]

Over de years, de fiwe system has been expanded from FAT12 to FAT16 and FAT32. Various features have been added to de fiwe system incwuding subdirectories, codepage support, extended attributes, and wong fiwenames. Third parties such as Digitaw Research have incorporated optionaw support for dewetion tracking, and vowume/directory/fiwe-based muwti-user security schemes to support fiwe and directory passwords and permissions such as read/write/execute/dewete access rights. Most of dese extensions are not supported by Windows.

The FAT12 and FAT16 fiwe systems had a wimit on de number of entries in de root directory of de fiwe system and had restrictions on de maximum size of FAT-formatted disks or partitions.

FAT32 addresses de wimitations in FAT12 and FAT16, except for de fiwe size wimit of cwose to 4 GB, but it remains wimited compared to NTFS.

FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 awso have a wimit of eight characters for de fiwe name, and dree characters for de extension (such as .exe). This is commonwy referred to as de 8.3 fiwename wimit. VFAT, an optionaw extension to FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32, introduced in Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.5, awwowed wong fiwe names (LFN) to be stored in de FAT fiwe system in a backwards compatibwe fashion, uh-hah-hah-hah.


NTFS, introduced wif de Windows NT operating system in 1993, awwowed ACL-based permission controw. Oder features awso supported by NTFS incwude hard winks, muwtipwe fiwe streams, attribute indexing, qwota tracking, sparse fiwes, encryption, compression, and reparse points (directories working as mount-points for oder fiwe systems, symwinks, junctions, remote storage winks).


exFAT has certain advantages over NTFS wif regard to fiwe system overhead.[citation needed]

exFAT is not backward compatibwe wif FAT fiwe systems such as FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32. The fiwe system is supported wif newer Windows systems, such as Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 2008, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10.

exFAT is supported in macOS starting wif version 10.6.5 (Snow Leopard).[25] Support in oder operating systems is sparse since impwementing support for exFAT reqwires a wicense. exFAT is de onwy fiwe system dat is fuwwy supported on bof macOS and Windows dat can howd fiwes warger dan 4 GB.[26][27]



Prior to de introduction of VSAM, OS/360 systems impwemented a hybrid fiwe system. The system was designed to easiwy support removabwe disk packs, so de information rewating to aww fiwes on one disk (vowume in IBM terminowogy) is stored on dat disk in a fwat system fiwe cawwed de Vowume Tabwe of Contents (VTOC). The VTOC stores aww metadata for de fiwe. Later a hierarchicaw directory structure was imposed wif de introduction of de System Catawog, which can optionawwy catawog fiwes (datasets) on resident and removabwe vowumes. The catawog onwy contains information to rewate a dataset to a specific vowume. If de user reqwests access to a dataset on an offwine vowume, and dey have suitabwe priviweges, de system wiww attempt to mount de reqwired vowume. Catawoged and non-catawoged datasets can stiww be accessed using information in de VTOC, bypassing de catawog, if de reqwired vowume id is provided to de OPEN reqwest. Stiww water de VTOC was indexed to speed up access.

Conversationaw Monitor System[edit]

The IBM Conversationaw Monitor System (CMS) component of VM/370 uses a separate fwat fiwe system for each virtuaw disk (minidisk). Fiwe data and controw information are scattered and intermixed. The anchor is a record cawwed de Master Fiwe Directory (MFD), awways wocated in de fourf bwock on de disk. Originawwy CMS used fixed-wengf 800-byte bwocks, but water versions used warger size bwocks up to 4K. Access to a data record reqwires two wevews of indirection, where de fiwe's directory entry (cawwed a Fiwe Status Tabwe (FST) entry) points to bwocks containing a wist of addresses of de individuaw records.

AS/400 fiwe system[edit]

Data on de AS/400 and its successors consists of system objects mapped into de system virtuaw address space in a singwe-wevew store. Many types of objects are defined incwuding de directories and fiwes found in oder fiwe systems. Fiwe objects, awong wif oder types of objects, form de basis of de AS/400's support for an integrated rewationaw database.

Oder fiwe systems[edit]

  • The Prospero Fiwe System is a fiwe system based on de Virtuaw System Modew.[28] The system was created by Dr. B. Cwifford Neuman of de Information Sciences Institute at de University of Soudern Cawifornia.
  • RSRE FLEX fiwe system - written in ALGOL 68
  • The fiwe system of de Michigan Terminaw System (MTS) is interesting because: (i) it provides "wine fiwes" where record wengds and wine numbers are associated as metadata wif each record in de fiwe, wines can be added, repwaced, updated wif de same or different wengf records, and deweted anywhere in de fiwe widout de need to read and rewrite de entire fiwe; (ii) using program keys fiwes may be shared or permitted to commands and programs in addition to users and groups; and (iii) dere is a comprehensive fiwe wocking mechanism dat protects bof de fiwe's data and its metadata.[29][30]


Converting de type of a fiwe system[edit]

It may be advantageous or necessary to have fiwes in a different fiwe system dan dey currentwy exist. Reasons incwude de need for an increase in de space reqwirements beyond de wimits of de current fiwe system. The depf of paf may need to be increased beyond de restrictions of de fiwe system. There may be performance or rewiabiwity considerations. Providing access to anoder operating system which does not support de existing fiwe system is anoder reason, uh-hah-hah-hah.

In-pwace conversion[edit]

In some cases conversion can be done in-pwace, awdough migrating de fiwe system is more conservative, as it invowves a creating a copy of de data and is recommended.[31] On Windows, FAT and FAT32 fiwe systems can be converted to NTFS via de convert.exe utiwity, but not de reverse.[31] On Linux, ext2 can be converted to ext3 (and converted back), and ext3 can be converted to ext4 (but not back),[32] and bof ext3 and ext4 can be converted to btrfs, and converted back untiw de undo information is deweted.[33] These conversions are possibwe due to using de same format for de fiwe data itsewf, and rewocating de metadata into empty space, in some cases using sparse fiwe support.[33]

Migrating to a different fiwe system[edit]

Migration has de disadvantage of reqwiring additionaw space awdough it may be faster. The best case is if dere is unused space on media which wiww contain de finaw fiwe system.

For exampwe, to migrate a FAT32 fiwe system to an ext2 fiwe system. First create a new ext2 fiwe system, den copy de data to de fiwe system, den dewete de FAT32 fiwe system.

An awternative, when dere is not sufficient space to retain de originaw fiwe system untiw de new one is created, is to use a work area (such as a removabwe media). This takes wonger but a backup of de data is a nice side effect.

Long fiwe pads and wong fiwe names[edit]

In hierarchicaw fiwe systems, fiwes are accessed by means of a paf dat is a branching wist of directories containing de fiwe. Different fiwe systems have different wimits on de depf of de paf. Fiwe systems awso have a wimit on de wengf of an individuaw fiwename.

Copying fiwes wif wong names or wocated in pads of significant depf from one fiwe system to anoder may cause undesirabwe resuwts. This depends on how de utiwity doing de copying handwes de discrepancy.

See awso[edit]


  1. ^ An LTO-6 2.5 TB tape reqwires more dan 4 hours to write at 160 MB/Sec


  1. ^ "Storage, IT Technowogy and Markets, Status and Evowution" (PDF). September 20, 2018. HDD stiww key storage for de foreseeabwe future, SSDs not cost effective for capacity
  2. ^ Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi H.; Arpaci-Dusseau, Andrea C. (2014), Fiwe System Impwementation (PDF), Arpaci-Dusseau Books
  3. ^ Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi H.; Arpaci-Dusseau, Andrea C. (2014), Sun's Network Fiwe System (PDF), Arpaci-Dusseau Books
  4. ^ McGiww, Fworence E. (1922). Office Practice and Business Procedure. Gregg Pubwishing Company. p. 197. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  5. ^ Waring, R.L. (1961). Technicaw investigations of addition of a hardcopy output to de ewements of a mechanized wibrary system : finaw report, 20 Sept. 1961. Cincinnati, OH: Svco Corporation, uh-hah-hah-hah. OCLC 310795767.
  6. ^ Disc Fiwe Appwications: Reports Presented at de Nation's First Disc Fiwe Symposium. American Data Processing. 1964. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  7. ^ a b c Amir, Yair. "Operating Systems 600.418 The Fiwe System". Department of Computer Science Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved Juwy 31, 2016.
  8. ^ a b IBM Corporation, uh-hah-hah-hah. "Component Structure of de Logicaw Fiwe System". IBM Knowwedge Center. Retrieved Juwy 31, 2016.
  9. ^ R. C. Dawey; P. G. Neumann (1965). A Generaw-Purpose Fiwe System For Secondary Storage. Faww Joint Computer Conference. AFIPS. pp. 213–229. doi:10.1145/1463891.1463915. Retrieved 2011-07-30.
  10. ^ Mohan, I. Chandra (2013). Operating Systems. Dewhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. p. 166. ISBN 9788120347267. Retrieved 2014-07-27. The word dentry is short for 'directory entry'. A dentry is noding but a specific component in de paf from de root. They (directory name or fiwe name) provide for accessing fiwes or directories[.]
  11. ^ "KSAM: A B + -tree-based keyed seqwentiaw-access medod". ResearchGate. Retrieved 29 Apriw 2016.
  12. ^ "Windows on a database – swiced and diced by BeOS vets". 2002-03-29. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  13. ^ "IBM DB2 for i: Overview". Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  14. ^ "IBM devewoperWorks : New to IBM i". 2011-03-08. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
  15. ^ "XP successor Longhorn goes SQL, P2P – Microsoft weaks". 2002-01-28. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
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  20. ^ Porter, Donawd E.; Hofmann, Owen S.; Rossbach, Christopher J.; Benn, Awexander and Witchew, Emmett; 2009; "Operating System Transactions"; In de Proceedings of de 22nd ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principwes (SOSP '09), Big Sky, MT, October 2009.
  21. ^ Gaw, Eran; Towedo, Sivan; "A Transactionaw Fwash Fiwe System for Microcontrowwers"
  22. ^ "Mac OS X: About fiwe system journawing". Appwe. Retrieved 8 February 2014.
  23. ^ "Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard: Instawwing on a UFS-formatted vowume". 19 October 2007. Archived from de originaw on 16 March 2008. Retrieved 29 Apriw 2016.
  24. ^ OSXDaiwy (2013-10-02). "How to Enabwe NTFS Write Support in Mac OS X". Retrieved 6 February 2014.
  25. ^ a b Steve Bunting (2012-08-14). EnCase Computer Forensics - The Officiaw EnCE: EnCase Certified Examiner. ISBN 9781118219409. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
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  28. ^ The Prospero Fiwe System: A Gwobaw Fiwe System Based on de Virtuaw System Modew. 1992.
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  32. ^ "Ext4 Howto". Retrieved 29 Apriw 2016.
  33. ^ a b Conversion from Ext3, Btrfs wiki


Furder reading[edit]



Externaw winks[edit]