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The following lists identify, characterize, and link to more thorough information on file systems. Many older
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
s support only their one "native" file system, which does not bear any name apart from the name of the operating system itself.


Disk file systems

Disk file systems are usually block-oriented. Files in a block-oriented file system are sequences of blocks, often featuring fully random-access read, write, and modify operations. * ADFS
Acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...
's Advanced Disc filing system, successor to DFS. *
AdvFS AdvFS, also known as Tru64 UNIX Advanced File System, is a file system developed in the late 1980s to mid-1990s by Digital Equipment Corporation for their OSF/1 version of the Unix operating system (later Digital UNIX/Tru64 UNIX). In June 20 ...
– Advanced File System, designed by
Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until ...
for their Digital UNIX (now
Tru64 UNIX Tru64 UNIX is a discontinued 64-bit UNIX operating system for the DEC Alpha, Alpha instruction set architecture (ISA), currently owned by Hewlett-Packard (HP). Previously, Tru64 UNIX was a product of Compaq, and before that, Digital Equipment Corp ...
) operating system. * APFS – Apple File System is a file system for Apple products. * AthFSAtheOS File System, a
64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit integers, memory addresses, or other data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing units (CPU) and arithmetic logic units (ALU) are those that are based on processor registers, a ...
journaled filesystem now used by
Syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...
. Also called AFS. * BFS – the Boot File System used on System V release 4.0 and UnixWare. * BFS – the Be File System used on BeOS, occasionally misnamed as BeFS. Open source implementation called OpenBFS is used by the
Haiku is a type of short form poetry that originated in Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases composed of 17 Mora (linguistics), morae (called ''On (Japanese prosody), on'' in Japanese) in a 5, 7, 5 pattern; that include a ''kire ...
operating system. * Byte File System (BFS) - file system used by z/VM for Unix applications *
Btrfs Btrfs (pronounced as "better F S", "butter F S", "b-tree F S", or "B.T.R.F.S.") is a computer storage format that combines a file system based on the copy-on-write (COW) principle with a logical volume manager (distinct from Linux's LVM), d ...
– is a
copy-on-write Copy-on-write (COW), also called implicit sharing or shadowing, is a resource-management technique used in programming to manage shared data efficiently. Instead of copying data right away when multiple programs use it, the same data is shared ...
file system for
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
announced by
Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...
in 2007 and published under the
GNU General Public License The GNU General Public Licenses (GNU GPL or simply GPL) are a series of widely used free software licenses, or ''copyleft'' licenses, that guarantee end users the freedom to run, study, share, or modify the software. The GPL was the first ...
(GPL). * CFS – The Cluster File System from Veritas, a Symantec company. It is the parallel access version of VxFS. *
CP/M CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/Intel 8085, 85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Dig ...
file system — Native filesystem used in the CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) operating system which was first released in 1974. * DFS
Acorn The acorn is the nut (fruit), nut of the oaks and their close relatives (genera ''Quercus'', ''Notholithocarpus'' and ''Lithocarpus'', in the family Fagaceae). It usually contains a seedling surrounded by two cotyledons (seedling leaves), en ...
's Disc filing system. * DOS 3.x – Original floppy operating system and file system developed for the
Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...
. * Extent File System (EFS) – an older block filing system under
IRIX IRIX (, ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS architecture, MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with Berkeley Software Distribution, BSD extensio ...
. * Extended file system, ext – Extended file system, designed for
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
systems. *
ext2 ext2, or second extended file system, is a file system for the Linux kernel (operating system), kernel. It was initially designed by French software developer Rémy Card as a replacement for the extended file system (ext). Having been designed ...
– Second extended file system, designed for
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
systems. *
ext3 ext3, or third extended filesystem, is a journaling file system, journaled file system that is commonly used with the Linux kernel. It used to be the default file system for many popular Linux distributions but generally has been supplanted by ...
– A journaled form of ext2. *
ext4 ext4 (fourth extended filesystem) is a journaling file system for Linux, developed as the successor to ext3. ext4 was initially a series of backward-compatible extensions to ext3, many of them originally developed by Cluster File Systems for ...
– A follow-up for
ext3 ext3, or third extended filesystem, is a journaling file system, journaled file system that is commonly used with the Linux kernel. It used to be the default file system for many popular Linux distributions but generally has been supplanted by ...
and also a journaled filesystem with support for extents. * ext3cow – A versioning file system form of ext3. *
FAT In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers specif ...
– File Allocation Table, initially used on DOS and
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
and now widely used for portable USB storage and some other devices;
FAT12 File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers and was the default file system for the MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on ...
, FAT16 and
FAT32 File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers and was the default file system for the MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on ...
for 12-, 16- and
32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in a maximum of 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform la ...
table depths. ** VFAT – Optional layer on
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
FAT system to allow long (up to 255 character) filenames instead of only the 8.3 filenames allowed in the plain FAT filesystem. ** FATX – A modified version of
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
FAT system that is used on the original
Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...
console. * FFS (Amiga) – Fast File System, used on
Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...
systems. This FS has evolved over time. Now counts FFS1, FFS Intl, FFS DCache, FFS2. * FFS – Berkeley Fast File System, used on *
BSD The Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), also known as Berkeley Unix or BSD Unix, is a discontinued Unix operating system developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berkeley, beginni ...
systems *
Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...
Plan 9 from Bell Labs Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a distributed operating system which originated from the Computing Science Research Center (CSRC) at Bell Labs in the mid-1980s and built on UNIX concepts first developed there in the late 1960s. Since 2000, Plan 9 has ...
snapshot archival file system. *
Files-11 Files-11 is the file system used in the RSX-11 and OpenVMS operating systems from Digital Equipment Corporation. It supports record-oriented I/O, remote network access, and file versioning. The original ODS-1 layer is a flat file system; th ...
OpenVMS OpenVMS, often referred to as just VMS, is a multi-user, multiprocessing and virtual memory-based operating system. It is designed to support time-sharing, batch processing, transaction processing and workstation applications. Customers using Op ...
file system; also used on some
PDP-11 The PDP–11 is a series of 16-bit minicomputers originally sold by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) from 1970 into the late 1990s, one of a set of products in the Programmed Data Processor (PDP) series. In total, around 600,000 PDP-11s of a ...
systems; supports record-oriented files * Flex machine file system *
HAMMER A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...
— clustered
DragonFly BSD DragonFly BSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system forked from FreeBSD 4.8. Matthew Dillon, an Amiga developer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and FreeBSD developer between 1994 and 2003, began working on DragonFly BSD in ...
filesystem, production-ready since DragonFly 2.2 (2009) *
HAMMER2 HAMMER2 is a successor to the HAMMER (file system), HAMMER filesystem, redesigned from the ground up to support enhanced Computer cluster, clustering. HAMMER2 supports online and batched Data deduplication, deduplication, Snapshot (computer storag ...
— recommended as the default root filesystem in DragonFly since 5.2 release in 2018 *
HFS HFS may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Croatian Film Association () * Hellenic Fire Service, Greece * Hospitality Franchise Systems, US Computing * Hierarchical file system, a system for organizing directories and files * Hierarchica ...
– Hierarchical File System in IBM's MVS from MVS/ESA OpenEdition through
z/OS z/OS is a 64-bit operating system for IBM z/Architecture mainframes, introduced by IBM in October 2000. It derives from and is the successor to OS/390, which in turn was preceded by a string of MVS versions.Starting with the earliest: ...
V2R4; not to be confused with Apple's HFS. IBM stated that
z/OS z/OS is a 64-bit operating system for IBM z/Architecture mainframes, introduced by IBM in October 2000. It derives from and is the successor to OS/390, which in turn was preceded by a string of MVS versions.Starting with the earliest: ...
users should migrate from HFS to
zFS ZFS (previously Zettabyte File System) is a file system with Volume manager, volume management capabilities. It began as part of the Sun Microsystems Solaris (operating system), Solaris operating system in 2001. Large parts of Solaris, includin ...
, and in z/OS V2R5 dropped support for HFS. *
HFS HFS may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Croatian Film Association () * Hellenic Fire Service, Greece * Hospitality Franchise Systems, US Computing * Hierarchical file system, a system for organizing directories and files * Hierarchica ...
– Hierarchical File System, in use until HFS+ was introduced on Mac OS 8.1. Also known as Mac OS Standard format. Successor to Macintosh File System (MFS) & predecessor to HFS+; not to be confused with IBM's HFS provided with
z/OS z/OS is a 64-bit operating system for IBM z/Architecture mainframes, introduced by IBM in October 2000. It derives from and is the successor to OS/390, which in turn was preceded by a string of MVS versions.Starting with the earliest: ...
* HFS+ – Updated version of Apple's HFS, Hierarchical File System, supported on Mac OS 8.1 & above, including macOS. Supports file system journaling, enabling recovery of data after a system crash. Also referred to as 'Mac OS Extended format or HFS Plus * HPFS – High Performance File System, used on
OS/2 OS/2 is a Proprietary software, proprietary computer operating system for x86 and PowerPC based personal computers. It was created and initially developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci, ...
* HTFS – High Throughput Filesystem, used on SCO OpenServer *
ISO 9660 ISO 9660 (also known as ECMA-119) is a file system for optical disc media. The file system is an international standard available from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Since the specification is publicly available, im ...
– Used on
CD-ROM A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold b ...
and DVD-ROM discs (
Rock Ridge ISO 9660 (also known as ECMA-119) is a file system for optical disc media. The file system is an international standard available from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Since the specification is publicly available, im ...
and Joliet are extensions to this) * JFS
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
Journaling file system A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of changes not yet committed to the file system's main part by recording the goal of such changes in a data structure known as a " journal", which is usually a circular log. In the ev ...
, provided in
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
,
OS/2 OS/2 is a Proprietary software, proprietary computer operating system for x86 and PowerPC based personal computers. It was created and initially developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci, ...
, and AIX. Supports extents. * LFS – 4.4BSD implementation of a log-structured file system * MFS – Macintosh File System, used on early
Classic Mac OS Mac OS (originally System Software; retronym: Classic Mac OS) is the series of operating systems developed for the Mac (computer), Macintosh family of personal computers by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1984 to 2001, starting with System 1 and end ...
systems. Succeeded by Hierarchical File System (HFS). * Next3 – A form of
ext3 ext3, or third extended filesystem, is a journaling file system, journaled file system that is commonly used with the Linux kernel. It used to be the default file system for many popular Linux distributions but generally has been supplanted by ...
with snapshots support. * MFS – TiVo's Media File System, a proprietary fault tolerant format used on
TiVo TiVo ( ) is a digital video recorder (DVR) developed and marketed by Xperi (previously by TiVo Corporation and TiVo Inc.) and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose fea ...
hard drives for real time recording from live TV. * Minix file system – Used on Minix systems * NILFS – Linux implementation of a log-structured file system *
NTFS NT File System (NTFS) (commonly called ''New Technology File System'') is a proprietary journaling file system developed by Microsoft in the 1990s. It was developed to overcome scalability, security and other limitations with File Allocation Tabl ...
– (New Technology File System) Used on
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
's
Windows NT Windows NT is a Proprietary software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...
-based operating systems *
NeXT NeXT, Inc. (later NeXT Computer, Inc. and NeXT Software, Inc.) was an American technology company headquartered in Redwood City, California that specialized in computer workstations for higher education and business markets, and later develope ...
-
NeXTstation NeXTstation is a high-end workstation computer developed, manufactured, and sold by NeXT from 1990 until 1993. It runs the NeXTSTEP operating system. The system was designed to be a lower-cost option compared to the company's upscale product, t ...
and
NeXTcube The NeXTcube is a high-end workstation computer developed, manufactured, and sold by NeXT from 1990 to 1993. It superseded the original NeXT Computer workstation and is housed in a similar cube-shaped magnesium enclosure, designed by frog design ...
file system * NetWare File System – The original
NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The final update release was ver ...
2.x–5.x file system, used optionally by later versions. * NSS – Novell Storage Services. This is a new 64-bit
journaling file system A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of changes not yet committed to the file system's main part by recording the goal of such changes in a data structure known as a " journal", which is usually a circular log. In the ev ...
using a balanced tree algorithm. Used in
NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The final update release was ver ...
versions 5.0-up and recently ported to
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
. * OneFS – One File System. This is a fully journaled, distributed file system used by Isilon. OneFS uses FlexProtect and Reed–Solomon encodings to support up to four simultaneous disk failures. * OFS – Old File System, on Amiga. Good for floppies, but fairly useless on hard drives. *
OS-9 OS-9 is a family of real-time, process-based, multitasking, multi-user operating systems, developed in the 1980s, originally by Microware Systems Corporation for the Motorola 6809 microprocessor. It was purchased by Radisys Corp in 2001, a ...
file system * PFS – and PFS2, PFS3, etc. Technically interesting file system available for the
Amiga Amiga is a family of personal computers produced by Commodore International, Commodore from 1985 until the company's bankruptcy in 1994, with production by others afterward. The original model is one of a number of mid-1980s computers with 16-b ...
, performs very well under a lot of circumstances. * ProDOS – Successor to DOS 3.x, for
Apple II Apple II ("apple Roman numerals, two", stylized as Apple ][) is a series of microcomputers manufactured by Apple Computer, Inc. from 1977 to 1993. The Apple II (original), original Apple II model, which gave the series its name, was designed ...
computers, including the Apple IIGS, IIgs * Qnx4fs – File system that is used in QNX version 4 and 6. * ReFS (Resilient File System) – File system by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
with a particular focus on data resilience in server environments. *
ReiserFS ReiserFS is a general-purpose, journaling file system initially designed and implemented by a team at Namesys led by Hans Reiser and licensed under GPLv2. Introduced in version 2.4.1 of the Linux kernel, it was the first journaling file syst ...
– File system that uses journaling * Reiser4 – File system that uses journaling, newest version of ReiserFS * Reliance – Datalight's transactional file system for high reliability applications * Reliance Nitro – Tree-based transactional,
copy-on-write Copy-on-write (COW), also called implicit sharing or shadowing, is a resource-management technique used in programming to manage shared data efficiently. Instead of copying data right away when multiple programs use it, the same data is shared ...
file system developed for high-performance embedded systems, from Datalight (Acquired by Tuxera in 2019) * RFS – Native filesystem for RTEMS * SkyFS – Developed for SkyOS to replace BFS as the operating system's main file system. It is based on BFS, but contains many new features. * SFS – Smart File System,
journaling file system A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of changes not yet committed to the file system's main part by recording the goal of such changes in a data structure known as a " journal", which is usually a circular log. In the ev ...
available for the Amiga platforms. * Soup (Apple) – the "file system" for Apple Newton Platform, structured as a shallow database *
Tux3 Tux3 is an open-source versioning filesystem created by Daniel Phillips. He introduced the filesystem as a public replacement for his Tux2 filesystem which had encountered licensing issues due to the filing of several patents. Phillips had previo ...
– An experimental versioning file system intended as a replacement for ext3 * UDF – Packet-based file system for WORM/RW media such as CD-RW and DVD, now supports hard drives and flash memory as well. * UFS – Unix File System, used on Solaris and older
BSD The Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), also known as Berkeley Unix or BSD Unix, is a discontinued Unix operating system developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berkeley, beginni ...
systems * UFS2 – Unix File System, used on newer
BSD The Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), also known as Berkeley Unix or BSD Unix, is a discontinued Unix operating system developed and distributed by the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at the University of California, Berkeley, beginni ...
systems * VaultFS – parallel distributed clusterable file system for Linux/Unix by Swiss Vault * VxFS
Veritas In Roman mythology, Veritas (), meaning Truth, is the Goddess of Truth, a daughter of Saturn (mythology), Saturn (called Cronus by the Greeks, the Titan (mythology), Titan of Time, perhaps first by Plutarch) and the mother of Virtus (deity), Vi ...
file system, first commercial
journaling file system A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of changes not yet committed to the file system's main part by recording the goal of such changes in a data structure known as a " journal", which is usually a circular log. In the ev ...
;
HP-UX HP-UX (from "Hewlett Packard Unix") is a proprietary software, proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise; current versions support HPE Integrity Servers, based on Intel's Itanium architect ...
, Solaris,
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
, AIX, UnixWare * VTOC (Volume Table Of Contents) - Data structure on IBM mainframe
direct-access storage device A direct-access storage device (DASD) (pronounced ) is a secondary storage device in which "each physical record has a discrete location and a unique address". The term was coined by IBM to describe devices that allowed random access to data, th ...
s (DASD) such as disk drives that provides a way of locating the data sets that reside on the DASD volume. *
XFS XFS is a high-performance 64-bit journaling file system created by Silicon Graphics, Inc (SGI) in 1993. It was the default file system in SGI's IRIX operating system starting with its version 5.3. XFS was ported to the Linux kernel in 2001; a ...
– Used on SGI
IRIX IRIX (, ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS architecture, MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with Berkeley Software Distribution, BSD extensio ...
and
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
systems *
zFS ZFS (previously Zettabyte File System) is a file system with Volume manager, volume management capabilities. It began as part of the Sun Microsystems Solaris (operating system), Solaris operating system in 2001. Large parts of Solaris, includin ...
z/OS z/OS is a 64-bit operating system for IBM z/Architecture mainframes, introduced by IBM in October 2000. It derives from and is the successor to OS/390, which in turn was preceded by a string of MVS versions.Starting with the earliest: ...
File System; not to be confused with other file systems named zFS or ZFS. *
zFS ZFS (previously Zettabyte File System) is a file system with Volume manager, volume management capabilities. It began as part of the Sun Microsystems Solaris (operating system), Solaris operating system in 2001. Large parts of Solaris, includin ...
- an IBM research project to develop a distributed, decentralized file system; not to be confused with other file systems named zFS or ZFS. *
ZFS ZFS (previously Zettabyte File System) is a file system with Volume manager, volume management capabilities. It began as part of the Sun Microsystems Solaris (operating system), Solaris operating system in 2001. Large parts of Solaris, includin ...
a combined file system and logical volume manager designed by
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...


File systems with built-in fault-tolerance

These file systems have built-in checksumming and either mirroring or parity for extra redundancy on one or several block devices: *
Bcachefs Bcachefs is a copy-on-write (COW) file system for Linux-based operating systems. Its primary developer, Kent Overstreet, first announced it in 2015, and it was added to the Linux kernel beginning with 6.7. It is intended to compete with the moder ...
– Full data and metadata checksumming, bcache is the bottom half of the filesystem. Included in Linux kernel since 6.7 *
Btrfs Btrfs (pronounced as "better F S", "butter F S", "b-tree F S", or "B.T.R.F.S.") is a computer storage format that combines a file system based on the copy-on-write (COW) principle with a logical volume manager (distinct from Linux's LVM), d ...
– A file system based on
B-Tree In computer science, a B-tree is a self-balancing tree data structure that maintains sorted data and allows searches, sequential access, insertions, and deletions in logarithmic time. The B-tree generalizes the binary search tree, allowing fo ...
s, initially designed at
Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...
. *
HAMMER A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...
and
HAMMER2 HAMMER2 is a successor to the HAMMER (file system), HAMMER filesystem, redesigned from the ground up to support enhanced Computer cluster, clustering. HAMMER2 supports online and batched Data deduplication, deduplication, Snapshot (computer storag ...
DragonFly BSD DragonFly BSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system forked from FreeBSD 4.8. Matthew Dillon, an Amiga developer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and FreeBSD developer between 1994 and 2003, began working on DragonFly BSD in ...
's primary filesystems, created by
Matt Dillon Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Independent Spirit Awards alongside nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, ...
. * NOVA – The "non-volatile memory accelerated" file system for persistent main memory. * ReFS (Resilient File System) – A file system by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
with built-in resiliency features. * Reliance – A transactional file system with CRCs, created by Datalight. * Reliance Nitro – A tree-based transactional,
copy-on-write Copy-on-write (COW), also called implicit sharing or shadowing, is a resource-management technique used in programming to manage shared data efficiently. Instead of copying data right away when multiple programs use it, the same data is shared ...
file system with CRCs, developed for high performance and reliability in embedded systems, from Datalight (Acquired by Tuxera in 2019). * VaultFS – dynamically configurable any*Data + any*Parity EC (erasure coding) targets for any file or directory tree with checksum on every chunk *
ZFS ZFS (previously Zettabyte File System) is a file system with Volume manager, volume management capabilities. It began as part of the Sun Microsystems Solaris (operating system), Solaris operating system in 2001. Large parts of Solaris, includin ...
– Has checksums for all data; important metadata is always redundant, additional redundancy levels are user-configurable;
copy-on-write Copy-on-write (COW), also called implicit sharing or shadowing, is a resource-management technique used in programming to manage shared data efficiently. Instead of copying data right away when multiple programs use it, the same data is shared ...
and transactional writing ensure metadata consistency; corrupted data can be automatically repaired if a redundant copy is available. Created by
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
for use on Solaris 10 and
OpenSolaris OpenSolaris () is a discontinued open-source computer operating system for SPARC and x86 based systems, created by Sun Microsystems and based on Solaris. Its development began in the mid 2000s and ended in 2010. OpenSolaris was developed as ...
, ported to
FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable ...
7.0,
NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was fork (software development), forked. It continues to ...
(as of August 2009),
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
and to FUSE (not to be confused with the two zFSes from
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
)


File systems optimized for flash memory, solid state media

Solid state media, such as
flash memory Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...
, are similar to disks in their interfaces, but have different problems. At low level, they require special handling such as
wear leveling Wear leveling (also written as wear levelling) is a technique Wear leveling techniques for flash memory systems. for prolonging the service life of some kinds of erasable computer storage media, such as flash memory, which is used in solid-state d ...
and different
error detection and correction In information theory and coding theory with applications in computer science and telecommunications, error detection and correction (EDAC) or error control are techniques that enable reliable delivery of digital data over unreliable communi ...
algorithms. Typically a device such as a
solid-state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuits to store data persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-state device, or solid-state disk. SSDs rely on non- ...
handles such operations internally and therefore a regular file system can be used. However, for certain specialized installations (embedded systems, industrial applications) a file system optimized for plain flash memory is advantageous. * 3FS – (Fire-Flyer File System) is a File System made by DeepSeek designed for AI Training and Inference workloads. * APFS – Apple File System is a next-generation file system for Apple products. * CHFS – a
NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was fork (software development), forked. It continues to ...
filesystem for
embedded system An embedded system is a specialized computer system—a combination of a computer processor, computer memory, and input/output peripheral devices—that has a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electronic system. It is e ...
s optimised for raw flash media. * exFAT
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
proprietary system intended for flash cards (see also XCFiles, an exFAT implementation for Wind River
VxWorks VxWorks is a real-time operating system (or RTOS) developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems, a subsidiary of Aptiv. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems requiring real-time, Deterministic system, ...
and other embedded operating systems). * ExtremeFFS – internal filesystem for SSDs. * F2FS – Flash-Friendly File System. An open source Linux file system introduced by
Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...
in 2012. * FFS2 (presumably preceded by FFS1), one of the earliest flash file systems. Developed and patented by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
in the early 1990s. * JFFS – original log structured Linux file system for NOR flash media. * JFFS2 – successor of JFFS, for NAND and NOR flash. * LSFS – a Log-structured file system with writable snapshots and inline data deduplication created by StarWind Software. Uses DRAM and flash to cache spinning disks. * LogFS – intended to replace JFFS2, better scalability. No longer under active development. * NILFS – a log-structured file system for Linux with continuous snapshots. * Non-Volatile File System – the system for
flash memory Flash memory is an Integrated circuit, electronic Non-volatile memory, non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for t ...
introduced by Palm, Inc. * NOVA – the "non-volatile memory accelerated" file system for persistent main memory. * OneFS – a filesystem utilized by Isilon. It supports selective placement of meta-data directly onto flash SSD.
Reliance Velocity
- a proprietary flash file system by Tuxera with high resilience (fail-safe technology) and built-in data integrity. This file system is best suited for embedded applications requiring heavy data workloads over long-term operations. Reliance Velocity can used for all block based media like eMMC, UFS, eSD,
SD card Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including dig ...
, CF card, and
SSD A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses Integrated circuit, integrated circuits to store data persistence (computer science), persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-stat ...
. It is compatible for
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
, Android and QNX with portability to other embedded operating systems.
Reliance Edge
- a proprietary file system by Tuxera for resource-constrained embedded systems. It has built-in
data integrity Data integrity is the maintenance of, and the assurance of, data accuracy and consistency over its entire Information Lifecycle Management, life-cycle. It is a critical aspect to the design, implementation, and usage of any system that stores, proc ...
with
copy-on-write Copy-on-write (COW), also called implicit sharing or shadowing, is a resource-management technique used in programming to manage shared data efficiently. Instead of copying data right away when multiple programs use it, the same data is shared ...
transactional technology and
deterministic Determinism is the metaphysical view that all events within the universe (or multiverse) can occur only in one possible way. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping mo ...
operations. This file system can be used for block based media and is configurable for Small
POSIX The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX; ) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines application programming interfaces (APIs), along with comm ...
, Full POSIX and can be ported to many
RTOS A real-time operating system (RTOS) is an operating system (OS) for real-time computing applications that processes data and events that have critically defined time constraints. A RTOS is distinct from a time-sharing operating system, such as Unix ...
environments. Tuxera has a certified version of this file system calle
Reliance Assure
The source code of Reliance Assure is complaint to
MISRA C MISRA C is a set of software development guidelines for the C (programming language), C programming language developed by Motor Industry Software Reliability Association, The MISRA Consortium. Its aims are to facilitate code safety, Computer secur ...
and developed following the ASPICE framework. * Segger Microcontroller Systems emFile – filesystem for deeply embedded applications which supports both NAND and NOR flash. Wear leveling, fast read and write, and very low RAM usage. * SPIFFS – SPI Flash File System, a wear-leveling filesystem intended for small NOR flash devices. * TFAT – a transactional version of the FAT filesystem. *
TrueFFS M-Systems Ltd., (sometimes spelled msystems) was a Nasdaq-listed Israeli producer of flash memory storage products founded in 1989 by Dov Moran and Aryeh Mergi, based in Kfar Saba, Israel. They were best known for developing and patenting the fi ...
– internal file system for SSDs, implementing error correction, bad block re-mapping and wear-leveling. * UBIFS – successor of JFFS2, optimized to utilize NAND and NOR flash. * Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL) – an internal file system utilized by
NetApp NetApp, Inc. is an American data infrastructure company that provides unified data storage, integrated data services, and cloud operations (CloudOps) solutions to enterprise customers. The company is based in San Jose, California. It has ranked ...
within their DataONTAP OS, originally optimized to use non-volatile DRAM. WAFL uses Non-standard RAID levels#RAID-DP, RAID-DP to protect against multiple disk failures and NVRAM for transaction log replays. * YAFFS – a log-structured file system designed for NAND flash, but also used with NOR flash.
LittleFS
– a little fail-safe filesystem designed for microcontrollers. * JesFS – Jo's embedded serial FileSystem. A very small footprint and robust filesystem, designed for very small microcontroller (16/32 bit). Open Source and licensed under GPL v3.


Record-oriented file systems

In Record-oriented filesystem, record-oriented file systems files are stored as a collection of record (computer science), records. They are typically associated with Mainframe computer, mainframe and minicomputer operating systems. Programs read and write whole records, rather than bytes or arbitrary byte ranges, and can seek to a record boundary but not within records. The more sophisticated record-oriented file systems have more in common with simple databases than with other file systems. * CMS file system – The native file system of the Conversational Monitor System component of VM/370 *
Files-11 Files-11 is the file system used in the RSX-11 and OpenVMS operating systems from Digital Equipment Corporation. It supports record-oriented I/O, remote network access, and file versioning. The original ODS-1 layer is a flat file system; th ...
– early versions were record-oriented; support for "streams" was added later * Michigan Terminal System (MTS) – provides "line files" where record lengths and line numbers are associated as metadata with each record in the file, lines can be added, replaced, updated with the same or different length records, and deleted anywhere in the file without the need to read and rewrite the entire file. * OS4000 for GEC's OS4000 operating system, on the GEC 4000 series minicomputers * A
FAT12 File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers and was the default file system for the MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on ...
and FAT16 (and
FAT32 File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers and was the default file system for the MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on ...
) extension to support database-like file types ''random file'', ''direct file'', ''keyed file'' and ''sequential file'' in Digital Research FlexOS, IBM 4680 OS and Toshiba 4690 OS.IBM. ''4690 OS Programming Guide Version 5.2'', IBM document SC30-4137-01, 2007-12-06

.
The record size is stored on a file-by-file basis in Design of the FAT file system#DIR OFS 10h, special entries in the directory table.Caldera (1997). ''Caldera OpenDOS Machine Readable Source Kit 7.01''. The FDOS.EQU file in the machine readable source kit has equates for the corresponding directory entries. * Sequential access methods for IBM's
z/OS z/OS is a 64-bit operating system for IBM z/Architecture mainframes, introduced by IBM in October 2000. It derives from and is the successor to OS/390, which in turn was preceded by a string of MVS versions.Starting with the earliest: ...
and z/VSE mainframe operating systems: Basic Sequential Access Method (BSAM), Basic Partitioned Access Method (BPAM) and Queued Sequential Access Method (QSAM); see Access methods and Data set (IBM mainframe) for more examples * Pick Operating System – A record-oriented filesystem and database that uses hash-coding to store data. * VM (operating system)#Shared File System, Shared File System (SFS) for IBM's VM (operating system), VM * Virtual Storage Access Method (VSAM) for IBM's
z/OS z/OS is a 64-bit operating system for IBM z/Architecture mainframes, introduced by IBM in October 2000. It derives from and is the successor to OS/390, which in turn was preceded by a string of MVS versions.Starting with the earliest: ...
and z/VSE mainframe operating systems


Shared-disk file systems

Shared-disk file systems (also called ''shared-storage file systems'', SAN file system, Clustered file system or even ''cluster file systems'') are primarily used in a storage area network where all nodes directly access the Block (data storage), block storage where the file system is located. This makes it possible for nodes to fail without affecting access to the file system from the other nodes. Shared-disk file systems are normally used in a high-availability cluster together with storage on hardware RAID. Shared-disk file systems normally do not scale over 64 or 128 nodes. Shared-disk file systems may be symmetric where metadata is distributed among the nodes or asymmetry, asymmetric with centralized metadata servers. * CXFS (Clustered XFS) from Silicon Graphics (SGI). Available for Linux, Mac, Windows, Solaris, AIX and IRIX. Asymmetric. * Dell Fluid File System (formerly ExaFS) proprietary software sold by Dell. Shared-disk system sold as an appliance providing distributed file systems to clients. Running on Intel based hardware serving NFS v2/v3, SMB/CIFS and AFP to Microsoft Windows, Windows, macOS,
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
and other UNIX clients. * Blue Whale Clustered file system (BWFS) from Tianjin Zhongke Blue Whale Information Technologies Co., Ltd., Zhongke Blue Whale. Asymmetric. Available for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
,
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
, and macOS. * DataPlow SAN File System, SAN File System (SFS) from DataPlow. Available for Windows, Linux, Solaris, and macOS. Symmetric and Asymmetric. * EMC Celerra HighRoad from EMC Corporation, EMC. Available for Linux, AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, Solaris and Windows. Asymmetric. *
Files-11 Files-11 is the file system used in the RSX-11 and OpenVMS operating systems from Digital Equipment Corporation. It supports record-oriented I/O, remote network access, and file versioning. The original ODS-1 layer is a flat file system; th ...
on VMSclusters, released by Digital Equipment Corporation, DEC in 1983, now from Hewlett-Packard, HP. Symmetric. * GFS2 (''Global File System'') from Red Hat. Available for Linux under GNU General Public License, GPL. Symmetric (GDLM) or Asymmetric (GULM). * IBM General Parallel File System (GPFS) Windows, Linux, AIX . Parallel * Nasan Clustered File System from DataPlow. Available for Linux and Solaris. Asymmetric. * Oracle ACFS from
Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...
. Available for Linux (RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and Oracle Enterprise Linux 5 only). Symmetric. * OCFS2 (''Oracle Cluster File System'') from
Oracle Corporation Oracle Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational computer technology company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Co-founded in 1977 in Santa Clara, California, by Larry Ellison, who remains executive chairman, Oracle was ...
. Available for Linux under GNU General Public License, GPL. Symmetric. * QFS from
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
. Available for Linux (client only) and Solaris (metadata server and client). Asymmetric. * ScoutFS from Versity. Available for Linux under the GNU General Public License, GPL. Symmetric. * StorNext File System from Quantum Corporation, Quantum. Asymmetric. Available for AIX,
HP-UX HP-UX (from "Hewlett Packard Unix") is a proprietary software, proprietary implementation of the Unix operating system developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise; current versions support HPE Integrity Servers, based on Intel's Itanium architect ...
,
IRIX IRIX (, ) is a discontinued operating system developed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) to run on the company's proprietary MIPS architecture, MIPS workstations and servers. It is based on UNIX System V with Berkeley Software Distribution, BSD extensio ...
,
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
, macOS, Solaris and Microsoft Windows, Windows. Interoperable with Xsan. Formerly known as CVFS. * Veritas Storage Foundation from NortonLifeLock, Symantec. Available for AIX, HP-UX, Linux and Solaris. Asymmetric. * Xsan from Apple Inc. Available for macOS. Asymmetric. Interoperable with StorNext File System. * VMware VMFS, VMFS from VMware/EMC Corporation. Available for VMware ESX Server. Symmetric.


Distributed file systems

Distributed file systems are also called network file systems. Many implementations have been made, they are location dependent and they have access control lists (ACLs), unless otherwise stated below. * 9P (protocol), 9P, the
Plan 9 from Bell Labs Plan 9 from Bell Labs is a distributed operating system which originated from the Computing Science Research Center (CSRC) at Bell Labs in the mid-1980s and built on UNIX concepts first developed there in the late 1960s. Since 2000, Plan 9 has ...
and Inferno (operating system), Inferno distributed file system protocol. One implementation is v9fs. No ACLs. * Amazon S3 * Andrew File System (AFS) is scalable and location independent, has a heavy client cache (computing), cache and uses Kerberos (protocol), Kerberos for authentication. Implementations include the original from
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
(earlier Transarc), Arla and OpenAFS. * Avere Systems has AvereOS that creates a Network-attached storage, NAS protocol file system in object storage. * DCE Distributed File System (distributed computing environment, DCE/DFS) from
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
(earlier Transarc) is similar to AFS and focus on full
POSIX The Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX; ) is a family of standards specified by the IEEE Computer Society for maintaining compatibility between operating systems. POSIX defines application programming interfaces (APIs), along with comm ...
file system semantics and high availability. Available for AIX and Solaris under a proprietary software license. * File Access Listener (FAL) is an implementation of the Data Access Protocol (DAP) which is part of the DECnet suite of network protocols created by
Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president until ...
. * MagmaFS, Magma, developed by Tx0. * MapR FS is a distributed high-performance file system that exhibits file, table and messaging APIs. * Microsoft Office Groove shared workspace, used for DoHyki * NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) from Novell is used in networks based on
NetWare NetWare is a discontinued computer network operating system developed by Novell, Inc. It initially used cooperative multitasking to run various services on a personal computer, using the IPX network protocol. The final update release was ver ...
. * Network File System (protocol), Network File System (NFS) originally from
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
is the standard in UNIX-based networks. NFS may use Kerberos (protocol), Kerberos authentication and a client cache (computing), cache. * OS4000 Linked-OS provides distributed filesystem across OS4000 systems. * Self-certifying File System (SFS), a global network file system designed to securely allow access to file systems across separate administrative domains. * Server Message Block (SMB) originally from
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
(but the most common version is modified heavily by
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
) is the standard in Windows-based networks. SMB is also known as ''Common Internet File System (CIFS)''. SMB may use Kerberos (protocol), Kerberos authentication. * VaultFS – parallel distributed clusterable file system for Linux/Unix by Swiss Vault


Distributed fault-tolerant file systems

Distributed fault-tolerant replication of data between nodes (between servers or servers/clients) for high availability and offline (disconnected) operation. * Coda (file system), Coda from Carnegie Mellon University focuses on bandwidth-adaptive operation (including disconnected operation) using a client-side cache for mobile computing. It is a descendant of AFS-2. It is available for
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
under the GNU General Public License, GPL. * Distributed File System (Microsoft), Distributed File System (Dfs) from
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
focuses on location transparency and high availability. Available for Microsoft Windows, Windows under a proprietary software license. *
HAMMER A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...
and
HAMMER2 HAMMER2 is a successor to the HAMMER (file system), HAMMER filesystem, redesigned from the ground up to support enhanced Computer cluster, clustering. HAMMER2 supports online and batched Data deduplication, deduplication, Snapshot (computer storag ...
DragonFly BSD DragonFly BSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system forked from FreeBSD 4.8. Matthew Dillon, an Amiga developer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and FreeBSD developer between 1994 and 2003, began working on DragonFly BSD in ...
's filesystems for clustered storage, created by
Matt Dillon Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Independent Spirit Awards alongside nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, ...
. * InterMezzo (file system), InterMezzo from Cluster File Systems uses synchronization over HTTP. Available for
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
under GNU General Public License, GPL but no longer in development since the developers are working on Lustre (file system), Lustre. * LizardFS a networking, distributed file system based on MooseFS * Moose File System (MooseFS) is a networking, distributed file system. It spreads data over several physical locations (servers), which are visible to a user as one resource. Works on Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenSolaris and macOS. Master server and chunkservers can also run on Solaris and Windows with Cygwin. * Scality is a distributed fault-tolerant filesystem. * Tahoe-LAFS is an open source secure, decentralized, fault-tolerant filesystem utilizing encryption as the basis for a least-authority replicated design. * A
FAT12 File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers and was the default file system for the MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on ...
and FAT16 (and
FAT32 File Allocation Table (FAT) is a file system developed for personal computers and was the default file system for the MS-DOS and Windows 9x operating systems. Originally developed in 1977 for use on floppy disks, it was adapted for use on ...
) extension to support automatic file distribution across nodes with extra attributes like ''local'', ''mirror on update'', ''mirror on close'', ''compound on update'', ''compound on close'' in IBM 4680 OS and Toshiba 4690 OS. The distribution attributes are stored on a file-by-file basis in Design of the FAT file system#DIR, special entries in the directory table.IBM (2003). ''Information about 4690 OS unique file distribution attributes'', IBM document R1001487, 2003-07-30. (): "[...] file types are stored in the "Reserved bits" portion of the PC-DOS file directory structure [...] only 4690 respects and preserves these attributes. Various non-4690 operating systems take different actions if these bits are turned on [...] when copying from a diskette created on a 4690 system. [...] PC-DOS and Windows 2000 Professional will copy the file without error and zero the bits. OS/2 [...] 1.2 [...] will refuse to copy the file unless [...] first run CHKDSK /F on the file. After [...] CHKDSK, it will copy the file and zero the bits. [...] when [...] copy [...] back to the 4690 system, [...] file will copy as a local file."IBM. ''4690 save and restore file distribution attributes''. IBM document R1000622, 2010-08-31 (). * OpenHarmony Distributed File System (HMDFS) used for Huawei's HarmonyOS with HarmonyOS NEXT base and OpenHarmony-based operating systems, alongside EulerOS, openEuler server OS that is a cross-device file access where devices can read and edit files on transparently when the two devices are connected to the same network with Access token manager. Multiple embedded devices connected to the network can automatically synchronise file data with the edge server. * VaultFS – parallel distributed clusterable filesystem using dynamically configurable any*Data + any*Parity EC (erasure coding) and dynamically tolerates bitrot, media & server failures


Distributed parallel file systems

Distributed Parallel computing, parallel file systems stripe data over multiple servers for high performance. They are normally used in high-performance computing, high-performance computing (HPC). Some of the distributed parallel file systems use an object storage device (OSD) (in Lustre called OST) for chunks of data together with centralized metadata servers. *BeeGFS is a hardware-independent parallel file system that features distributed metadata and striping of files across multiple targets, such as NVMe devices or logical volumes. *Lustre (file system), Lustre is an Open-source software, open-source high-performance distributed parallel file system for Linux, used on many of the largest computers in the world. *Parallel Virtual File System (PVFS, PVFS2, OrangeFS). Developed to store virtual system images, with a focus on non-shared writing optimizations. Available for
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
under GNU General Public License, GPL. * VaultFS – configurable any*Data + any*Parity EC (erasure coding) chunks are widely distributed on D+P disks across the cluster


Distributed parallel fault-tolerant file systems

Distributed file systems, which also are Parallel computing, parallel and fault tolerant, stripe and replicate data over multiple servers for high performance and to maintain
data integrity Data integrity is the maintenance of, and the assurance of, data accuracy and consistency over its entire Information Lifecycle Management, life-cycle. It is a critical aspect to the design, implementation, and usage of any system that stores, proc ...
. Even if a server fails no data is lost. The file systems are used in both high-performance computing, high-performance computing (HPC) and high-availability clusters. All file systems listed here focus on high availability, scalability and high performance unless otherwise stated below. In development: *
zFS ZFS (previously Zettabyte File System) is a file system with Volume manager, volume management capabilities. It began as part of the Sun Microsystems Solaris (operating system), Solaris operating system in 2001. Large parts of Solaris, includin ...
from
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
(not to be confused with
ZFS ZFS (previously Zettabyte File System) is a file system with Volume manager, volume management capabilities. It began as part of the Sun Microsystems Solaris (operating system), Solaris operating system in 2001. Large parts of Solaris, includin ...
from
Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...
or the zFS file system provided with IBM's
z/OS z/OS is a 64-bit operating system for IBM z/Architecture mainframes, introduced by IBM in October 2000. It derives from and is the successor to OS/390, which in turn was preceded by a string of MVS versions.Starting with the earliest: ...
operating system) focus on cooperative cache and distributed transactions and uses object storage devices. Under development and not freely available. *
HAMMER A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...
/ANVIL by
Matt Dillon Matthew Raymond Dillon (born February 18, 1964) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Independent Spirit Awards alongside nominations for an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, ...
* PNFS (Parallel NFS) – Clients available for
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
and
OpenSolaris OpenSolaris () is a discontinued open-source computer operating system for SPARC and x86 based systems, created by Sun Microsystems and based on Solaris. Its development began in the mid 2000s and ended in 2010. OpenSolaris was developed as ...
and back-ends from
NetApp NetApp, Inc. is an American data infrastructure company that provides unified data storage, integrated data services, and cloud operations (CloudOps) solutions to enterprise customers. The company is based in San Jose, California. It has ranked ...
, Panasas, EMC Corporation, EMC Highroad and
IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
GPFS * CRFS, Coherent Remote File System (CRFS) – requires
Btrfs Btrfs (pronounced as "better F S", "butter F S", "b-tree F S", or "B.T.R.F.S.") is a computer storage format that combines a file system based on the copy-on-write (COW) principle with a logical volume manager (distinct from Linux's LVM), d ...
* Elliptics, Parallel Optimized Host Message Exchange Layered File System (POHMELFS) and Distributed STorage (DST). POSIX compliant, added to Linux kernel 2.6.30


Peer-to-peer file systems

Some of these may be called cooperative storage cloud. * IBM Cloud Object Storage uses Cauchy Reed–Solomon information dispersal algorithms to separate data into unrecognizable slices and distribute them, via secure Internet connections, to multiple storage locations. * Scality is a distributed filesystem using the Chord (peer-to-peer), Chord peer-to-peer protocol. * IPFS InterPlanetary File System is p2p, worldwide distributed content-addressable, file-system. * VaultFS – fully peer-to-peer with distributed data & metadata, without separate Master or Failover nodes


Special-purpose file systems

* aufs an enhanced version of UnionFS stackable unification file system * AXFS (small footprint compressed read-only, with XIP) * Barracuda Networks, Barracuda WebDAV plug-in. Secure Network File Server for embedded devices. * Boot File System is used on UnixWare to store files necessary for its boot process. * CDfs - a Linux virtual file system that provides access to individual data and audio tracks on compact discs * Compact Disc File System (reading and writing of CDs; experimental) * CFS (Compact File Set file format), cfs (caching) * Cramfs (small footprint compressed read-only) * Davfs2 (WebDAV) * Freenet – Decentralized, censorship-resistant * FTPFS (FTP access) * GmailFS (Google Mail File System) * GridFS – GridFS is a specification for storing and retrieving files that exceed the BSON-document size limit of 16 MB for MongoDB. * lnfs (long names) * LTFS (Linear Tape File System for LTO and Enterprise tape) * MultiVersion File System, MVFS – MultiVersion File System, proprietary, used by IBM DevOps Code ClearCase.
Nexfs
Combines Block, File, Object and Cloud storage into a single pool of auto-tiering POSIX compatible storage. * OverlayFS – A union mount filesystem implementation for
Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
. Used mainly by Docker (software), Docker for its image layers. * romfs * SquashFS (compressed read-only) * UMSDOS, UVFAT – FAT file systems extended to store permissions and metadata (and in the case of UVFAT, VFAT long file names), used for Linux * UnionFS – stackable unification file system, which can appear to merge the contents of several directories (branches), while keeping their physical content separate * VaultFS – can intermixably utilize SMR shingled magnetic recording disks to achieve the highest storage densities * Venti (software), Venti – Plan 9 de-duplicated storage used by
Fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...
.


Pseudo file systems

* devfs – a virtual file system in Unix-like operating systems for managing device nodes on-the-fly * procfs – a pseudo-file system, used to access kernel information about processes * tmpfs – in-memory temporary file system (on Unix-like platforms) * sysfs – a virtual file system in Linux kernel, Linux holding information about buses, devices, firmware, filesystems, etc. * debugfs – a virtual file system in Linux kernel, Linux for accessing and controlling kernel debugging * configfs – a writable file system used to configure various kernel components of Linux kernel, Linux * sysctlfs – allow accessing sysctl nodes via a file system; available on
NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was fork (software development), forked. It continues to ...
via PUFFS,
FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free-software Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). The first version was released in 1993 developed from 386BSD, one of the first fully functional and free Unix clones on affordable ...
kernel via a 3rd-party module, and Linux kernel, Linux as a part of Linux procfs. * kernfs (BSD), kernfs – a file system found on some BSD systems (notably
NetBSD NetBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system based on the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD). It was the first open-source BSD descendant officially released after 386BSD was fork (software development), forked. It continues to ...
) that provides access to some kernel state variables; similar to sysctlfs, Linux procfs and Linux sysfs. * WinFS - Uses a relational database to manage files * wikifs – a server application for Plan 9 from Bell Labs, Plan 9's virtual, wiki, file system


Compressed file systems

* VaultFS – auto background compression (writing) & decompression (reading) per file or directory: ten levels: 0 (uncompressed) ... 9 (maximal compression)


Encrypted file systems

* eCryptfs – a stacked cryptographic file system in the Linux kernel since 2.6.19 * EncFS, GPL Disk encryption software, Encrypted file system in user-space * Encrypting File System, EFS – an encrypted file system for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
systems and AIX. An extension of
NTFS NT File System (NTFS) (commonly called ''New Technology File System'') is a proprietary journaling file system developed by Microsoft in the 1990s. It was developed to overcome scalability, security and other limitations with File Allocation Tabl ...
* VaultFS – optional & multiple encryption(s) per-file or directory tree, at rest and in motion *
ZFS ZFS (previously Zettabyte File System) is a file system with Volume manager, volume management capabilities. It began as part of the Sun Microsystems Solaris (operating system), Solaris operating system in 2001. Large parts of Solaris, includin ...
, with encryption support.


File system interfaces

These are not really file systems; they allow access to file systems from an operating system standpoint. * FUSE (linux), FUSE (file system in userspace, like LUFS but better maintained) * LUFS (Linux userland file system – seems to be abandoned in favour of FUSE (linux), FUSE) * Pass-to-Userspace Framework File Fystem, PUFFS (Userspace filesystem for NetBSD, including a compatibility layer called librefuse for porting existing FUSE-based applications) * SSHFS, Secure Shell File System (SSHFS) – locally mount a remote directory on a server using only a secure shell login. * Virtual file system, VFS Virtual Filesystem


See also

* Shared resource * Comparison of file systems * Filing Open Service Interface Definition * Computer data storage


References


External links


File Systems
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of File Systems Computer file systems, * Computing-related lists, File systems