Semantic file systems are
file system
In computing, file system or filesystem (often abbreviated to fs) is a method and data structure that the operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one larg ...
s used for information persistence which structure the data according to their
semantics
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
and intent, rather than the location as with current file systems. It allows the data to be addressed by their content (associative access). Traditional hierarchical file-systems tend to impose a burden, for example when a sub-directory layout is contradicting a user's perception of where files would be stored. Having a tag-based interface alleviates this hierarchy problem and enables users to query for data in an intuitive fashion.
Semantic file systems raise technical design challenges as indexes of words, tags or elementary signs of some sort have to be created and constantly updated, maintained and cached for performance to offer the desired random, multi-variate access to files in addition to the underlying, mostly traditional block-based filesystem.
See also
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Content-addressable storage
Content-addressable storage (CAS), also referred to as content-addressed storage or fixed-content storage, is a way to store information so it can be retrieved based on its content, not its name or location. It has been used for high-speed storage ...
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Logic File System
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Semantic Web
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Tagsistant
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WinFS
WinFS (short for Windows Future Storage) was the code name for a canceled data storage and management system project based on relational databases, developed by Microsoft and first demonstrated in 2003 as an advanced storage subsystem for the Micro ...
References
External links
Research & Specifications
Towards Semantic File System Interfaces, Proceedings of the International Semantic Web Conference 2008The Sile Model. A Semantic File System Infrastructure for the DesktopSemantic FS @ MIT Programming Systems Research GroupLaunchpad Blueprints: A tag-based filesystem for Ubuntuexternal list of related work on semantic file systems @ semanticweb.org"Designing better file organization around tags, not hierarchies" detailed writeup by Nayuki
Implementations
SemFS- A Semantic approach to File Systems, was TagFS
Tagsistant- Tagsistant: semantic filesystem for Linux (Linux), see Wikipedia article
Tagsistant
TransparenTag- File system compatible with point'n'click and command-line interfaces
tagxfs- A tag based user space file system extension
Fuse::TagLayer- A read-only tag-filesystem overlay for hierarchical filesystems (Perl, Linux)
xtagfs- XTagFS is a FUSE filesystem that organizes files/folders using 'Spotlight Comment' tags (Mac OS X)
dhtfs- Tagging based filesystem, providing dynamic directory hierarchies based on tags associated with files (Python, Linux)
TMSU- Tagged based filesystem for Linux. Provides a command-line tool for tagging and the ability to mount a virtual filesystem (using FUSE).
dantalian- A multi-dimensionally hierarchical tag-based file organization system
TagsForAll- Tagging based tool for windows that runs on top of the hierarchical filesystem
Tag2Find- Tagging based tool for windows that runs on top of the hierarchical filesystem
dhtfs- FUSE based tag-filesystem overlay for hierarchical filesystems (Perl, Linux)
Elyse- tag-based file manager for mac & windows
TagSpaces- tag base file browser for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android
Tabbles- tag based document manager for windows
Semantic file systems
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