File system types can be classified into disk file systems, network file systems and special purpose file systems.
[edit] Disk file systems
A disk file system is a file system designed for the storage of files on a data storage device, most commonly a disk drive, which might be directly or indirectly connected to the computer. Examples of disk file systems include FAT (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT), NTFS, HFS and HFS+, HPFS, UFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, ISO 9660, ODS-5, Veritas File System, VMFS, ZFS, ReiserFS and UDF. Some disk file systems are journaling file systems or versioning file systems.
[edit] Optical discs
ISO 9660 and Universal Disk Format (UDF) are the two most common formats that target Compact Discs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Mount Rainier is a newer extension to UDF supported by Linux 2.6 series and Windows Vista that facilitates rewriting to DVDs in the same fashion as has been possible with floppy disks.
[edit] Flash file systems
Main article: Flash file system
A flash file system is a file system designed for storing files on flash memory devices. These are becoming more prevalent as the number of mobile devices is increasing, and the capacity of flash memories increase.
While a disk file system can be used on a flash device, this is suboptimal for several reasons:
* Erasing blocks: Flash memory blocks have to be explicitly erased before they can be rewritten. The time taken to erase blocks can be significant, thus it is beneficial to erase unused blocks while the device is idle.
* Random access: Disk file systems are optimized to avoid disk seeks whenever possible, due to the high cost of seeking. Flash memory devices impose no seek latency.
* Wear levelling: Flash memory devices tend to wear out when a single block is repeatedly overwritten; flash file systems are designed to spread out writes evenly.
Log-structured file systems have many of the desirable properties for a flash file system. Such file systems include JFFS2 and YAFFS.
[edit] Tape file systems
A tape file system is a file system and tape format designed to store files on tape in a self-describing form. Magnetic tapes are sequential storage media, posing challenges to the creation and efficient management of a general-purpose file system. IBM has recently announced a new file system for tape called the Linear Tape File System. The IBM implementation of this file system has been released as the open-source IBM Long Term File System product.
[edit] Database file systems
A recent concept for file management is the idea of a database-based file system. Instead of, or in addition to, hierarchical structured management, files are identified by their characteristics, like type of file, topic, author, or similar metadata.
[edit] Transactional file systems
Some programs need to update multiple files "all at once." For example, a software installation may write program binaries, libraries, and configuration files. If the software installation fails, the program may be unusable. If the installation is upgrading a key system utility, such as the command shell, the entire system may be left in an unusable state.
Transaction processing introduces the isolation guarantee, which states that operations within a transaction are hidden from other threads on the system until the transaction commits, and that interfering operations on the system will be properly serialized with the transaction. Transactions also provide the atomicity guarantee, that operations inside of a transaction are either all committed, or the transaction can be aborted and the system discards all of its partial results. This means that if there is a crash or power failure, after recovery, the stored state will be consistent. Either the software will be completely installed or the failed installation will be completely rolled back, but an unusable partial install will not be left on the system.
Windows, beginning with Vista, added transaction support to NTFS, abbreviated TxF. TxF is the only commercial implementation of a transactional file system, as transactional file systems are difficult to implement correctly in practice. There are a number of research prototypes of transactional file systems for UNIX systems, including the Valor file system,[1] Amino,[2] LFS,[3] and a transactional ext3 file system on the TxOS kernel,[4] as well as transactional file systems targeting embedded systems, such as TFFS.[5]
Ensuring consistency across multiple file system operations is difficult, if not impossible, without file system transactions. File locking can be used as a concurrency control mechanism for individual files, but it typically does not protect the directory structure or file metadata. For instance, file locking cannot prevent TOCTTOU race conditions on symbolic links. File locking also cannot automatically roll back a failed operation, such as a software upgrade; this requires atomicity.
Journaling file systems are one technique used to introduce transaction-level consistency to file system structures. Journal transactions are not exposed to programs as part of the OS API; they are only used internally to ensure consistency at the granularity of a single system call.
[edit] Network file systems
Main article: Distributed file system
A network file system is a file system that acts as a client for a remote file access protocol, providing access to files on a server. Examples of network file systems include clients for the NFS, AFS, SMB protocols, and file-system-like clients for FTP and WebDAV.
[edit] Shared disk file systems
Main article: Shared disk file system
A shared disk file system is one in which a number of machines (usually servers) all have access to the same external disk subsystem (usually a SAN). The file system arbitrates access to that subsystem, preventing write collisions. Examples include GFS from Red Hat, GPFS from IBM, and SFS from DataPlow.
[edit] Special purpose file systems
Main article: Special file system
A special purpose file system is basically any file system that is not a disk file system or network file system. This includes systems where the files are arranged dynamically by software, intended for such purposes as communication between computer processes or temporary file space.
Special purpose file systems are most commonly used by file-centric operating systems such as Unix. Examples include the procfs (/proc) file system used by some Unix variants, which grants access to information about processes and other operating system features.
Deep space science exploration craft, like Voyager I and II used digital tape-based special file systems. Most modern space exploration craft like Cassini-Huygens used Real-time operating system file systems or RTOS influenced file systems. The Mars Rovers are one such example of an RTOS file system, important in this case because they are implemented in flash memory.
[edit] Disk file systems
A disk file system is a file system designed for the storage of files on a data storage device, most commonly a disk drive, which might be directly or indirectly connected to the computer. Examples of disk file systems include FAT (FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT), NTFS, HFS and HFS+, HPFS, UFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, btrfs, ISO 9660, ODS-5, Veritas File System, VMFS, ZFS, ReiserFS and UDF. Some disk file systems are journaling file systems or versioning file systems.
[edit] Optical discs
ISO 9660 and Universal Disk Format (UDF) are the two most common formats that target Compact Discs, DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Mount Rainier is a newer extension to UDF supported by Linux 2.6 series and Windows Vista that facilitates rewriting to DVDs in the same fashion as has been possible with floppy disks.
[edit] Flash file systems
Main article: Flash file system
A flash file system is a file system designed for storing files on flash memory devices. These are becoming more prevalent as the number of mobile devices is increasing, and the capacity of flash memories increase.
While a disk file system can be used on a flash device, this is suboptimal for several reasons:
* Erasing blocks: Flash memory blocks have to be explicitly erased before they can be rewritten. The time taken to erase blocks can be significant, thus it is beneficial to erase unused blocks while the device is idle.
* Random access: Disk file systems are optimized to avoid disk seeks whenever possible, due to the high cost of seeking. Flash memory devices impose no seek latency.
* Wear levelling: Flash memory devices tend to wear out when a single block is repeatedly overwritten; flash file systems are designed to spread out writes evenly.
Log-structured file systems have many of the desirable properties for a flash file system. Such file systems include JFFS2 and YAFFS.
[edit] Tape file systems
A tape file system is a file system and tape format designed to store files on tape in a self-describing form. Magnetic tapes are sequential storage media, posing challenges to the creation and efficient management of a general-purpose file system. IBM has recently announced a new file system for tape called the Linear Tape File System. The IBM implementation of this file system has been released as the open-source IBM Long Term File System product.
[edit] Database file systems
A recent concept for file management is the idea of a database-based file system. Instead of, or in addition to, hierarchical structured management, files are identified by their characteristics, like type of file, topic, author, or similar metadata.
[edit] Transactional file systems
Some programs need to update multiple files "all at once." For example, a software installation may write program binaries, libraries, and configuration files. If the software installation fails, the program may be unusable. If the installation is upgrading a key system utility, such as the command shell, the entire system may be left in an unusable state.
Transaction processing introduces the isolation guarantee, which states that operations within a transaction are hidden from other threads on the system until the transaction commits, and that interfering operations on the system will be properly serialized with the transaction. Transactions also provide the atomicity guarantee, that operations inside of a transaction are either all committed, or the transaction can be aborted and the system discards all of its partial results. This means that if there is a crash or power failure, after recovery, the stored state will be consistent. Either the software will be completely installed or the failed installation will be completely rolled back, but an unusable partial install will not be left on the system.
Windows, beginning with Vista, added transaction support to NTFS, abbreviated TxF. TxF is the only commercial implementation of a transactional file system, as transactional file systems are difficult to implement correctly in practice. There are a number of research prototypes of transactional file systems for UNIX systems, including the Valor file system,[1] Amino,[2] LFS,[3] and a transactional ext3 file system on the TxOS kernel,[4] as well as transactional file systems targeting embedded systems, such as TFFS.[5]
Ensuring consistency across multiple file system operations is difficult, if not impossible, without file system transactions. File locking can be used as a concurrency control mechanism for individual files, but it typically does not protect the directory structure or file metadata. For instance, file locking cannot prevent TOCTTOU race conditions on symbolic links. File locking also cannot automatically roll back a failed operation, such as a software upgrade; this requires atomicity.
Journaling file systems are one technique used to introduce transaction-level consistency to file system structures. Journal transactions are not exposed to programs as part of the OS API; they are only used internally to ensure consistency at the granularity of a single system call.
[edit] Network file systems
Main article: Distributed file system
A network file system is a file system that acts as a client for a remote file access protocol, providing access to files on a server. Examples of network file systems include clients for the NFS, AFS, SMB protocols, and file-system-like clients for FTP and WebDAV.
[edit] Shared disk file systems
Main article: Shared disk file system
A shared disk file system is one in which a number of machines (usually servers) all have access to the same external disk subsystem (usually a SAN). The file system arbitrates access to that subsystem, preventing write collisions. Examples include GFS from Red Hat, GPFS from IBM, and SFS from DataPlow.
[edit] Special purpose file systems
Main article: Special file system
A special purpose file system is basically any file system that is not a disk file system or network file system. This includes systems where the files are arranged dynamically by software, intended for such purposes as communication between computer processes or temporary file space.
Special purpose file systems are most commonly used by file-centric operating systems such as Unix. Examples include the procfs (/proc) file system used by some Unix variants, which grants access to information about processes and other operating system features.
Deep space science exploration craft, like Voyager I and II used digital tape-based special file systems. Most modern space exploration craft like Cassini-Huygens used Real-time operating system file systems or RTOS influenced file systems. The Mars Rovers are one such example of an RTOS file system, important in this case because they are implemented in flash memory.
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