A file system is a way of arranging data on storage media, generally within a partition. The media may be a hard disk, CD, DVD, floppy, or more. The file system usually describes some sort of index where names are mapped to areas of the disk.
A file system should not be confused with a volume, which is a particular instance of a file system. For example: you have two BFS partitions on your system. They are each different volumes. However, they have the same file system, which is BFS.
Built from scratch as a modern 64 bit, journaled file system, BFS is the primary file system for the Be Operating System (BeOS).
BeOS's file system uses extended attributes to support the OS. The Tracker (the graphical interface or GUI) moves and copies the attributes but only when you use BeOS files on a Be File System. If you download compressed files to a different OS be sure not to expand them on any other file system except BFS. The attributes may/will be lost. Always keep beos files compressed on any other file system. The easy way to save the attributes is to use the zip tool and then move/copy/send files.
DominicGiampaolo, creator of the Be File System (BFS) has decided to make his excellent book Practical File System Design with the Be File System available free in PDF format to the commninty now that it is out of print. The book provides a guide to the design and implementation of file systems, including Linux ext2, BSD FFS, Macintosh HFS, NTFS, SGI's XFS in general and the Be File System (BFS) in particular. Covers advanced topics such as journaling, attributes, indexing and query processing.
You can find out more about writing your own file system at the BeOSFileSystemAPI page.
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