Friday, 26 January 2018

Operating Systems 4/4: File System

Operating Systems 4/4: File System

THE FILE SYSTEM

What is it?

In computing a file system or filesystem is used to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, information placed in a storage medium would be one large body of data with no way to tell where one piece of information stops and the next begins. By separating the data into pieces and giving each piece a name, the information is easily isolated and identified.

The File System in each Operating System

Windows file system:
Microsoft Windows operating system uses two main file systems: 
FAT, inherited from the old DOS with its later extension FAT32, and widely used NTFS file systems. Recently launched ReFS file system was developed by Microsoft as a new generation of file system for Windows 8 Servers. 
 
FAT (File Allocation Table)
 
It is one of the simplest types of file systems. It consists of a file system of the descriptor sector (boot sector), a file system table of block allocation and the storage space without format to store files and folders. FAT files are stored in 32-byte record set directories. Record of file attributes of the first block of a file. Any next block can be found through a block allocation table, using it as a linked list. 
 
Linux files systems

-minix

-xia

-ext2

-ext

-ext3

-reiserfs



File pathes

A path, the general form of the name of a file or directory, specifies a unique location in a file system. A path points to a file system location by following the directory tree hierarchy expressed in a sting of characters  in which path components, separated by a delimiting character, represent each directory. The delimiting character is most commonly the slash, the backslash character ("\"), or colon (":"), though some operating systems may use a different delimiter. Paths are used extensively in computer science to represent the directory/file relationships common in modern operating systems, and are essential in the construction of Uniform Resource Locators. Resources can be represented by either absolute or relative paths.

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