The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of file systems.
File system | Stores file owner | POSIX file permissions | Creation timestamps | Last access/ read timestamps | Last metadata change timestamps | Last archive timestamps | Access control lists | Security/ MAC labels | Extended attributes/ Alternate data streams/ forks | Metadata checksum/ ECC | File system |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bcachefs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Bcachefs |
BeeGFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | BeeGFS |
CP/M file system | No | No | Yes [c] | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | CP/M file system |
DECtape [8] | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | DECtape |
Elektronika BK tape format | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Elektronika BK |
Level-D | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (date only) | Yes | Yes | Yes (FILDAE) | No | No | No | Level-D |
RT-11 [9] | No | No | Yes (date only) | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | RT-11 |
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS) [10] | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS) |
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS) [11] | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS) |
exFAT | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | exFAT |
FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 | No | No | Yes | Yes | No [d] | No | No | No | No [e] | No | FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 |
HPFS | Yes [f] | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | Yes | No | HPFS |
NTFS | Yes | Yes [g] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes [h] | Yes | No | NTFS |
ReFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes [i] | Yes | ReFS |
HFS | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | HFS |
HFS Plus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | HFS Plus |
FFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | FFS |
UFS1 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [j] | Yes [j] | No [k] | No | UFS1 |
UFS2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [j] | Yes [j] | Yes | Partial | UFS2 |
HAMMER | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | HAMMER |
LFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | LFS |
ext | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ext |
Xiafs | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Xiafs |
ext2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [l] | Yes [l] | Yes | No | ext2 |
ext3 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [l] | Yes [l] | Yes | No | ext3 |
ext4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [l] | Yes [l] | Yes | Partial [m] | ext4 |
NOVA | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | NOVA |
Lustre | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Lustre |
F2FS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [l] | Yes [l] | Yes | No | F2FS |
GPFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPFS |
GFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [l] | Yes [l] | Yes | No | GFS |
NILFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | NILFS |
ReiserFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [l] | Yes [l] | Yes | No | ReiserFS |
Reiser4 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Reiser4 |
OCFS | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | OCFS |
OCFS2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | OCFS2 |
XFS | Yes | Yes | Yes [n] | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes [l] | Yes | Yes | XFS |
JFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | JFS |
QFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | QFS |
BFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | BFS |
AdvFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | AdvFS |
NSS | Yes | Yes | Yes [o] | Yes [o] | Yes | Yes [o] | Yes | ? | Yes [p] [q] | No | NSS |
NWFS | Yes | ? | Yes [o] | Yes [o] | Yes | Yes [o] | Yes | ? | Yes [p] [q] | No | NWFS |
ODS-5 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes [r] | No | ODS-5 |
APFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | APFS |
VxFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes [l] | No | VxFS |
UDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | UDF |
Fossil | Yes | Yes [s] | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Fossil |
ZFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [t] | Yes [u] | Yes | ZFS |
Btrfs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Btrfs |
Minix V1 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Minix V1 |
Minix V2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Minix V2 |
Minix V3 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Minix V3 |
VMFS2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | VMFS2 |
VMFS3 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | VMFS3 |
ISO 9660:1988 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ISO 9660:1988 |
Rock Ridge | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [v] | Yes | No | No [w] | No [x] | No [x] | No | Rock Ridge |
Joliet ("CDFS") | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Joliet ("CDFS") |
ISO 9660:1999 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ISO 9660:1999 |
High Sierra | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | High Sierra |
SquashFS | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | SquashFS |
BlueStore/Cephfs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | BlueStore/Cephfs |
File system | Stores file owner | POSIX file permissions | Creation timestamps | Last access/read timestamps | Last metadata change timestamps | Last archive timestamps | Access control lists | Security/ MAC labels | Extended attributes/ Alternate data streams/ forks | Metadata checksum/ ECC | File system |
File system | Hard links | Symbolic links | Block journaling | Metadata-only journaling | Case-sensitive | Case-preserving | File Change Log | XIP | Resident files (inline data) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DECtape | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? |
BeeGFS | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
Level-D | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? |
RT-11 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? |
APFS | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Optional | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS) | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS) | Yes | No [y] | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
exFAT | No | No | No | Partial (with TexFAT only) | No | Yes | No | No | No |
FAT12 | No | No | No | Partial (with TFAT12 only) | No | Partial (with VFAT LFNs only) | No | No | No |
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X | No | No | No | Partial (with TFAT16 only) | No | Partial (with VFAT LFNs only) | No | No | No |
FAT32 / FAT32X | No | No | No? | Partial (with TFAT32 only) | No | Partial (with VFAT LFNs only) | No | No | No |
GFS | Yes | Yes [z] | Yes | Yes [aa] | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
HPFS | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? |
NTFS | Yes | Yes [ab] | No [ac] | Yes [ac] (2000) | Yes [ad] | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes (approximately 700 bytes) |
HFS Plus | Yes [16] | Yes | No | Yes [ae] | Optional [af] | Yes | Yes [ag] | No | ? |
FFS | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
UFS1 | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
UFS2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [ah] [21] [ai] | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No |
HAMMER | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? |
LFS | Yes | Yes | Yes [aj] | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
ext | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
Xiafs | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
ext2 | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [ak] | ? |
ext3 | Yes | Yes | Yes (2001) [al] | Yes (2001) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
ext4 | Yes | Yes | Yes [al] | Yes | Yes, optional [24] | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (approximately 160 bytes) [25] |
NOVA | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
F2FS | Yes | Yes | Yes [aj] | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
Lustre | Yes | Yes | Yes [al] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
NILFS | Yes | Yes | Yes [aj] | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
ReiserFS | Yes | Yes | Yes [am] | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? |
Reiser4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? |
OCFS | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
OCFS2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
XFS | Yes | Yes | Yes [al] | Yes | Yes [an] | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
JFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (1990) | Yes [ao] | Yes | No | ? | ? |
QFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
BFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? |
NSS | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes [ap] | Yes [ap] | Yes [aq] | No | ? |
NWFS | Yes [ar] | Yes [ar] | No | No | Yes [ap] | Yes [ap] | Yes [aq] | No | ? |
ODS-2 | Yes | Yes [as] | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
ODS-5 | Yes | Yes [as] | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
UDF | Yes | Yes | Yes [aj] | Yes [aj] | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes [27] |
VxFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
Fossil | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
ZFS | Yes | Yes | Yes [at] | No [at] | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes (112 bytes) [28] |
Btrfs | Yes | Yes | Yes [au] | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
Bcachefs | Yes | Yes | Yes [av] | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
Minix V1 | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
Minix V2 | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
Minix V3 | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
VMFS2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
VMFS3 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
ReFS | Yes [aw] | Yes | ? | ? | Yes [ad] | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
ISO 9660 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? |
Rock Ridge | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
Joliet ("CDFS") | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? |
SquashFS | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
BlueStore/Cephfs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
File system | Hard links | Symbolic links | Block journaling | Metadata-only journaling | Case-sensitive | Case-preserving | File Change Log | XIP | Resident files |
Note that in addition to the below table, block capabilities can be implemented below the file system layer in Linux (LVM, integritysetup, cryptsetup) or Windows (Volume Shadow Copy Service, SECURITY), etc.
File system | Internal snapshotting / branching | Encryption | Deduplication | Data checksum/ ECC | Persistent Cache | Multiple Devices | Compression | Self-healing [ax] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DECtape | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
BeeGFS | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Level-D | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
RT-11 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
APFS | Yes | Yes | Yes [29] | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS) | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS) | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
exFAT | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
FAT12 | No | No | No | No | No | No | Partial [ay] | No |
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X | No | No | No | No | No | No | Partial [ay] | No |
FAT32 / FAT32X | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
GFS | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No |
HPFS | ? | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No |
NTFS | No | Yes | Yes [az] [31] | No | No | No | Yes | No |
HFS Plus | No | No [ba] | No | No | No | No | No | No |
FFS | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
UFS1 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
UFS2 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
HAMMER | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
LFS | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
ext | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Xiafs | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
ext2 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
ext3 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
ext4 | No | Yes, experimental [32] | No | No [33] | No | No | No | No |
NOVA | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? |
F2FS | No | Yes, experimental [34] | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Lustre | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
NILFS | Yes, continuous [aj] | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
ReiserFS | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Reiser4 | ? | Yes [bb] | ? | No | No | No | Yes | No |
OCFS | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
OCFS2 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
XFS | No | No | Yes [35] | No [33] | No | No | No | No |
JFS | ? | No | ? | No | No | No | only in JFS1 on AIX [36] | No |
QFS | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
BFS | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
NSS | Yes | Yes | ? | No | No | No | Yes | No |
NWFS | ? | No | ? | No | No | No | Yes | No |
ODS-2 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
ODS-5 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | |
UDF | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
VxFS | Yes [bc] | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
Fossil | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No |
ZFS | Yes | Yes [bd] | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes [be] | Yes |
Btrfs | Yes | No | Yes | Yes [bf] | No | Yes | Yes [bg] | Yes |
Bcachefs | Yes | Yes | No | Yes [bh] | No | Yes | Yes [bi] | No |
Minix V1 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Minix V2 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Minix V3 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
VMFS2 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
VMFS3 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
ReFS | No [bj] | No | Yes | No [bk] | No | No | No [bl] | No [bk] |
ISO 9660 | No | No | No [bm] | No | No | No | No | No |
Rock Ridge | No | No | No [bm] | No | No | No | No | No |
Joliet ("CDFS") | No | No | No [bm] | No | No | No | No | No |
SquashFS | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
BlueStore/Cephfs | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
File system | Internal snapshotting / branching | Encryption | Deduplication | Data checksum/ ECC | Persistent Cache | Multiple Devices | Compression | Self-healing [ax] |
"Online" and "offline" are synonymous with "mounted" and "not mounted".
File system | Host OS | Offline grow | Online grow | Offline shrink | Online shrink | Add and remove physical volumes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X | misc. | Yes [bn] | No | Yes [bn] | No | No |
FAT32 / FAT32X | misc. | Yes [bn] | No | Yes [bn] | No | No |
exFAT | misc. | No | No | No | No | No |
NTFS | Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
ReFS | Windows | ? | Yes | ? | No | No |
HFS | macOS | No | No | No | No | No |
HFS+ | macOS | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
APFS | macOS | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
SquashFS | Linux | No | No | No | No | No |
NOVA | Linux | No | No | No | No | No |
JFS [46] | Linux | Yes | No | No | No | No |
XFS [47] | Linux | No | Yes | No [48] | No [48] | No |
Lustre [49] | Linux | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes |
F2FS [50] | Linux | Yes | No | No | No | No |
NTFS [51] | Linux | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
ext2 [52] | Linux | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
ext3 [52] | Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
ReiserFS [53] | Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Reiser4 [54] | Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
ext4 [52] | Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Btrfs [55] | Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Bcachefs [42] | Linux | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
NILFS [56] | Linux | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
ZFS | misc. | No | Yes | No | Partial [57] | Yes |
JFS2 | AIX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
UFS2 [58] | FreeBSD | Yes | Yes (FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE or later) | No | No | No |
HAMMER | DragonflyBSD | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
BlueStore/Cephfs | Linux | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
File system | Sparse files | Block suballocation | Tail packing | Extents | Variable file block size [bo] | Allocate-on-flush | Copy on write | Trim support |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
DECtape | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
BeeGFS | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? |
Level-D | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? |
APFS | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes [59] [60] |
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS) | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No |
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS) | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ? | No |
exFAT | No | No | No | Partial (only if the file fits into one contiguous block range) | No | No | No | Yes (Linux) |
FAT12 | Partial (only inside of compressed volumes) [61] | Partial (only inside of Stacker 3/4 and DriveSpace 3 compressed volumes [30] ) | No | Partial (only inside of compressed volumes) [62] | No | No | No | Yes (Linux) |
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X | Partial (only inside of compressed volumes) [61] | Partial (only inside of Stacker 3/4 and DriveSpace 3 compressed volumes [30] ) | No | Partial (only inside of compressed volumes) [62] | No | No | No | Yes (Linux) |
FAT32 / FAT32X | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes (Linux) |
GFS | Yes | No | Partial [bp] | No | No | No | ? | Yes |
HPFS | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes (Linux) |
NTFS | Yes | Partial | No | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes (NT 6.1+; Linux) |
HFS Plus | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes (macOS) |
FFS | Yes | 8:1 [bq] | No | No | No | No | ? | No |
UFS1 | Yes | 8:1 [bq] | No | No | No | No | ? | No |
UFS2 | Yes | 8:1 [bq] | No | No | Yes | No | ? | Yes [63] [64] |
LFS | Yes | 8:1 [bq] | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? |
ext | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Xiafs | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
ext2 | Yes | No [br] | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
ext3 | Yes | No [br] | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
ext4 | Yes | No [br] | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
NOVA | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? |
F2FS | Yes | No | No | Partial [bs] | No | Yes | Yes | Yes [65] |
Lustre | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? |
NILFS | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes (Linux NILFS2) |
ReiserFS | Yes | Yes [bt] | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
Reiser4 | Yes | Yes [bt] | Yes | Yes [bu] | No | Yes | ? | Testing [66] |
OCFS | ? | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
OCFS2 | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes (Linux) |
XFS | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes, on request [67] | Yes (Linux) |
JFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes (Linux) |
QFS | ? | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
BFS | ? | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | Yes (Haiku) |
NSS | ? | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? |
NWFS | ? | Yes [bv] | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
ODS-5 | ? | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
VxFS | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
UDF | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | ? [bw] | Yes, for write once read many media | No |
Fossil | ? | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
ZFS | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Btrfs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Bcachefs | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ? |
VMFS2 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
VMFS3 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
ReFS | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No | ? | Yes | Yes (NT 6.1+) |
ISO 9660 | No | No | No | Yes [bx] | No | No | No | No |
Rock Ridge | No | No | No | Yes [bx] | No | No | No | No |
Joliet ("CDFS") | No | No | No | Yes [bx] | No | No | No | No |
SquashFS | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
BlueStore/Cephfs | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | No | Yes | Yes |
File system | Sparse files | Block suballocation | Tail packing | Extents | Variable file block size [bo] | Allocate-on-flush | Copy on write | Trim support |
File system | DOS | Linux | macOS | Windows 9x (historic) | Windows (current) | Classic Mac OS | FreeBSD | OS/2 | BeOS | Minix | Solaris | z/OS | Android |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
APFS | No | Partial (read-only with apfs-fuse [69] or linux-apfs [70] ) | Yes (Since macOS Sierra) | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
BeeGFS | No | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | No | No |
DECtape | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Level-D | No | ? | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | No |
RT-11 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS) | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS) | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | No | No |
exFAT | No | Yes (since 5.4, [71] available as a kernel module or FUSE driver for earlier versions) | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes (available as a FUSE driver) | No | No | No | Yes (available as a FUSE driver) | No | With kernel 5.10 |
FAT12 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial (via dosdir, dosread, doswrite) | Yes | ? | Yes |
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X | Yes (FAT16 from DOS 3.0, FAT16B from DOS 3.31, FAT16X from DOS 7.0) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial (via dosdir, dosread, doswrite, not FAT16X) | Yes | ? | Yes |
FAT32 / FAT32X | Yes (from DOS 7.10) | Yes | Yes | Yes (from Windows 95 OSR2) | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes |
GFS | No | Yes | ? | No | No | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
HPFS | Partial (with third-party drivers) | Yes | ? | No | No | ? | Yes | Yes (from OS/2 1.2) | ? | No | ? | ? | No |
NTFS | Partial (with third-party drivers) | Yes Native since Linux Kernel 5.15 NTFS3. Older kernels may use backported NTFS3 driver or ntfs-3g [72] | Read only, write support needs Paragon NTFS or ntfs-3g | Needs 3rd-party drivers like Paragon NTFS for Win98, DiskInternals NTFS Reader | Yes | No | Yes with ntfs-3g | ? | Yes with ntfs-3g | No | Yes with ntfs-3g | ? | With third party tools |
Apple HFS | No | Yes | No write support since Mac OS X 10.6 and no support at all since macOS 10.15 | No | Needs Paragon HFS+ [73] | Yes | No | ? | Yes | No | ? | No | No |
Apple HFS Plus | No | Partial - writing support only to unjournalled FS | Yes | No | Needs Paragon HFS+ [73] | Yes from Mac OS 8.1 | No | ? | with addon | No | ? | No | No |
FFS | No | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
UFS1 | No | Partial - read only | Yes | No | Partial (with ufs2tools, read only) | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No |
UFS2 | No | Yes | Yes | No | Partial (with ufs2tools, read only) | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
LFS | No | ? | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
ext | No | Yes - until 2.1.20 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Xiafs | No | Yes - until 2.1.20 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
ext2 | No | Yes | Needs Paragon ExtFS [76] or ext2fsx | Partial (read-only, with explore2fs) [77] | Needs Paragon ExtFS [78] or partial with Ext2 IFS [79] or ext2fsd [80] | No | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No |
ext3 | No | Yes | Needs Paragon ExtFS [76] or partial with ext2fsx (journal not updated on writing) | Partial (read-only, with explore2fs) [77] | Needs Paragon ExtFS [78] or partial with Ext2 IFS [79] or ext2fsd [80] | Partial (read only)[ citation needed ] | Yes [81] | No | with addon | ? | Yes | ? | Yes |
ext4 | No | Yes | Needs Paragon ExtFS [76] | No | Yes, with the optional WSL2; physical and VHDX virtual disks. [82] [83] | ? | Yes since FreeBSD 12.0 [81] | No | with addon | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
NOVA | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
Lustre | No | Yes [84] | ? | No | No | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No |
NILFS | No | Yes as an external kernel module | ? | No | ? | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
F2FS | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
ReiserFS | No | Yes | ? | No | No | ? | Partial - Read Only from 6.0 to 10.x [85] and dropped in 11.0 [86] [87] | ? | with addon | ? | ? | ? | No |
Reiser4 | No | Yes with a kernel patch | ? | No | No | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
SpadFS | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | ? | No | No | No | No | No | No |
OCFS | No | Yes | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
OCFS2 | No | Yes | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
XFS | No | Yes | ? | No | No | ? | Partial | ? | with addon (read only) | ? | ? | ? | No |
JFS | No | Yes | ? | No | No | ? | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
QFS | No | Partial - client only [88] | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No |
Be File System | No | Partial - read-only | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No |
NSS | No | Yes via EVMS [by] | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
NWFS | Partial (with Novell drivers) | ? | ? | No | No | ? | Yes | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
ODS-2 | No | ? | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
ODS-5 | No | ? | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
UDF | No | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No |
VxFS | No | Yes | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No |
Fossil | No | Yes [bz] | Yes [bz] | No | No | No | Yes [bz] | No | No | No | Yes [bz] | ? | No |
ZFS | No | Yes with FUSE [89] or as an external kernel module [90] | Yes with Read/Write Developer Preview [91] | No | Yes [92] | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Btrfs | No | Yes | ? | No | Yes with WinBtrfs [93] | ? | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
Bcachefs | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
VMFS2 | No | ? | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
VMFS3 | No | ? | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
IBM HFS | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
IBM zFS | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
ReFS | No | Needs Paragon ReFS for Linux | ? | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | No |
ISO 9660 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Rock Ridge | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | ? | No |
Joliet ("CDFS") | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | ? | No |
SquashFS | No | Yes | Partial (There are ports of unsquashfs and mksquashfs.) | No | Partial (There are ports of unsquashfs and mksquashfs.) | No | Partial (There are ports of unsquashfs and mksquashfs and fusefs-port. [94] [95] ) | No | No | No | No | No | No |
BlueStore/Cephfs | No | Yes | No [ca] | No | No [cb] | No | No [ca] | No | No | No | No | No | No |
File system | DOS | Linux | macOS | Windows 9x (historic) | Windows (current) | Classic Mac OS | FreeBSD | OS/2 | BeOS | Minix | Solaris | z/OS | Android |
While storage devices usually have their size expressed in powers of 10 (for instance a 1 TB Solid State Drive will contain at least 1,000,000,000,000 (1012, 10004) bytes), filesystem limits are invariably powers of 2, so usually expressed with IEC prefixes. For instance, a 1 TiB limit means 240, 10244 bytes. Approximations (rounding down) using power of 10 are also given below to clarify.
File system | Maximum filename length | Allowable characters in directory entries [cc] | Maximum pathname length | Maximum file size | Maximum volume size [cd] | Max number of files |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AdvFS | 255 characters | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 TiB (17.59 TB) | 16 TiB (17.59 TB) | ? |
APFS | 255 UTF-8 characters | Unicode 9.0 encoded in UTF-8 [96] | ? | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | ? | 263 [97] |
Bcachefs | 255 bytes | Any byte except '/' and NUL | No limit defined | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 264 |
BeeGFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | ? |
BFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 12,288 bytes to 260 GiB (279.1 GB) [cg] | 256 PiB (288.2 PB) to 2 EiB (2.305 EB) | Unlimited |
BlueStore/Cephfs | 255 characters | any byte, except null, "/" | No limit defined | Max. 264 bytes, 1 TiB (1.099 TB) by default [98] | Not limited | Not limited, default is 100,000 files per directory [99] |
Btrfs | 255 bytes | Any byte except '/' and NUL | No limit defined | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 264 |
CBM DOS | 16 bytes | Any byte except NUL | 0 (no directory hierarchy) | 16 MiB (16.77 MB) | 16 MiB (16.77 MB) | ? |
CP/M file system | 8.3 | ASCII except for <> . , ; : = ? * [ ] | No directory hierarchy (but accessibility of files depends on user areas via USER command since CP/M 2.2) | 32 MiB (33.55 MB) | 512 MiB (536.8 MB) | ? |
DECtape | 6.3 | A–Z, 0–9 | DTxN:FILNAM.EXT = 15 | 369,280 bytes (577 * 640) | 369,920 bytes (578 * 640) | ? |
Disk Operating System (GEC DOS) | ? | ? | ? | ? at least 131,072 bytes | ? | ? |
Elektronika BK tape format | 16 bytes | ? | No directory hierarchy | 64 KiB (65.53 KB) | Not limited. Approx. 800 KiB (819.2 KB) (one side) for 90 min cassette | ? |
exFAT | 255 UTF-16 characters | Unicode except for control codes 0x0000 - 0x001F or " * / : < > ? \ | [100] | 32,760 characters with each path component no more than 255 characters [101] | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) [101] | 64 ZiB (75.55 ZB) (276 bytes) | ? |
ext | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | ? |
ext2 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL, / [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 2 TiB (2.199 TB) [cd] | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 32 TiB (35.18 TB) | ? |
ext3 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL, / [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 2 TiB (2.199 TB) [cd] | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 32 TiB (35.18 TB) | ? |
ext4 | 255 bytes [102] | Any byte except NUL, / [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 16 TiB (17.59 TB) [cd] [103] | 1 EiB (1.152 EB) | 232 (static inode limit specified at creation) |
F2FS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL, / [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 4,228,213,756 KiB (4.329 TB) | 16 TiB (17.59 TB) | ? |
FAT (8-bit) | 6.3 (binary files) / 9 characters (ASCII files) | ASCII (0x00 and 0xFF not allowed in first character) | No directory hierarchy | ? | ? | ? |
FAT12/FAT16 | 8.3 (255 UCS-2 characters with LFN) [ch] | SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | [cc] [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 32 MiB (33.55 MB) (4 GiB (4.294 GB)) [ci] | 1 MiB (1.048 MB) to 32 MiB (33.55 MB) | ? |
FAT16B/FAT16X | 8.3 (255 UCS-2 characters with LFN) [ch] | SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | [cc] [ch] [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 2 (4) GiB [ci] (2.147 GB) | 16 MiB (16.77 MB) to 2 (4) GiB (2.147 GB) | ? |
FAT32/FAT32X | 8.3 (255 UCS-2 characters with LFN) [ch] | SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | [cc] [ch] [ce] | 32,760 characters with each path component no more than 255 characters [101] | 4 GiB (4.294 GB) [101] | 512 MiB (536.8 MB) to 16 TiB (17.59 TB) [cj] | ? |
FATX | 42 bytes [ch] | ASCII. | No limit defined [cf] | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 16 MiB (16.77 MB) to 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | ? |
FFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 4 GiB (4.294 GB) | 256 TiB (281.4 TB) | ? |
Fossil | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GEC DOS filing system extended | 8 bytes | A–Z, 0–9. Period was directory separator | ? No limit defined (workaround for OS limit) | ? at least 131,072 bytes | ? | ? |
GEMDOS | 8.3 | A-Z, a-z, 0-9 ! @ # $ % ^ & ( ) + - = ~ ` ; ' " , < > | [ ] ( ) _ [105] | ? | ? | ? | ? |
GFS2 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 100 TiB (109.95 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB) [ck] | 100 TiB (109.95 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB) [cl] | ? |
GFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB) [cm] | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB) [cm] | ? |
GPFS | 255 UTF-8 codepoints | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 9 EiB (10.37 EB) | 524,288 YiB (299 bytes) | ? |
HAMMER | 1023 bytes [108] | Any byte except NUL [ce] | ? | ? | 1 EiB (1.152 EB) [109] | ? |
HFS | 31 bytes | Any byte except : | Unlimited | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) | ? |
HFS Plus | 255 UTF-16 characters [cn] | Any valid Unicode [ce] [co] | Unlimited | slightly less than 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | slightly less than 8 EiB (9.223 EB) [110] [111] | ? |
High Sierra Format | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
HPFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [cp] | No limit defined [cf] | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) [cq] | ? |
IBM SFS | 8.8 | ? | ? | Non-hierarchical [112] | ? | ? |
ISO 9660:1988 | Level 1: 8.3, Level 2 & 3: ~ 180 | Depends on Level [cr] | ~ 180 bytes? | 4 GiB (4.294 GB) (Level 1 & 2) to 8 TiB (8.796 TB) (Level 3) [cs] | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) [ct] | ? |
ISO 9660:1999 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
JFS | 255 bytes | Any Unicode except NUL | No limit defined [cf] | 4 PiB (4.503 PB) | 32 PiB (36.02 PB) | ? |
JFS1 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | 512 TiB (562.9 TB) to 4 PiB (4.503 PB) | ? |
Joliet ("CDFS") | 64 characters | All UCS-2 code except *, /, \, :, ;, and ? [113] | ? | same as ISO 9660:1988 | same as ISO 9660:1988 | ? |
Level-D | 6.3 | A–Z, 0–9 | DEVICE:FILNAM.EXT[PROJCT,PROGRM] = 7 + 10 + 15 = 32; + 5*7 for SFDs = 67 | 34,359,738,368 words (235); 206,158,430,208 SIXBIT bytes | Approx 12 GiB (12.88 GB) (64 * 178 MiB (186.6 MB)) | ? |
Lustre | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) on ZFS | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | ? |
MFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except : | No path (flat filesystem) | 256 MiB (268.4 MB) | 256 MiB (268.4 MB) | ? |
MicroDOS file system | 14 bytes | ? | ? | 16 MiB (16.77 MB) | 32 MiB (33.55 MB) | ? |
Minix V1 FS | 14 or 30 bytes, set at filesystem creation time | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 256.5 MiB (268.9 MB) [cu] | 64 MiB (67.10 MB) | ? |
Minix V2 FS | 14 or 30 bytes, set at filesystem creation time | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) [cu] | 1 GiB (1.073 GB) | ? |
Minix V3 FS | 60 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 4 GiB (4.294 GB) | ? |
NILFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | ? |
NOVA | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL, / [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | ? |
NSS | 256 characters | Depends on namespace used [cv] | Only limited by client | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) | ? |
NTFS | 255 characters | In Win32 namespace: any UTF-16 code unit (case-insensitive) except /\:*"?<>| as well as NUL In POSIX namespace: any UTF-16 code unit (case-sensitive) except | 32,767 characters with each path component (directory or filename) up to 255 characters long [cf] | 16 TiB (17.59 TB) to 8 PiB (9.007 PB) [cw] [115] | 16 TiB (17.59 TB) to 8 PiB (9.007 PB) [cw] [115] | 232 |
NWFS | 80 bytes [cx] | Depends on namespace used [cv] | No limit defined [cf] | 4 GiB (4.294 GB) | 1 TiB (1.099 TB) | ? |
OCFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) | ? |
OCFS2 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 4 PiB (4.503 PB) | 4 PiB (4.503 PB) | ? |
ODS-5 | 236 bytes [cy] | ? | 4,096 bytes [cz] | 1 TiB (1.099 TB) | 1 TiB (1.099 TB) | ? |
QFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) [da] | 4 PiB (4.503 PB) [da] | ? |
ReFS | 255 UTF-16 characters [116] | In Win32 namespace: any UTF-16 code unit (case-insensitive) except /\:*"?<>| as well as NUL In POSIX namespace: any UTF-16 code unit (case-sensitive) except | 32,767 characters with each path component (directory or filename) up to 255 characters long [116] | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) [116] [118] | 1 YiB (1.208 YB) [116] | ? |
ReiserFS | 4,032 bytes/255 characters | Any byte except NUL or '/' [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) [db] (v3.6), 4 GiB (4.294 GB) (v3.5) | 16 TiB (17.59 TB) | ? |
Reiser4 | 3,976 bytes | Any byte except / and NUL | No limit defined [cf] | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) on x86 | ? | ? |
Rock Ridge | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL or / [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | same as ISO 9660:1988 | same as ISO 9660:1988 | ? |
RT-11 | 6.3 | A–Z, 0–9, $ | 0 (no directory hierarchy) | 33,554,432 bytes (65536 * 512) | 33,554,432 bytes | ? |
SquashFS | 256 bytes | ? | No limit defined | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | ? |
UDF | 255 bytes | Any Unicode except NUL | 1,023 bytes [dc] | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 512 MiB (536.8 MB) to 16 TiB (17.59 TB) | ? |
UFS1 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 256 TiB (281.4 TB) | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | Subdirectory per directory is 32,767 [120] |
UFS2 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 512 GiB (549.7 GB) to 32 PiB (36.02 PB) | 512 ZiB (604.4 ZB) [121] (279 bytes) | Subdirectory per directory is 32,767 [120] |
UniFS | No limit defined (depends on client) | ? | No limit defined (depends on client) | Available cache space at time of write (depends on platform) | No limit defined | No limit defined |
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS) | 14 bytes | Any byte except NUL and / [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 MiB (16.77 MB) [dd] | 32 MiB (33.55 MB) | ? |
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS) | 14 bytes | Any byte except NUL or / [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 1 GiB (1.073 GB) [de] | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) | ? |
VMFS2 | 128 | Any byte except NUL or / [ce] | 2,048 | 4 TiB (4.398 TB) [df] | 64 TiB (70.36 TB) | ? |
VMFS3 | 128 | Any byte except NUL or / [ce] | 2,048 | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) [df] | 64 TiB (70.36 TB) | ? |
VxFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | ? | ? |
XFS | 255 bytes [dg] | Any byte except NUL or / [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) [dh] | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) [dh] | 264 |
Xiafs | 248 bytes | Any byte except NUL [ce] | No limit defined [cf] | 64 MiB (67.10 MB) | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | ? |
ZFS | 1023 bytes | Any Unicode except NUL | No limit defined [cf] | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 281,474,976,710,656 YiB (2128 bytes) | 2128 |
File system | Maximum filename length | Allowable characters in directory entries [cc] | Maximum pathname length | Maximum file size | Maximum volume size [cd] | Max number of files |
PATH_MAX
constant have a limit of 4,096 bytes on Linux but this can be worked around. Linux itself has no hard path length limits. [122] [123] 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; as of June 2014, XFS is supported by most Linux distributions; Red Hat Enterprise Linux uses it as its default file system.
NT File System (NTFS) is a proprietary journaling file system developed by Microsoft in the 1990s.
ext2, or second extended file system, is a file system for the Linux kernel. It was initially designed by French software developer Rémy Card as a replacement for the extended file system (ext). Having been designed according to the same principles as the Berkeley Fast File System from BSD, it was the first commercial-grade filesystem for Linux.
ext3, or third extended filesystem, is a 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 its successor version ext4. The main advantage of ext3 over its predecessor, ext2, is journaling, which improves reliability and eliminates the need to check the file system after an improper, a.k.a. unclean, shutdown.
Disk partitioning or disk slicing is the creation of one or more regions on secondary storage, so that each region can be managed separately. These regions are called partitions. It is typically the first step of preparing a newly installed disk after a partitioning scheme is chosen for the new disk before any file system is created. The disk stores the information about the partitions' locations and sizes in an area known as the partition table that the operating system reads before any other part of the disk. Each partition then appears to the operating system as a distinct "logical" disk that uses part of the actual disk. System administrators use a program called a partition editor to create, resize, delete, and manipulate the partitions. Partitioning allows the use of different filesystems to be installed for different kinds of files. Separating user data from system data can prevent the system partition from becoming full and rendering the system unusable. Partitioning can also make backing up easier. A disadvantage is that it can be difficult to properly size partitions, resulting in having one partition with too much free space and another nearly totally allocated.
The Unix file system (UFS) is a family of file systems supported by many Unix and Unix-like operating systems. It is a distant descendant of the original filesystem used by Version 7 Unix.
In the maintenance of file systems, defragmentation is a process that reduces the degree of fragmentation. It does this by physically organizing the contents of the mass storage device used to store files into the smallest number of contiguous regions. It also attempts to create larger regions of free space using compaction to impede the return of fragmentation. Some defragmentation utilities try to keep smaller files within a single directory together, as they are often accessed in sequence.
The inode is a data structure in a Unix-style file system that describes a file-system object such as a file or a directory. Each inode stores the attributes and disk block locations of the object's data. File-system object attributes may include metadata, as well as owner and permission data.
fstab is a system file commonly found in the directory /etc
on Unix and Unix-like computer systems. In Linux, it is part of the util-linux package. The fstab file typically lists all available disk partitions and other types of file systems and data sources that may not necessarily be disk-based, and indicates how they are to be initialized or otherwise integrated into the larger file system structure.
HFS Plus or HFS+ is a journaling file system developed by Apple Inc. It replaced the Hierarchical File System (HFS) as the primary file system of Apple computers with the 1998 release of Mac OS 8.1. HFS+ continued as the primary Mac OS X file system until it was itself replaced with the Apple File System (APFS), released with macOS High Sierra in 2017. HFS+ is also one of the formats supported by the iPod digital music player.
In computing, a file system or filesystem governs file organization and access. A local file system is a capability of an operating system that services the applications running on the same computer. A distributed file system is a protocol that provides file access between networked computers.
Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) is a software interface for Unix and Unix-like computer operating systems that lets non-privileged users create their own file systems without editing kernel code. This is achieved by running file system code in user space while the FUSE module provides only a bridge to the actual kernel interfaces.
In computing, an extent is a contiguous area of storage reserved for a file in a file system, represented as a range of block numbers, or tracks on count key data devices. A file can consist of zero or more extents; one file fragment requires one extent. The direct benefit is in storing each range compactly as two numbers, instead of canonically storing every block number in the range. Also, extent allocation results in less file fragmentation.
File attributes are a type of metadata that describe and may modify how files and/or directories in a filesystem behave. Typical file attributes may, for example, indicate or specify whether a file is visible, modifiable, compressed, or encrypted. The availability of most file attributes depends on support by the underlying filesystem where attribute data must be stored along with other control structures. Each attribute can have one of two states: set and cleared. Attributes are considered distinct from other metadata, such as dates and times, filename extensions or file system permissions. In addition to files, folders, volumes and other file system objects may have attributes.
Extended file attributes are file system features that enable users to associate computer files with metadata not interpreted by the filesystem, whereas regular attributes have a purpose strictly defined by the filesystem. Unlike forks, which can usually be as large as the maximum file size, extended attributes are usually limited in size to a value significantly smaller than the maximum file size. Typical uses include storing the author of a document, the character encoding of a plain-text document, or a checksum, cryptographic hash or digital certificate, and discretionary access control information.
ext4 is a journaling file system for Linux, developed as the successor to ext3.
chattr is the command in Linux that allows a user to set certain attributes of a file. lsattr is the command that displays the attributes of a file.
In computer operating systems, mkfs
is a command used to format a block storage device with a specific file system. The command is part of Unix and Unix-like operating systems. In Unix, a block storage device must be formatted with a file system before it can be mounted and accessed through the operating system's filesystem hierarchy.
To keep track of hard links, HFS+ creates a separate file for each hard link inside a hidden directory at the root level of the volume.
This file, when small, can be embedded in the [Information Control Block] that describes it.
The cloned file dst shares its data blocks with the src file [..]
Usually all data for one cluster are stored in contiguous sectors, but if the filesystem is too fragmented there may not be a 'free hole' that is large enough for the data. […] Drivespace 3 and Stacker know a hack for that situation: they allow storing the data of one cluster in several fragments on the disk.
By default, mkfs.xfs [..] will enable the reflink [=deduplication] feature.
ntfsresize(8)
".nilfs-resize(8)
".we can allow filenames up to 1023 bytes long
If there was not a fsck(8) memory limit the maximum filesystem size would be 2 ^ 64 (blocks) * 32 KiB (32.76 KB) => 16 Exa * 32 KiB (32.76 KB) => 512 ZettaBytes.