api: YAML JSON TOON Database
version: 1.0.0
format: json
dataset:
  slug: file-systems
  title: File Systems
  description: Common file systems and their characteristics.
  summary: "Common file systems with their type and headline features: FAT32, NTFS, ext4, APFS, ZFS and NFS, plus exFAT, Btrfs, XFS, ReFS, F2FS and others. It answers which file system fits which platform and which have journaling, copy-on-write, snapshots or network semantics."
  use_when[2]: "You are choosing a file system for a disk, volume or removable drive.",You need to compare crash-recovery and snapshot features.
  caveats[2]: Limits and defaults change between versions and implementations; verify before depending on a number.,"Support differs by operating system: a drive formatted for one platform may be read-only or unreadable on another."
  related[3]: memory-management,process-management,unix-package-management
  category: Operating Systems
  category_slug: operating-systems
  tags: "os,filesystems,storage"
  view_count: 0
  entry_count: 15
  fields[3]{section,field,type,example}:
    data,name,string,FAT32
    data,type,string,Legacy
    data,features,string,"Simple, widely supported, 4 GB max file size."
data[15]{name,type,features}:
  FAT32,Legacy,"Simple, widely supported, 4 GB max file size."
  NTFS,Journaling,"ACLs, compression, encryption, large files."
  ext4,Journaling,"Extents, delayed allocation, backward compatible."
  APFS,Copy-on-write,"Snapshots, space sharing, SSD optimized."
  HFS+,Journaling,Apple legacy file system with metadata.
  ZFS,Copy-on-write,"Checksumming, RAID-Z, snapshots, deduplication."
  NFS,Network,Remote file access over a network.
  exFAT,Flash-oriented,"Large files without FAT32's 4 GB limit, wide cross-platform support, no journaling."
  Btrfs,Copy-on-write,"Snapshots, checksums, subvolumes, built-in multi-device support on Linux."
  XFS,Journaling,"High-performance journaling system for large files and parallel I/O, common on servers."
  ReFS,Resilient,Windows file system focused on integrity checking and resilience for large storage.
  F2FS,Log-structured,"Designed for flash storage such as SSDs and eMMC, used in some mobile devices."
  ext3,Journaling,The ext2 successor that added a journal; largely replaced by ext4.
  ISO 9660,Read-only optical,The standard file system for CD-ROMs and many ISO image files.
  SMB/CIFS,Network,"Windows-style file sharing over the network, also available on Linux and macOS."