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:
    - You are choosing a file system for a disk, volume or removable drive.
    - You need to compare crash-recovery and snapshot features.
  caveats:
    - 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:
    - 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:
    - section: data
      field: name
      type: string
      example: FAT32
    - section: data
      field: type
      type: string
      example: Legacy
    - section: data
      field: features
      type: string
      example: Simple, widely supported, 4 GB max file size.
data:
  - name: FAT32
    type: Legacy
    features: Simple, widely supported, 4 GB max file size.
  - name: NTFS
    type: Journaling
    features: ACLs, compression, encryption, large files.
  - name: ext4
    type: Journaling
    features: Extents, delayed allocation, backward compatible.
  - name: APFS
    type: Copy-on-write
    features: Snapshots, space sharing, SSD optimized.
  - name: HFS+
    type: Journaling
    features: Apple legacy file system with metadata.
  - name: ZFS
    type: Copy-on-write
    features: Checksumming, RAID-Z, snapshots, deduplication.
  - name: NFS
    type: Network
    features: Remote file access over a network.
  - name: exFAT
    type: Flash-oriented
    features: Large files without FAT32's 4 GB limit, wide cross-platform support, no journaling.
  - name: Btrfs
    type: Copy-on-write
    features: Snapshots, checksums, subvolumes, built-in multi-device support on Linux.
  - name: XFS
    type: Journaling
    features: High-performance journaling system for large files and parallel I/O, common on servers.
  - name: ReFS
    type: Resilient
    features: Windows file system focused on integrity checking and resilience for large storage.
  - name: F2FS
    type: Log-structured
    features: Designed for flash storage such as SSDs and eMMC, used in some mobile devices.
  - name: ext3
    type: Journaling
    features: The ext2 successor that added a journal; largely replaced by ext4.
  - name: ISO 9660
    type: Read-only optical
    features: The standard file system for CD-ROMs and many ISO image files.
  - name: SMB/CIFS
    type: Network
    features: Windows-style file sharing over the network, also available on Linux and macOS.