Boot File System: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|UnixWare file system}}

{{infobox filesystem |

| name = BFS |

| full_name = Boot File System |

developer = [[The SCO Group]] |

| developer = [[Bell Labs]]{{Citation needed|date=October 2015}}

| introduction_os = [[UnixWareUNIX System V]] |

| partition_id = 0x63 ([[Master Boot Record|MBR]]) |

| directory_struct = single inode table |

| file_struct = 16bit16-bit [[Inodeinode]]s |

| max_filename_size = 14 characters |

OS = [[UnixWare]]

| OS = [[SVR4]], [[UnixWare]]{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}

}}

The '''Boot File System''' (Namednamed '''BFS''' on Linux, but '''BFS''' also refers to the [[Be File System]]) was used on [[UnixWare]] to store files necessary to its boot process.<ref>{{Cite journal

|title=UnixWare architecture supports multiplatform interoperability

|journal=[[InfoWorld]]

|date=28 June 1993

|page=66

}}</ref>

It does not support directories, and only allows contiguous allocation for files, to make it simpler to be used by the boot loader.

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==Implementations==

Besides the UnixWare support, Martin Hinner wrote a '''bfs''' kernel module for [[Linux]] that supports it.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://martin.hinner.info/fs/bfs/ | title=UnixWare boot filesystem for Linux | author=Martin Hinner | date=1999 | publisher=Martin Hinner | accessdateaccess-date=2008-12-21 }}</ref>

He documented the file system layout as part of the process.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://martin.hinner.info/fs/bfs/bfs-structure.html | title=The BFS filesystem structure | author=Martin Hinner | date=1999 | publisher=Martin Hinner | accessdateaccess-date=2008-12-21 }}</ref>

The Linux kernel implementation of BFS was written by Tigran Aivazian and it became part of the standard kernel sources on 28 October 1999 (Linux version 2.3.25).<ref>{{cite web | url=http://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/iBCS/bfs/ | title=Linux Implementation of SCO UnixWare BFS | author=Tigran Aivazian | date=1999 | publisher=Tigran Aivazian | access-date=2018-06-14 }}</ref>

The original BFS was written at AT&T Bell Laboratories for the [[UNIX System V]], [[SVR4|Version 4.0]] porting base in 1986.{{Citation needed|date=October 2015}} It was written by Ron Schnell, who is also the author of [[Dunnet (game)]].{{Citation needed|date=October 2015}}

BFS was the first non-S5{{Clarify|date=October 2015}} (System V) Filesystem written using VFS ([[virtual file system|Virtual Filesystem]]) for AT&T UNIX.

==References==