Apple File System: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:55, 28 March 2023

Revision as of 04:58, 28 March 2023

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=== Limited integrity checks for user data ===

APFS does not provide checksums for user data.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analysis-of-the-good-and-bad-in-apples-new-apfs-file-system/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202044416/https://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analysis-of-the-good-and-bad-in-apples-new-apfs-file-system/|deadurlurl-status=ydead|title=A ZFS developer’s analysis of the good and bad in Apple’s new APFS file system|date=June 26, 2016|archivedate=February 2, 2017|website=Ars Technica}}</ref> It also does not take advantage of byte-addressable [[non-volatile random-access memory]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-apples-apfs-wont-last-30-years/|title=Why Apple's APFS won't last 30 years|author=Robin Harris|date=June 24, 2016|website=[[ZDNet]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://dtrace.org/blogs/ahl/2016/06/19/apfs-part1/ | author=Adam Leventhal | title=APFS in Detail: Overview | date=June 19, 2016 | access-date=October 1, 2017 | df=mdy-all}}</ref>

=== Performance on hard disk drives ===

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[[FileVault]] volumes are not converted to APFS as of macOS Big Sur 11.2.1. Instead macOS formats external FileVault drives as CoreStorage Logical Volumes formatted with Mac OS Extended (Journaled). FileVault drives can be optionally encrypted.{{fact|date=February 2021}}

An experimental version of APFS, with some limitations, is available in [[macOS Sierra]] through the command line <code>diskutil</code> utility. Among these limitations, it does not perform [[Unicode normalization]] while HFS+ does,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mjtsai.com/blog/2017/03/24/apfss-bag-of-bytes-filenames/|title=Michael Tsai - Blog - APFS’s “Bag of Bytes” Filenames|first=Michael J.|last=Tsai}}</ref> leading to problems with languages other than English.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://eclecticlight.co/2017/04/06/apfs-is-currently-unusable-with-most-non-english-languages/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608180050/https://eclecticlight.co/2017/04/06/apfs-is-currently-unusable-with-most-non-english-languages/|deadurlurl-status=ydead|title=APFS is currently unusable with most non-English languages|date=April 6, 2017|archivedate=June 8, 2017}}</ref> Drives formatted with Sierra’s version of APFS may also not be compatible with future versions of macOS or the final version of APFS, and the Sierra version of APFS cannot be used with [[Time Machine (macOS)|Time Machine]], FileVault volumes, or Fusion Drives.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=http://www.howtogeek.com/272741/how-to-format-a-drive-with-the-apfs-file-system-on-macos-sierra/|title=How to Format a Drive With the APFS File System on macOS Sierra|access-date=October 26, 2016|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161026171416/http://www.howtogeek.com/272741/how-to-format-a-drive-with-the-apfs-file-system-on-macos-sierra/|archive-date=October 26, 2016|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

=== iOS, tvOS, and watchOS ===

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Despite the ubiquity of APFS volumes in today's Macs and the format's 2016 introduction, third-party repair utilities continue to have notable limitations in supporting APFS volumes, due to Apple's delayed release of complete documentation. According to Alsoft, the maker of DiskWarrior, Apple's 2018 release of partial APFS format documentation has delayed the creation of a version of DiskWarrior that can safely rebuild APFS disks.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior5apfs | title=DiskWarrior 5.2 & Apple File System (APFS) | access-date=2020-06-28}}</ref> Competing products, including MicroMat's TechTool and Prosoft's Drive Genius, are expected to increase APFS support as well.

[[Paragon Software Group]] has published a [[software development kit]] under the 4-Clause [[BSD License]] <!-- Not OSI approved, so not really open source? --> that supports read-only access of APFS drives.<ref>{{cite web |title=Paragon Software Group Releases Free Paragon APFS SDK Community Edition for Software Developers, OEMs, Forensic Experts |url=https://www.paragon-software.com/paragon-software-group-releases-free-paragon-apfs-sdk-community-edition-for-software-developers-oems-forensic-experts/ |website=Paragon Software Group}} [https://github.com/Paragon-Software-Group/paragon_apfs_sdk_ce GitHub]</ref> An independent read-only [[open source]] implementation by Joachim Metz, libfsapfs, is released under [[GNU Lesser General Public License]] v3. It has been packaged into [[Debian]], [[Fedora Linux]], [[Rocky Linux]], [[Red Hat Enterprise Linux]] and [[Ubuntu]] software repositories.<ref>{{cite web |title=libyal/libfsapfs |url=https://github.com/libyal/libfsapfs |website=GitHub |date=7 November 2019 |quote=Library and tools to access the Apple File System (APFS)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=apfs-fuse - Fedora Packages |url=https://packages.fedoraproject.org/pkgs/apfs-fuse/apfs-fuse/ |access-date=2022-10-20 |website=packages.fedoraproject.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title= |url=https://rhel.pkgs.org/9/forensics-x86_64/apfs-fuse-20200928-1.el9.x86_64.rpm.html|title=
apfs-fuse-20200928-1.el9.x86_64.rpm|website=rhel.pkgs.org}}</ref> Both are command-line tools that do not expose a normal filesystem driver interface. There is a [[Filesystem in Userspace]] (FUSE) driver for Linux called apfs-fuse with read-only access.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ross |first1=Alistair |title=How to mount macOS APFS disk volumes in Linux |url=https://linuxnewbieguide.org/how-to-mount-macos-apfs-disk-volumes-in-linux/ |website=The Ultimate Linux Newbie Guide |date=23 February 2019}} ([https://github.com/sgan81/apfs-fuse Github])</ref> An "APFS for Linux" project is working to integrate APFS support into the Linux kernel.<ref>{{cite web |title=linux-apfs/linux-apfs-rw: APFS module for linux, with experimental write support |url=https://github.com/linux-apfs/linux-apfs-rw |website=GitHub |publisher=APFS for Linux |date=4 Feb 2022}}</ref>

== See also ==

*[[Comparison of file systems]]