Be File System: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 19:01, 20 February 2012

Revision as of 14:34, 21 March 2012

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The '''Be File System''' ('''BFS''', occasionally misnamed as BeFS — the name BeFS is used in the Linux kernel to avoid any confusion with [[Boot File System]]) is the native [[file system]] for the [[BeOS]].

BFS was developed by [[Dominic Giampaolo]] and [[Cyril Meurillon]] over a ten -month period, starting in September 1996,<ref name="practical-book">{{cite book | last=Giampaolo | first=Dominic | year=1999 | url=http://www.nobius.org/~dbg/practical-file-system-design.pdf | title=Practical File System Design with the Be File System | publisher=Morgan Kaufmann | isbn=1-55860-497-9 | format=PDF}}</ref> to provide [[BeOS]] with a modern [[64-bit]] capable [[journaling file system]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.theregister.co.uk/2002/03/29/windows_on_a_database_sliced/ | title=Windows on a database – sliced and diced by BeOS vets | author=Andrew Orlowski | date=2002-03-29 | publisher=The Register | accessdate=2006-12-09}}</ref> It is [[case -sensitive]] and capable of being used on [[floppy]], [[hard disk]]s and read-only media such as [[CD-ROM]]s,. althoughHowever, its use on small removable media is not advised, as the file -system headers consume from 600 kBKB to 2 MB, rendering floppy disks virtually useless.

Like its predecessor, OFS (Old Be File System, written by [[Benoit Schillings]], was also called BFS when current),<ref name="bortmaninterview">{{cite web | url=http://www.birdhouse.org/beos/bible/bos/int_schillings.html | title=Benoît Schillings, Software Engineer | author=Henry Bortman | work=The BeOS Bible | accessdate=2006-09-10}}</ref> it includes support for extended file attributes ([[Metadata (computing)|metadata]]), with indexing and querying characteristics to provide functionality similar to that of a [[relational database]].

Whilst intended as a 64-bit -capable file system, the size of some on-disk structures mean that the practical size limit is approximately 2 [[exabytes]]. Similarly the extent -based file allocation reduces the maximum practical file size to approximately 260 gigabytes at best and as little as a few blocks in a pathological worst case, depending on the degree of [[file system fragmentation|fragmentation]].

Its design process, [[application programming interface]], and internal workings are, for the most part, documented in the book ''Practical File System Design with the Be File System''.<ref name="practical-book" />

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In addition to the original 1996 BFS used in [[BeOS]], there are several implementations for [[Linux]]. In early 1999, Makoto Kato developed a Be File System driver for Linux; however, the driver never reached a complete stable state, so in 2001 Will Dyson developed his own version of the Linux BFS driver.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://befs-driver.sourceforge.net/about.php | title=BeFS driver for Linux: About BeFS | author=Will Dyson | date=2002 | publisher=SourceForge | accessdate=2006-12-09 }}</ref>

As part of the OpenBeOS attempt (now [[Haiku (operating system)|Haiku]]) to recreate the BeOS operating system, in 2002 Axel Dörfler and a few other developers created and released a reimplemented BFS called OpenBFS.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://haikunews.org/482 | title=OBFS Reaches Beta | author=Daniel Teixeira | date=2002-09-04 | work=Haiku News | accessdate=2006-12-09 |archiveurl = http://web.archive.org/web/20061004111533/http://haikunews.org/482 <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archivedate = 2006-10-04}}</ref> In January 2004, Robert Szeleney announced that he had developed a fork of this OpenBFS file system for use in his [[SkyOS]] operating system.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.skyos.org/?q=node/210 | title=Update | author=Robert Szeleney | date=2004-01-23 | work=skyos.org | accessdate=2006-12-09}}</ref> The regular OpenBFS implementation was also ported to [[Syllable (operating system)|Syllable]] and ishas been included since version 0.6.5.

==See also==

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==External links==

* [http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2010/06/the-beos-filesystem.ars The BeOS file system: an OS geek retrospective]

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{{Filesystem}}