man5/filesystems.5

   1 .\" Copyright 1996 Daniel Quinlan (Daniel.Quinlan@linux.org)
   2 .\"
   3 .\" SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-or-later
   4 .\"
   5 .\" 2007-12-14 mtk Added Reiserfs, XFS, JFS.
   6 .\"
   7 .TH filesystems 5 (date) "Linux man-pages (unreleased)"
   8 .nh
   9 .SH NAME
  10 filesystems \- Linux filesystem types: ext, ext2, ext3, ext4, hpfs, iso9660,
  11 JFS, minix, msdos, ncpfs nfs, ntfs, proc, Reiserfs, smb, sysv, umsdos, vfat,
  12 XFS, xiafs
  13 .SH DESCRIPTION
  14 When, as is customary, the
  15 .B proc
  16 filesystem is mounted on
  17 .IR /proc ,
  18 you can find in the file
  19 .I /proc/filesystems
  20 which filesystems your kernel currently supports;
  21 see
  22 .BR proc (5)
  23 for more details.
  24 There is also a legacy
  25 .BR sysfs (2)
  26 system call (whose availability is controlled by the
  27 .\" commit: 6af9f7bf3c399e0ab1eee048e13572c6d4e15fe9
  28 .B CONFIG_SYSFS_SYSCALL
  29 kernel build configuration option since Linux 3.15)
  30 that enables enumeration of the currently available filesystem types
  31 regardless of
  32 .I /proc
  33 availability and/or sanity.
  34 .PP
  35 If you need a currently unsupported filesystem, insert the corresponding
  36 kernel module or recompile the kernel.
  37 .PP
  38 In order to use a filesystem, you have to
  39 .I mount
  40 it; see
  41 .BR mount (2)
  42 and
  43 .BR mount (8).
  44 .PP
  45 The following list provides a
  46 short description of the available or historically available
  47 filesystems in the Linux kernel.
  48 See the kernel documentation for a comprehensive
  49 description of all options and limitations.
  50 .TP 10
  51 .B ext
  52 is an elaborate extension of the
  53 .B minix
  54 filesystem.
  55 It has been completely superseded by the second version
  56 of the extended filesystem
  57 .RB ( ext2 )
  58 and has been removed from the kernel (in Linux 2.1.21).
  59 .TP
  60 .B ext2
  61 is a disk filesystem that was used by Linux for fixed disks
  62 as well as removable media.
  63 The second extended filesystem was designed as an extension of the
  64 extended filesystem
  65 .RB ( ext ).
  66 See
  67 .BR ext2 (5).
  68 .TP
  69 .B ext3
  70 is a journaling version of the
  71 .B ext2
  72 filesystem.
  73 It is easy to
  74 switch back and forth between
  75 .B ext2
  76 and
  77 .BR ext3 .
  78 See
  79 .BR ext3 (5).
  80 .TP
  81 .B ext4
  82 is a set of upgrades to
  83 .B ext3
  84 including substantial performance and
  85 reliability enhancements,
  86 plus large increases in volume, file, and directory size limits.
  87 See
  88 .BR ext4 (5).
  89 .TP
  90 .B hpfs
  91 is the High Performance Filesystem, used in OS/2.
  92 This filesystem is
  93 read-only under Linux due to the lack of available documentation.
  94 .TP
  95 .B iso9660
  96 is a CD-ROM filesystem type conforming to the ISO 9660 standard.
  97 .RS
  98 .TP
  99 .B "High Sierra"
 100 Linux supports High Sierra, the precursor to the ISO 9660 standard for
 101 CD-ROM filesystems.
 102 It is automatically recognized within the
 103 .B iso9660
 104 filesystem support under Linux.
 105 .TP
 106 .B "Rock Ridge"
 107 Linux also supports the System Use Sharing Protocol records specified
 108 by the Rock Ridge Interchange Protocol.
 109 They are used to further describe the files in the
 110 .B iso9660
 111 filesystem to a UNIX host, and provide information such as long
 112 filenames, UID/GID, POSIX permissions, and devices.
 113 It is automatically recognized within the
 114 .B iso9660
 115 filesystem support under Linux.
 116 .RE
 117 .TP
 118 .B JFS
 119 is a journaling filesystem, developed by IBM,
 120 that was integrated into Linux 2.4.24.
 121 .TP
 122 .B minix
 123 is the filesystem used in the Minix operating system, the first to run
 124 under Linux.
 125 It has a number of shortcomings, including a 64\ MB partition size
 126 limit, short filenames, and a single timestamp.
 127 It remains useful for floppies and RAM disks.
 128 .TP
 129 .B msdos
 130 is the filesystem used by DOS, Windows, and some OS/2 computers.
 131 .B msdos
 132 filenames can be no longer than 8 characters, followed by an
 133 optional period and 3 character extension.
 134 .TP
 135 .B ncpfs
 136 is a network filesystem that supports the NCP protocol,
 137 used by Novell NetWare.
 138 It was removed from the kernel in Linux 4.17.
 139 .IP
 140 To use
 141 .BR ncpfs ,
 142 you need special programs, which can be found at
 143 .UR ftp://ftp.gwdg.de\:/pub\:/linux\:/misc\:/ncpfs
 144 .UE .
 145 .TP
 146 .B nfs
 147 is the network filesystem used to access disks located on remote computers.
 148 .TP
 149 .B ntfs
 150 is the filesystem native to Microsoft Windows NT,
 151 supporting features like ACLs, journaling, encryption, and so on.
 152 .TP
 153 .B proc
 154 is a pseudo filesystem which is used as an interface to kernel data
 155 structures rather than reading and interpreting
 156 .IR /dev/kmem .
 157 In particular, its files do not take disk space.
 158 See
 159 .BR proc (5).
 160 .TP
 161 .B Reiserfs
 162 is a journaling filesystem, designed by Hans Reiser,
 163 that was integrated into Linux 2.4.1.
 164 .TP
 165 .B smb
 166 is a network filesystem that supports the SMB protocol, used by
 167 Windows.
 168 See
 169 .UR https://www.samba.org\:/samba\:/smbfs/
 170 .UE .
 171 .TP
 172 .B sysv
 173 is an implementation of the System V/Coherent filesystem for Linux.
 174 It implements all of Xenix FS, System V/386 FS, and Coherent FS.
 175 .TP
 176 .B umsdos
 177 is an extended DOS filesystem used by Linux.
 178 It adds capability for
 179 long filenames, UID/GID, POSIX permissions, and special files
 180 (devices, named pipes, etc.) under the DOS filesystem, without
 181 sacrificing compatibility with DOS.
 182 .TP
 183 .B tmpfs
 184 is a filesystem whose contents reside in virtual memory.
 185 Since the files on such filesystems typically reside in RAM,
 186 file access is extremely fast.
 187 See
 188 .BR tmpfs (5).
 189 .TP
 190 .B vfat
 191 is an extended FAT filesystem used by Microsoft Windows95 and Windows NT.
 192 .B vfat
 193 adds the capability to use long filenames under the MSDOS filesystem.
 194 .TP
 195 .B XFS
 196 is a journaling filesystem, developed by SGI,
 197 that was integrated into Linux 2.4.20.
 198 .TP
 199 .B xiafs
 200 was designed and implemented to be a stable, safe filesystem by
 201 extending the Minix filesystem code.
 202 It provides the basic most
 203 requested features without undue complexity.
 204 The
 205 .B xiafs
 206 filesystem is no longer actively developed or maintained.
 207 It was removed from the kernel in Linux 2.1.21.
 208 .SH SEE ALSO
 209 .BR fuse (4),
 210 .BR btrfs (5),
 211 .BR ext2 (5),
 212 .BR ext3 (5),
 213 .BR ext4 (5),
 214 .BR nfs (5),
 215 .BR proc (5),
 216 .BR sysfs (5),
 217 .BR tmpfs (5),
 218 .BR xfs (5),
 219 .BR fsck (8),
 220 .BR mkfs (8),
 221 .BR mount (8)