Unix File Types


  • What is File System?
The abstraction used by kernel to represent and organize the storage resources.
UNIX File System in general
  • File system is organized in tree structure.
  • File tree can be arbitrarily deep.
  • File name must NOT LONGER than 256 chars.
  • Single path name must NOT LONGER than 1023 chars.
  • Regular Files?
1.     binary
1.     GIF, JPEG, Executable etc.
2.     text
1.     scripts, program source code, documentation
3.     Supports sequential and random access
  • Directory files?
1.     Can contain ANY kind of files
2.     what is “.” and “..”??
  • Device File?
1.     Allows programs to communicate with hardware.
2.     Kernel modules handles device management.
  • Device Files (cont.)?
1.     Character Device
1.     Accepts a stream of characters, without regard to any block structure.
2.     It is not addressable, therefore no seek operation
2.     Block Device
1.     Information stored in fixed-sized block
2.     It is addressable, therefore seek operation is possible
First


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