Chapter 14: File Systems
In Chapters 4, 5, and 13, we looked at file I/O, with a particular focus on regular
(i.e., disk) files. In this and the following chapters, we go into detail on a range of
file-related topics:
z This chapter looks at file systems.
z Chapter 15 describes various attributes associated with a file, including the
timestamps, ownership, and permissions.
z Chapters 16 and 17 consider two new features of Linux 2.6: extended attributes
and access control lists (ACLs). Extended attributes are a method of associat-
ing arbitrary metadata with a file. ACLs are an extension of the traditional
UNIX file permission model.
z Chapter 18 looks at directories and links.
The majority of this chapter is concerned with file systems, which are organized col-
lections of files and directories. We explain a range of file-system concepts, some-
times using the traditional Linux ext2 file system as a specific example. We also
briefly describe some of the journaling file systems available on Linux.
We conclude the chapter with a discussion of the system calls used to mount
and unmount a file system, and the library functions used to obtain information
about mounted file systems.
