Chapter 11. File Systems

A file system is an operating system component that provides an abstract view of data on a storage device. At the user-visible level, a file system's contents are usually organized hierarchically into files and directories (or folderswe will use the terms directory and folder synonymously in this chapter and the next). A file system's storage device is often persistent, but it is possibleand usefulto have file systems on nonpersistent devices such as physical memory.