Comparison of file systems

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of file systems.

General information

File system	Creator	Year of introduction	Original operating system
DECtape	DEC	1964	PDP-6 Monitor
DASD	IBM	1964	OS/360
Level-D	DEC	1968	TOPS-10
George 2	ICT (later ICL)	1968	George 2
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	Bell Labs	1972	Version 6 Unix
RT-11 file system	DEC	1973	RT-11
Disk Operating System (GEC DOS)	GEC	1973	Core Operating System
CP/M file system	Digital Research (Gary Kildall)	1974	CP/M[1][2]
ODS-1	DEC	1975	RSX-11
GEC DOS filing system extended	GEC	1977	OS4000
FAT (8-bit)	Microsoft (Marc McDonald) for NCR	1977	Microsoft Standalone Disk BASIC-80 (later Microsoft Standalone Disk BASIC-86)
DOS 3.x	Apple Computer	1978	Apple DOS
Pascal	Apple Computer	1978	Apple Pascal
CBM DOS	Commodore	1978	Commodore BASIC
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	Bell Labs	1979	Version 7 Unix
ODS-2	DEC	1979	OpenVMS
FAT12	Seattle Computer Products (Tim Paterson)	1980	QDOS/86-DOS (later IBM PC DOS 1.0)
DFS	Acorn Computers Ltd	1982	Acorn BBC Micro MOS
ADFS	Acorn Computers Ltd	1983	Acorn Electron (later Arthur RISC OS)
FFS	Kirk McKusick	1983	4.2BSD
ProDOS	Apple Computer	1983	ProDOS 8
FAT16	IBM, Microsoft	1984	PC DOS 3.0, MS-DOS 3.0
MFS	Apple Computer	1984	System 1
Elektronika BK tape format	NPO "Scientific centre" (now Sitronics)	1985	Vilnius Basic, BK monitor program
HFS	Apple Computer	1985	System 2.1
Amiga OFS	Metacomco for Commodore	1985	Amiga OS
NWFS	Novell	1985	NetWare 286
High Sierra	Ecma International	1986	MSCDEX for MS-DOS 3.1/3.2[3]
FAT16B	Compaq	1987	Compaq MS-DOS 3.31
Minix V1 FS	Andrew S. Tanenbaum	1987	MINIX 1.0
Amiga FFS	Commodore	1988	Amiga OS 1.3
ISO 9660:1988	Ecma International, ISO	1988	MS-DOS, "classic" Mac OS, and AmigaOS
HPFS	IBM & Microsoft	1989	OS/2 1.2
JFS1	IBM	1990	AIX[lower-alpha 1]
VxFS	VERITAS	1991	SVR4.0
ext	Rémy Card	1992	Linux
AdvFS	DEC	1993[4]	Digital Unix
NTFS	Microsoft (Gary Kimura, Tom Miller)	1993	Windows NT 3.1
LFS	Margo Seltzer	1993	Berkeley Sprite
ext2	Rémy Card	1993	Linux, Hurd
Xiafs	Q. Frank Xia	1993	Linux
UFS1	Kirk McKusick	1994	4.4BSD
XFS	SGI	1994	IRIX, Linux, FreeBSD
HFS	IBM	1994	MVS/ESA (now z/OS)
FAT16X	Microsoft	1995	MS-DOS 7.0 / Windows 95
Joliet ("CDFS")	Microsoft	1995	Microsoft Windows, Linux, "classic" Mac OS, and FreeBSD
UDF	ISO/ECMA/OSTA	1995	N/A
FAT32, FAT32X	Microsoft	1996	MS-DOS 7.10 / Windows 95 OSR2[lower-alpha 2]
QFS	Sun Microsystems	1996	Solaris
GPFS	IBM	1996	AIX, Linux
Be File System	Be Inc. (D. Giampaolo, Cyril Meurillon)	1996	BeOS
Minix V2 FS	Andrew S. Tanenbaum	1997	MINIX 2.0
HFS Plus	Apple Computer	1998	Mac OS 8.1
NSS	Novell	1998	NetWare 5
PolyServe File System (PSFS)	PolyServe	1998	Windows, Linux
ODS-5	DEC	1998	OpenVMS 7.2
WAFL	NetApp	1998	Data ONTAP
ext3	Dr. Stephen C. Tweedie	1999	Linux
ISO 9660:1999	Ecma International, ISO	1999	Microsoft Windows, Linux, "classic" Mac OS, FreeBSD, and AmigaOS
Lustre	Cluster File Systems[5]	2002	Linux
JFS	IBM	1999	OS/2 Warp Server for e-business
GFS	Sistina (Red Hat)	2000	Linux
ReiserFS	Namesys	2001	Linux
zFS	IBM	2001	z/OS (backported to OS/390)
FATX	Microsoft	2002	Xbox
UFS2	Kirk McKusick	2002	FreeBSD 5.0
OCFS	Oracle Corporation	2002	Linux
VMFS2	VMware	2002	VMware ESX Server 2.0
Fossil	Bell Labs	2003	Plan 9 version 4
Google File System	Google	2003	Linux
ZFS	Sun Microsystems	2004	Solaris
Reiser4	Namesys	2004	Linux
Non-Volatile File System	Palm, Inc.	2004	Palm OS Garnet
Minix V3 FS	Andrew S. Tanenbaum	2005	MINIX 3
OCFS2	Oracle Corporation	2005	Linux
NILFS	NTT	2005	Linux
VMFS3	VMware	2005	VMware ESX Server 3.0
GFS2	Red Hat	2006	Linux
ext4	various	2006	Linux
exFAT	Microsoft	2006	Windows CE 6.0
Btrfs	Oracle Corporation	2007	Linux
JXFS	Hyperion Entertainment	2008	AmigaOS 4.1
HAMMER	Matthew Dillon	2008	DragonFly BSD 2.0
LSFS	StarWind Software	2009	Linux, FreeBSD, Windows
CASL	Nimble Storage	2010	Linux
VMFS5	VMware	2011	vSphere 5.0+
ReFS	Microsoft	2012	Windows Server 2012
F2FS	Samsung Electronics	2012	Linux
APFS	Apple Computer	2016	macOS

Limits

File system	Maximum filename length	Allowable characters in directory entries[lower-alpha 3]	Maximum pathname length	Maximum file size	Maximum volume size[lower-alpha 4]
CP/M file system	8.3	ASCII except for < > . , ; : = ? * [ ]	No directory hierarchy (but accessibility of files depends on user areas via USER command since CP/M 2.2)	?	?
IBM SFS	8.8	?	?	Non-hierarchical[6]	?
DECtape	6.3	A–Z, 0–9	DTxN:FILNAM.EXT = 15	369,280 bytes (577 * 640)	369,920 bytes (578 * 640)
Elektronika BK tape format	16 bytes		No directory hierarchy	64 KiB	Not limited. Approx. 800KB (one side) for 90 min cassette
MicroDOS file system	14 bytes			16 MiB	32 MiB
Level-D	6.3	A–Z, 0–9	DEVICE:FILNAM.EXT[PROJCT,PROGRM] = 7 + 10 + 15 = 32; + 5*7 for SFDs = 67	34,359,738,368 words (2**35-1); 206,158,430,208 SIXBIT bytes	Approx 12 GB (64 * 178 MB)
RT-11	6.3	A–Z, 0–9, $	0 (no directory hierarchy)	33,554,432 bytes (65536 * 512)	33,554,432 bytes
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	14 bytes	Any byte except NUL and /[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	8 MiB[lower-alpha 7]	2 TiB
Disk Operating System (GEC DOS)	?	?	?	? at least 131,072 bytes	?
GEC DOS filing system extended	8 bytes	A–Z, 0–9. Period was directory separator	? No limit defined (workaround for OS limit)	? at least 131,072 bytes	?
CBM DOS	16 bytes	Any byte except NUL	0 (no directory hierarchy)	16 MiB	16 MiB
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	14 bytes	Any byte except NUL and /[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	1 GiB[lower-alpha 8]	2 TiB
exFAT	255 UTF-16 characters	?	No limit defined	16 EiB	64 ZiB (2^76 bytes)
FAT (8-bit)	6.3 (binary files) / 9 characters (ASCII files)	ASCII (0x00 and 0xFF not allowed in first character)	No directory hierarchy	?	?
FAT12/FAT16	8.3 (255 UCS-2 characters with LFN)[lower-alpha 9]	SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | [lower-alpha 3][lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	32 MiB (4 GiB)[lower-alpha 10]	1 MiB to 32 MiB
FAT16B/FAT16X	8.3 (255 UCS-2 characters with LFN)[lower-alpha 9]	SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | [lower-alpha 3][lower-alpha 9][lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	2 (4) GiB[lower-alpha 10]	16 MiB to 2 (4) GiB
FAT32/FAT32X	8.3 (255 UCS-2 characters with LFN)[lower-alpha 9]	SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | [lower-alpha 3][lower-alpha 9][lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	2 (4) GiB[lower-alpha 10]	512 MiB to 8 TiB[lower-alpha 11]
FATX	42 bytes[lower-alpha 9]	ASCII. Unicode not permitted.	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	2 GiB	16 MiB to 2 GiB
Fossil	?	?	?	?	?
APFS	?	?	?	?	?
F2FS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL, /[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	3.94 TiB	16 TiB
MFS	255 bytes	Any byte except :	No path (flat filesystem)	256 MiB	256 MiB
HFS	31 bytes	Any byte except :	Unlimited	2 GiB	2 TiB
HPFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 12]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	2 GiB	2 TiB[lower-alpha 13]
NTFS	255 characters	Any Unicode except NUL, /	32,767 Unicode characters with each path component (directory or filename) up to 255 characters long[lower-alpha 6]	16 EiB[lower-alpha 14]	16 EiB[lower-alpha 14]
ReFS	255 UTF-16 characters[8]	Any Unicode except NUL, /[8]	32,767 Unicode characters with each path component (directory or filename) up to 255 characters long[8]	16 EiB[8]	16 EiB[8]
HFS Plus	255 UTF-16 characters[lower-alpha 15]	Any valid Unicode[lower-alpha 5][lower-alpha 16]	Unlimited	slightly less than 8 EiB	slightly less than 8 EiB[9]
FFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	4 GiB	256 TiB
HAMMER	255 bytes[10]	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	?	?	1 EiB[11]
UFS1	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	4 GiB to 256 TiB	256 TiB
UFS2	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	512 GiB to 32 PiB	512 ZiB[12] (2^79 bytes)
ext	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	2 GiB	2 GiB
Xiafs	248 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	64 MiB	2 GiB
ext2	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL, /[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	16 GiB to 2 TiB[lower-alpha 4]	2 TiB to 32 TiB
ext3	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL, /[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	16 GiB to 2 TiB[lower-alpha 4]	2 TiB to 32 TiB
ext4	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL, /[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	16 GiB to 16 TiB[lower-alpha 4][13]	1 EiB
Lustre	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	16 EiB on ZFS	16 EiB
GPFS	255 UTF-8 codepoints	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	No limit found	2^99 bytes (2 PiB tested)
GFS	255	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	2 TiB to 8 EiB[lower-alpha 17]	2 TiB to 8 EiB[lower-alpha 17]
NILFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	8 EiB	8 EiB
ReiserFS	4,032 bytes/255 characters	Any byte except NUL and '/'[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	8 TiB[lower-alpha 18] (v3.6), 4 GiB (v3.5)	16 TiB
Reiser4	3,976 bytes	Any byte except / and NUL	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	8 TiB on x86	?
OCFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	8 TiB	8 TiB
OCFS2	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	4 PiB	4 PiB
XFS	255 bytes[lower-alpha 19]	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	8 EiB[lower-alpha 20]	8 EiB[lower-alpha 20]
JFS1	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	8 EiB	512 TiB to 4 PiB
JFS	255 bytes	Any Unicode except NUL	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	4 PiB	32 PiB
QFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	16 EiB[lower-alpha 21]	4 PiB[lower-alpha 21]
BFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	12,288 bytes to 260 GiB[lower-alpha 22]	256 PiB to 2 EiB
AdvFS	255 characters	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	16 TiB	16 TiB
NSS	256 characters	Depends on namespace used[lower-alpha 23]	Only limited by client	8 TiB	8 TiB
NWFS	80 bytes[lower-alpha 24]	Depends on namespace used[lower-alpha 23]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	4 GiB	1 TiB
ODS-5	236 bytes[lower-alpha 25]	?	4,096 bytes[lower-alpha 26]	1 TiB	1 TiB
VxFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	16 EiB	?
UDF	255 bytes	Any Unicode except NUL	1,023 bytes[lower-alpha 27]	16 EiB	?
ZFS	255 bytes	Any Unicode except NUL	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	16 EiB	256 ZiB (2^78 bytes)
Btrfs	255 bytes	Any byte except '/' and NUL	No limit defined	16 EiB	16 EiB
Minix V1 FS	14 or 30 bytes, set at filesystem creation time	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	1 GiB	1 GiB
Minix V2 FS	14 or 30 bytes, set at filesystem creation time	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	1 GiB	1 GiB
Minix V3 FS	60 bytes	Any byte except NUL[lower-alpha 5]	No limit defined[lower-alpha 6]	4 GiB	4 GiB
VMFS2	128	Any byte except NUL and /[lower-alpha 5]	2,048	4 TiB[lower-alpha 28]	64 TiB
VMFS3	128	Any byte except NUL and /[lower-alpha 5]	2,048	2 TiB[lower-alpha 28]	64 TiB
ISO 9660:1988	Level 1: 8.3, Level 2 & 3: ~ 180	Depends on Level[lower-alpha 29]	~ 180 bytes?	4 GiB (Level 1 & 2) to 8 TiB (Level 3)[lower-alpha 30]	8 TiB[lower-alpha 31]
Joliet ("CDFS")	64 Unicode characters	All UCS-2 code except *, /, \, :, ;, and ?[15]	?	same as ISO 9660:1988	same as ISO 9660:1988
ISO 9660:1999	?	?	?	?	?
High Sierra	?	?	?	?	?
File system	Maximum filename length	Allowable characters in directory entries[lower-alpha 3]	Maximum pathname length	Maximum file size	Maximum volume size[lower-alpha 4]

Metadata

File system	Stores file owner	POSIX file permissions	Creation timestamps	Last access/ read timestamps	Last metadata change timestamps	Last archive timestamps	Access control lists	Security/ MAC labels	Extended attributes/ Alternate data streams/ forks	Checksum/ ECC
CP/M file system	No	No	Yes[lower-alpha 32]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DECtape[16]	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Elektronika BK tape format	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Level-D	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
RT-11[17]	No	No	Yes (date only)	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)[18]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)[19]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
FAT12/FAT16/FAT32	No	No	Yes	Yes	No[lower-alpha 33]	No	No	No	No[lower-alpha 34]	No
HPFS	Yes[lower-alpha 35]	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	?	Yes	No
NTFS	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 36]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 37]	Yes	No
ReFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes[lower-alpha 38]	Yes[lower-alpha 39]
HFS	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
HFS Plus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	No
FFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
UFS1	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[lower-alpha 40]	Yes[lower-alpha 40]	No[lower-alpha 41]	No
UFS2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[lower-alpha 40]	Yes[lower-alpha 40]	Yes	No
LFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
ext	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Xiafs	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
ext2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes	No
ext3	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes	No
ext4	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes	No
Lustre	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
F2FS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes	No
GPFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
GFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes	No
NILFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
ReiserFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes	No
Reiser4	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
OCFS	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
OCFS2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
XFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	Yes	No
JFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
QFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
BFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
AdvFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
NSS	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 43]	Yes[lower-alpha 43]	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 43]	Yes	?	Yes[lower-alpha 44][lower-alpha 45]	No
NWFS	Yes	?	Yes[lower-alpha 43]	Yes[lower-alpha 43]	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 43]	Yes	?	Yes[lower-alpha 44][lower-alpha 45]	No
ODS-5	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	?	Yes[lower-alpha 46]	No
APFS	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
VxFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes[lower-alpha 42]	No
UDF	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
Fossil	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 47]	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
ZFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No[lower-alpha 48]	Yes[lower-alpha 49]	Yes
Btrfs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
VMFS2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
VMFS3	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
ISO 9660:1988	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Joliet ("CDFS")	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ISO 9660:1999	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
High Sierra	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
File system	Stores file owner	POSIX file permissions	Creation timestamps	Last access/read timestamps	Last metadata change timestamps	Last archive timestamps	Access control lists	Security/ MAC labels	Extended attributes/ Alternate data streams/ forks	Checksum/ ECC

Features

File capabilities

File system	Hard links	Symbolic links	Block journaling	Metadata-only journaling	Case-sensitive	Case-preserving	File Change Log	Internal snapshotting / branching	XIP	Filesystem-level encryption	Data deduplication
DECtape	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Level-D	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
RT-11	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
APFS	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	Yes	?
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	Yes	No[lower-alpha 50]	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
FAT12	No	No	No	Partial (with TFAT12 only)	No	Partial (with VFAT LFNs only)	No	No	No	Partial (DR-DOS with SECURITY only)	No
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X	No	No	No	Partial (with TFAT16 only)	No	Partial (with VFAT LFNs only)	No	No	No	Partial (DR-DOS with SECURITY only)	No
FAT32 / FAT32X	No	No	No?	Partial (with TFAT32 only)	No	Partial (with VFAT LFNs only)	No	No	No	No	No
GFS	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 51]	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 52]	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	?
HPFS	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	?	No	No	?
NTFS	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 53]	No[lower-alpha 54]	Yes[lower-alpha 54] (2000)	Yes[lower-alpha 55]	Yes	Yes	Partial[lower-alpha 56]	?	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 57][22]
HFS Plus	Partial	Yes	No	Yes[lower-alpha 58]	Partial[lower-alpha 59]	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 60]	No	No	No[lower-alpha 61]	No
FFS	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
UFS1	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
UFS2	Yes	Yes	No	No[lower-alpha 62]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	No	No
LFS	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 63]	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
ext	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Xiafs	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
ext2	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes[lower-alpha 64]	No	No
ext3	Yes	Yes	Yes (2001) [lower-alpha 65]	Yes (2001)	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
ext4	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 65]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes, experimental [27]	No
F2FS	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 63]	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes, experimental [28]	No
Lustre	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 65]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
NILFS	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 63]	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
ReiserFS	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 66]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	No	No
Reiser4	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	?	?	Yes[lower-alpha 67]	?
OCFS	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
OCFS2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
XFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 68]	Yes	Yes	No	?	No	No
JFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes (1990)	Yes[lower-alpha 69]	Yes	No	?	?	No	?
QFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
BFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	No	No	No
NSS	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 70]	Yes[lower-alpha 70]	Yes[lower-alpha 71]	Yes	No	Yes	?
NWFS	Yes[lower-alpha 72]	Yes[lower-alpha 72]	No	No	Yes[lower-alpha 70]	Yes[lower-alpha 70]	Yes[lower-alpha 71]	?	No	No	?
ODS-2	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 73]	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
ODS-5	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 73]	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	No	No
UDF	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 63]	Yes[lower-alpha 63]	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
VxFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 74]	?	No	Yes
Fossil	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
ZFS	Yes	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 75]	No[lower-alpha 75]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes[30][lower-alpha 76]	Yes
Btrfs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	No, planned, not being developed (Nov, 2015)[31]	Yes
VMFS2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
VMFS3	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
ReFS	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
File system	Hard links	Symbolic links	Block journaling	Metadata-only journaling	Case-sensitive	Case-preserving	File Change Log	Internal snapshotting / branching	XIP	Filesystem-level encryption	Data deduplication

Resize capabilities

File system	Host OS	Online grow	Offline grow	Online shrink	Offline shrink
Btrfs[32]	Linux	Yes	No	Yes	No
ext2[33]	Linux	No	Yes	No	Yes
ext3[33]	Linux	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
ext4[33]	Linux	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
FAT12	misc.	No	with third-party tools[34]	No	with third-party tools[34]
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X	misc.	No	with third-party tools[34]	No	with third-party tools[34]
FAT32 / FAT32X	misc.	No	with third-party tools[34]	No	with third-party tools[34]
F2FS[35]	Linux	No	Yes	No	No
HFS+	Linux	No	No	No	No
HFS+	macOS	Yes	No	Yes	No
JFS[36]	Linux	No	Yes	No	No
NILFS[37]	Linux	Yes	No	Yes	No
NTFS[38]	Linux	No	Yes	No	Yes
NTFS	Windows	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
APFS	macOS	?	?	?	?
ZFS	misc.	Yes	Yes	No	No
Reiser4[39]	Linux	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
ReiserFS[40]	Linux	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
XFS[41]	Linux	Yes	No	No	No
ReFS	Windows	?	?	?	?

Allocation and layout policies

File system	Tail packing	Transparent compression	Block suballocation	Allocate-on-flush	Extents	Variable file block size[lower-alpha 77]	Sparse files	Copy on write
DECtape	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
Level-D	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	?
APFS	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	?
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	?
FAT12	No	Partial[lower-alpha 78]	Partial (only inside of Stacker 3/4 and DriveSpace 3 compressed volumes[42])	No	Partial (only inside of compressed volumes)[43]	No	Partial (only inside of compressed volumes)[44]	No
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X	No	Partial[lower-alpha 78]	Partial (only inside of Stacker 3/4 and DriveSpace 3 compressed volumes[42])	No	Partial (only inside of compressed volumes)[43]	No	Partial (only inside of compressed volumes)[44]	No
FAT32 / FAT32X	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
GFS	Partial[lower-alpha 79]	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	?
HPFS	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	?
NTFS	No	Yes	Partial	No	Yes	No	Yes	?
HFS Plus	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	?
FFS	No	No	8:1[lower-alpha 80]	No	No	No	Yes	?
UFS1	No	No	8:1[lower-alpha 80]	No	No	No	Yes	?
UFS2	No	No	8:1[lower-alpha 80]	No	No	Yes	Yes	?
LFS	No	No	8:1[lower-alpha 80]	No	No	No	Yes	?
ext	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	?
Xiafs	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	?
ext2	No	No[lower-alpha 81]	No[lower-alpha 82]	No	No	No	Yes	?
ext3	No	No	No[lower-alpha 82]	No	No	No	Yes	?
ext4	No	No	No[lower-alpha 82]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?
F2FS	No	No	No	Yes	Partial[lower-alpha 83]	No	Yes	?
Lustre	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?
NILFS	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	?
ReiserFS	Yes	No	Yes[lower-alpha 84]	No	No	No	Yes	?
Reiser4	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 67]	Yes[lower-alpha 84]	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 85]	No	Yes	?
OCFS	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	?	?
OCFS2	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	?
XFS	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?
JFS	No	only in JFS1 on AIX[45]	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	?
QFS	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	?	?
BFS	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	?	?
NSS	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	?	?
NWFS	No	Yes	Yes[lower-alpha 86]	No	No	No	?	?
ODS-5	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	?	?
VxFS	No	No	?	No	Yes	No	Yes	?
UDF	No	No	No	?[lower-alpha 87]	Yes	No	No	?
Fossil	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	?	?
ZFS	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Btrfs	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
VMFS2	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	?
VMFS3	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	?
ReFS	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
File system	Tail packing	Transparent compression	Block suballocation	Allocate-on-flush	Extents	Variable file block size[lower-alpha 77]	Sparse files	Copy on write

OS support

File system	DOS	Windows 9x	Windows NT	Linux	"classic" Mac OS	macOS	FreeBSD	OS/2	BeOS	Minix	Solaris	z/OS
APFS	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DECtape	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Level-D	No	No	No	?	No	?	No	No	No	No	?	?
RT-11	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	No	No	No	?	No	?	No	No	?	?	?	?
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	No	No	No	Yes	No	?	No	No	?	?	?	?
FAT12	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial (via dosdir, dosread, doswrite)	Yes	?
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X	Yes (FAT16 from DOS 3.0, FAT16B from DOS 3.31, FAT16X from DOS 7.0)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial (via dosdir, dosread, doswrite, not FAT16X)	Yes	?
FAT32 / FAT32X	Yes (from DOS 7.10)	Yes (from Windows 95 OSR2)	Yes (from Windows 2000)	Yes	Yes?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?
GFS	No	No	No	Yes	No	?	No	?	?	?	?	?
HPFS	Partial (with third-party drivers)	No	Partial (with NT 3.1 to 4.0 only)	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes (from OS/2 1.2)	?	No	?	?
NTFS	Partial (with third-party drivers)	No	Yes	Yes with ntfs-3g	No	Yes with Paragon NTFS or ntfs-3g	Yes with ntfs-3g	?	Yes with ntfs-3g	No	Yes with ntfs-3g	?
Apple HFS	No	No	Yes with Paragon HFS+ [46]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?	Yes	No	?	No
Apple HFS Plus	No	No	Yes with Paragon HFS+ [46]	Partial - writing support only to unjournalled FS	Yes from Mac OS 8.1	Yes	No	?	with addon	No	?	No
FFS	No	No	?	?	?	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?	?
UFS1	No	No	No	Partial - read only	?	Yes	Yes	No	?	?	Yes	?
UFS2	No	No	No	Partial - read only	?	Yes	Yes	No	?	?	?	?
LFS	No	No	No	?	?	?	No	No	?	?	?	?
ext	No	No	No	Yes - until 2.1.20	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Xiafs	No	No	No	Yes - until 2.1.20 Experimental port available to 2.6.32 and later [47][48]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ext2	No	No	Partial with Ext2 IFS[49] or ext2fsd[50]	Yes	No	Yes with ext2fsx	Yes	No	Yes	?	?	?
ext3	No	No	Partial with Ext2 IFS[49] or ext2fsd[50]	Yes	Partial (read only)	Partial with ext2fsx (journal not updated on writing)	Partial (read-only)[51][52]	No	with addon	?	Yes	?
ext4	No	No	Partial with Ext2 IFS[49] or ext2fsd[50]	Yes	?	?	Partial support in kernel since version 10.1 (read-only)[51][52]	No	with addon	?	?	?
Lustre	No	No	No	Yes[53]	?	?	No	?	?	?	Yes	?
NILFS	No	No	?	Yes as an external kernel module	?	?	No	?	?	?	?	?
F2FS	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ReiserFS	No	No	No	Yes	?	?	Partial Read Only	?	with addon	?	?	?
Reiser4	No	No	No	Yes with a kernel patch	?	?	No	?	?	?	?	?
OCFS	No	No	No	Yes	?	?	No	No	?	?	?	?
OCFS2	No	No	No	Yes	?	?	No	No	?	?	?	?
XFS	No	No	No	Yes	?	?	Partial	?	with addon (read only)	?	?	?
JFS	No	No	No	Yes	?	?	No	Yes	?	?	?	?
QFS	No	No	No	Partial - client only[54]	?	?	No	No	?	?	Yes	?
Be File System	No	No	No	Partial - read-only	?	?	No	No	Yes	?	?	?
NSS	No	No	No	Yes via EVMS[lower-alpha 88]	?	?	No	No	?	?	?	?
NWFS	Partial (with Novell drivers)	No	No	?	?	?	Yes	No	?	?	?	?
ODS-2	No	No	No	?	?	?	No	No	?	?	?	?
ODS-5	No	No	No	?	?	?	No	No	?	?	?	?
UDF	No	?	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	?
VxFS	No	No	No	Yes	?	?	No	No	?	?	Yes	?
Fossil	No	No	No	Yes[lower-alpha 89]	No	Yes[lower-alpha 89]	Yes[lower-alpha 89]	No	No	No	Yes[lower-alpha 89]	?
ZFS	No	No	No	Yes with FUSE[55] or as an external kernel module[56]	?	Yes with Read/Write Developer Preview[57]	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	?
Btrfs	No	No	Partial with WinBtrfs[58]	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
VMFS2	No	No	No	?	?	?	No	No	?	?	?	?
VMFS3	No	No	No	?	?	?	No	No	?	?	?	?
IBM HFS	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
IBM zFS	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
ReFS	No	No	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
File system	DOS	Windows 9x	Windows NT	Linux	"classic" Mac OS	macOS	FreeBSD	OS/2	BeOS	Minix	Solaris	z/OS

See also

• Comparison of archive formats
• Comparison of file archivers
• List of archive formats
• List of file archivers
• List of file systems

Notes

1. IBM introduced JFS with the initial release of AIX Version 3.1 in 1990. This file system now called JFS1. The new JFS, on which the Linux port was based, was first shipped in OS/2 Warp Server for e-Business in 1999. The same sourcebase was also used for release JFS2 on AIX 5L.
2. Microsoft first introduced FAT32 in MS-DOS 7.1 / Windows 95 OSR2 (OEM Service Release 2) and then later in Windows 98. NT-based Windows did not have any support for FAT32 up to Windows NT4; Windows 2000 was the first NT-based Windows OS that received the ability to work with it.
3. These are the restrictions imposed by the on-disk directory entry structures themselves. Particular Installable File System drivers may place restrictions of their own on file and directory names; operating systems may also place restrictions of their own, across all filesystems. DOS, Windows, and OS/2 allow only the following characters from the current 8-bit OEM codepage in SFNs: A-Z, 0-9, characters ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, as well as 0x80-0xFF and 0x20 (SPACE). Specifically, lowercase letters a-z, characters " * / : < > ? \ | + , . ; = [ ], control codes 0x00-0x1F, 0x7F and in some cases also 0xE5 are not allowed.) In LFNs, any UCS-2 Unicode except \ / : ? * " > < | and NUL are allowed in file and directory names across all filesystems. Unix-like systems disallow the characters / and NUL in file and directory names across all filesystems.
4. For filesystems that have variable allocation unit (block/cluster) sizes, a range of size are given, indicating the maximum volume sizes for the minimum and the maximum possible allocation unit sizes of the filesystem (e.g. 512 bytes and 128 KiB for FAT — which is the cluster size range allowed by the on-disk data structures, although some Installable File System drivers and operating systems do not support cluster sizes larger than 32 KiB).
5. In these filesystems the directory entries named "." and ".." have special status. Directory entries with these names are not prohibited, and indeed exist as normal directory entries in the on-disk data structures. However, they are mandatory directory entries, with mandatory values, that are automatically created in each directory when it is created; and directories without them are considered corrupt.
6. The on-disk structures have no inherent limit. Particular Installable File System drivers and operating systems may impose limits of their own, however. Limited by its Current Directory Structure (CDS), DOS does not support more than 32 directory levels (except for DR DOS 3.31-6.0) or full pathnames longer than 66 bytes for FAT, or 255 characters for LFNs. Windows NT does not support full pathnames longer than 32,767 bytes for NTFS. Linux has a pathname limit of 4,096.
7. The actual maximum was 8,847,360 bytes, with 7 singly-indirect blocks and 1 doubly-indirect block; PWB/UNIX 1.0's variant had 8 singly-indirect blocks, making the maximum 524,288 bytes or half a MiB.
8. The actual maximum was 1,082,201,088 bytes, with 10 direct blocks, 1 singly-indirect block, 1 doubly-indirect block, and 1 triply-indirect block. The 4.0BSD and 4.1BSD versions, and the System V version, used 1,024-byte blocks rather than 512-byte blocks, making the maximum 4,311,812,608 bytes or approximately 4 GiB.
9. Depends on whether the FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32 implementation has support for LFNs. Where it does not, as in OS/2, DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 in DOS-only mode and the Linux "msdos" driver, file names are limited to 8.3 format of 8-bit OEM characters (space padded in both the basename and extension parts) and may not contain NUL (end-of-directory marker) or character 5 (replacement for character 229 which itself is used as deleted-file marker). Short names also must not contain lowercase letters. A few special device names (CON, NUL, AUX, PRN, LPT1, COM1, etc.) should be avoided, as some operating systems (notably DOS, OS/2 and Windows) reserve them.
10. On-disk structures would support up to 4 GiB, but practical file size is limited by volume size.
11. While FAT32 partitions this large work fine once created, some software won't allow creation of FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GiB. This includes, notoriously, the Windows XP installation program and the Disk Management console in Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista. Use FDISK from a Windows ME Emergency Boot Disk to avoid.^[7]
12. The "." and ".." directory entries in HPFS that are seen by applications programs are a partial fiction created by the Installable File System drivers. The on-disk data structure for a directory does not contain entries by those names, but instead contains a special "start" entry. Whilst on-disk directory entries by those names are not physically prohibited, they cannot be created in normal operation, and a directory containing such entries is corrupt.
13. This is the limit of the on-disk structures. The HPFS Installable File System driver for OS/2 uses the top 5 bits of the volume sector number for its own use, limiting the volume size that it can handle to 64 GiB.
14. This is the limit of the on-disk structures. The NTFS driver for Windows NT limits the volume size that it can handle to 256 TiB and the file size to 16 TiB respectively.
15. The "classic" Mac OS provides two sets of functions to retrieve file names from an HFS Plus volume, one of them returning the full Unicode names, the other shortened names fitting in the older 31 byte limit to accommodate older applications.
16. HFS Plus mandates support for an escape sequence to allow arbitrary Unicode. Users of older software might see the escape sequences instead of the desired characters.
17. Depends on kernel version and arch. For 2.4 kernels the max is 2 TiB. For 32-bit 2.6 kernels it is 16 TiB. For 64-bit 2.6 kernels it is 8 EiB.
18. ReiserFS has a theoretical maximum file size of 1 EiB, but "page cache limits this to 8 Ti on architectures with 32 bit int"^[14]
19. Note that the filename can be much longer XFS#Extended attributes
20. XFS has a limitation under Linux 2.4 of 64 TiB file size, but Linux 2.4 only supports a maximum block size of 2 TiB. This limitation is not present under IRIX.
21. QFS allows files to exceed the size of disk when used with its integrated HSM, as only part of the file need reside on disk at any one time.
22. Varies wildly according to block size and fragmentation of block allocation groups.
23. NSS allows files to have multiple names, in separate namespaces.
24. Some namespaces had lower name length limits. "LONG" had an 80-byte limit, "NWFS" 80 bytes, "NFS" 40 bytes and "DOS" imposed 8.3 filename.
25. Maximum combined filename/filetype length is 236 bytes; each component has an individual maximum length of 255 bytes.
26. Maximum pathname length is 4,096 bytes, but quoted limits on individual components add up to 1,664 bytes.
27. This restriction might be lifted in newer versions.
28. Maximum file size on a VMFS volume depends on the block size for that VMFS volume. The figures here are obtained by using the maximum block size.
29. ISO 9660#Restrictions
30. Through the use of multi-extents, a file can consist of multiple segments, each up to 4 GiB in size. See ISO 9660#The 2 GiB .28or 4 GiB depending on implementation.29 file size limit
31. Assuming the typical 2048 Byte sector size. The volume size is specified as a 32 bit value identifying the number of sectors on the volume.
32. Implemented in later versions as an extension
33. Some FAT implementations, such as in Linux, show file modification timestamp (mtime) in the metadata change timestamp (ctime) field. This timestamp is however, not updated on file metadata change.
34. Particular Installable File System drivers and operating systems may not support extended attributes on FAT12 and FAT16. The OS/2 and Windows NT filesystem drivers for FAT12 and FAT16 support extended attributes (using a "EA DATA. SF" pseudo-file to reserve the clusters allocated to them). Other filesystem drivers for other operating systems do not.
35. The f-node contains a field for a user identifier. This is not used except by OS/2 Warp Server, however.
36. NTFS access control lists can express any access policy possible using simple POSIX file permissions (and far more), but use of a POSIX-like interface is not supported without an add-on such as Services for UNIX or Cygwin.
37. As of Vista, NTFS has support for Mandatory Labels, which are used to enforce Mandatory Integrity Control.^[20]
38. Initially, ReFS lacked support for ADS, but Server 2012 R2 and up add support for ADS on ReFS
39. Data checksums not enabled by default
40. Access-control lists and MAC labels are layered on top of extended attributes.
41. Some operating systems implemented extended attributes as a layer over UFS1 with a parallel backing file (e.g., FreeBSD 4.x).
42. Some Installable File System drivers and operating systems may not support extended attributes, access control lists or security labels on these filesystems. Linux kernels prior to 2.6.x may either be missing support for these altogether or require a patch.
43. The local time, timezone/UTC offset, and date are derived from the time settings of the reference/single timesync source in the NDS tree.
44. Novell calls this feature "multiple data streams". Published specifications say that NWFS allows for 16 attributes and 10 data streams, and NSS allows for unlimited quantities of both.
45. Some file and directory metadata is stored on the NetWare server irrespective of whether Directory Services is installed or not, like date/time of creation, file size, purge status, etc; and some file and directory metadata is stored in NDS/eDirectory, like file/object permissions, ownership, etc.
46. Record Management Services (RMS) attributes include record type and size, among many others.
47. File permission in 9P are a variation of the traditional Unix permissions with some minor changes, eg. the suid bit is replaced by a new 'exclusive access' bit.
48. MAC/Sensitivity labels in the file system are not out of the question as a future compatible change but aren't part of any available version of ZFS.
49. Solaris "extended attributes" are really full-blown alternate data streams, in both the Solaris UFS and ZFS.
50. System V Release 4, and some other Unix systems, retrofitted symbolic links to their versions of the Version 7 Unix file system, although the original version didn't support them.
51. Context based symlinks were supported in GFS, GFS2 only supports standard symlinks since the bind mount feature of the Linux VFS has made context based symlinks obsolete
52. Optional journaling of data
53. As of Windows Vista, NTFS fully supports soft links.^[21] NTFS 3.0 (Windows 2000) and higher can create junctions, which allow entire directories (but not individual files) to be mapped to elsewhere in the directory tree of the same partition (file system). These are implemented through reparse points, which allow the normal process of filename resolution to be extended in a flexible manner.
54. NTFS stores everything, even the file data, as meta-data, so its log is closer to block journaling.
55. While NTFS itself supports case sensitivity, the Win32 environment subsystem cannot create files whose names differ only by case for compatibility reasons. When a file is opened for writing, if there is any existing file whose name is a case-insensitive match for the new file, the existing file is truncated and opened for writing instead of a new file with a different name being created. Other subsystems like e. g. Services for Unix, that operate directly above the kernel and not on top of Win32 can have case-sensitivity.
56. NTFS does not internally support snapshots, but in conjunction with the Volume Shadow Copy Service can maintain persistent block differential volume snapshots.
57. Supported only on Windows Server SKUs. However, partitions deduplicated on Server can be used on Client.
58. Metadata-only journaling was introduced in the Mac OS X 10.2.2 HFS Plus driver; journaling is enabled by default on Mac OS X 10.3 and later.
59. Although often believed to be case sensitive, HFS Plus normally is not. The typical default installation is case-preserving only. From Mac OS X 10.3 on the command newfs_hfs -s will create a case-sensitive new file system.^[23] HFS Plus version 5 optionally supports case-sensitivity. However, since case-sensitivity is fundamentally different from case-insensitivity, a new signature was required so existing HFS Plus utilities would not see case-sensitivity as a file system error that needed to be corrected. Since the new signature is 'HX', it is often believed this is a new filesystem instead of a simply an upgraded version of HFS Plus.^[24][25]
60. Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) and late versions of Panther (10.3) provide file change logging (it's a feature of the file system software, not of the volume format, actually).^[26]
61. HFS+ does not actually encrypt files: to implement FileVault, OS X creates an HFS+ filesystem in a sparse, encrypted disk image that is automatically mounted over the home directory when the user logs in.
62. "Soft dependencies" (softdep) in NetBSD, called "soft updates" in FreeBSD provide meta-data consistency at all times without double writes (journaling)
63. UDF, LFS, and NILFS are log-structured file systems and behave as if the entire file system were a journal.
64. Linux kernel versions 2.6.12 and newer.
65. Off by default.
66. Full block journaling for ReiserFS was added to Linux 2.6.8.
67. Reiser4 supports transparent compression and encryption with the cryptcompress plugin which is the default file handler in version 4.1.
68. Optionally no on IRIX.
69. Particular Installable File System drivers and operating systems may not support case sensitivity for JFS. OS/2 does not, and Linux has a mount option for disabling case sensitivity.
70. Case-sensitivity/Preservation depends on client. Windows, DOS, and OS/2 clients don't see/keep case differences, whereas clients accessing via NFS or AFP may.
71. The file change logs, last entry change timestamps, and other filesystem metadata, are all part of the extensive suite of auditing capabilities built into NDS/eDirectory called NSure Audit.^[29]
72. Available only in the "NFS" namespace.
73. These are referred to as "aliases".
74. VxFS provides an optional feature called "Storage Checkpoints" which allows for advanced file system snapshots.
75. ZFS is a transactional filesystem using copy-on-write semantics, guaranteeing an always-consistent on-disk state without the use of a traditional journal. However, it does also implement an intent log to provide better performance when synchronous writes are requested.
76. Applies only to proprietary ZFS release. Encryption support is not yet available in OpenZFS.
77. Variable block size refers to systems which support different block sizes on a per-file basis. (This is similar to extents but a slightly different implementational choice.) The current implementation in UFS2 is read-only.
78. SuperStor in DR DOS 6.0, PalmDOS 1.0, PC DOS 6.1 and 6.3, Stacker in Novell DOS 7, OpenDOS 7.01, DR-DOS 7.02 (and higher), and PC DOS 7.0 (and higher), DoubleSpace in MS-DOS 6.0 and 6.20, and DriveSpace in MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 95, 98 and Me are disk compression schemes for FAT, but are not supported for other operating systems.
79. Only for "stuffed" inodes
80. Other block:fragment size ratios supported; 8:1 is typical and recommended by most implementations.
81. e2compr, a set of patches providing block-based compression for ext2, has been available since 1997, but has never been merged into the mainline Linux kernel.
82. Fragments were planned, but never actually implemented on ext2 and ext3.
83. Stores one largest extent in disk, and caches multiple extents in DRAM dynamically.
84. Tail packing is technically a special case of block suballocation where the suballocation unit size is always 1 byte.
85. In "extents" mode.
86. Each possible size (in sectors) of file tail has a corresponding suballocation block chain in which all the tails of that size are stored. The overhead of managing suballocation block chains is usually less than the amount of block overhead saved by being able to increase the block size but the process is less efficient if there is not much free disk space.
87. Depends on UDF implementation.
88. Supported using only EVMS; not currently supported using LVM
89. Provided in Plan 9 from User Space

References

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6. "SFS file system". IBM Knowledge Center.
7. "Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP". Microsoft.
8. https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/b8/2012/01/16/building-the-next-generation-file-system-for-windows-refs/
9. See http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25557 and http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24601.
10. http://apollo.backplane.com/DFlyMisc/hammer2.txt
11. http://www.dragonflybsd.org/hammer/hammer.pdf
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20. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb648648.aspx
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22. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh769303(v=vs.85).aspx
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37. http://nilfs.sourceforge.net/en/man8/nilfs-resize.8.html
38. http://linux.die.net/man/8/ntfsresize
39. https://reiser4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Resize_reiserfs
40. https://www.suse.com/documentation/sles11/stor_admin/data/biuymaa.html
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• Linux kernel file systems via Wikia:en.howto:Wikihowto

External links

• A speed comparison of filesystems on Linux 2.4.5 (archived)
• Filesystems (ext3, reiser, xfs, jfs) comparison on Debian Etch (April 23, 2006)
• Block allocation strategies of various filesystems