Inside Solaris™ 9

A File System Defined

A file system is a structure of directories used to organize and store files on disk. A file system is a collection of files and directories stored on disk in a standard UNIX file system format. All disk-based computer systems have a file system. In UNIX, file systems have two basic components: files and directories. A file is the actual information as it is stored on the disk, and a directory is a listing of the filenames. In addition to keeping track of filenames, the file system must keep track of files’ access dates and ownership. Managing the UNIX file systems is one of the system administrator’s most important tasks. Administration of the file system involves the following:

• Ensuring that users have access to data. ...