April 2011
Intermediate to advanced
840 pages
18h 7m
English
Chapter 7
Managing Filesystems
In This Chapter
- What is a filesystem?
- Linux filesystems
- Filesystem commands
When you're working with your Linux system, one of the decisions you'll need to make is what filesystems to use for the storage devices. Most Linux distributions kindly provide a default filesystem for you at installation time, and most beginning Linux users just use that by default without giving the topic another thought.
While using the default filesystem choice isn't necessarily a bad thing, sometimes it helps to know the other options available to you. This chapter discusses the different filesystem options you have available in the Linux world and shows you how to create and manage them from the Linux command line.
Exploring Linux Filesystems
Chapter 3 discussed how Linux uses a filesystem to store files and folders on a storage device. The filesystem provides a way for Linux to bridge the gap between the ones and zeroes stored in the hard drive and the files and folders you work with in your applications.
Linux supports several types of filesystems to manage files and folders. Each filesystem implements the virtual directory structure on storage devices using slightly different features. This section walks you through the strengths and weaknesses of the more common filesystems used in the Linux environment.
The Basic Linux Filesystems
The original Linux system used a simple filesystem that mimicked the functionality of the Unix filesystem. This section discusses ...
