UNIX Filesystems: Evolution, Design, and Implementation

Foreword

It's over 30 years ago that the first Edition of UNIX was released. Much has changed since those early days, as it evolved from a platform for software development, to the OS of choice for technical workstations, an application platform for small servers, and finally the platform of choice for mainframe-class RISC-based application and database servers.

Turning UNIX into the workhorse for mission-critical enterprise applications was in no small part enabled by the evolution of file systems, which play such a central role in this Operating System. Features such as extent-based allocation, journaling, database performance, SMP support, clustering support, snapshots, replication, NFS, AFS, data migration, incremental backup, and more have contributed to this.

And the evolution is by no means over. There is, of course, the ever present need for improved performance and scalability into the realm of Pbytes and billions of files. In addition, there are new capabilities in areas such as distributed single image file systems, flexible storage allocation, archiving, and content-based access that are expected to appear during the next few years.

So if you thought that file system technology had no more excitement to offer, you should reconsider your opinion, and let this book wet your appetite.

The historical perspective offered by the author not only gives a compelling insight in the evolution of UNIX and the manner which this has been influenced by many parties—companies, academic ...