General Information

	Creator	Introduced in	Original operating system
FAT12	Microsoft	1980	QDOS
FAT16	Microsoft	1983	MS-DOS version 2
FAT32	Microsoft	1997?	Windows 95Template:fn
HPFS	IBM & Microsoft	1988	OS/2
NTFS	Microsoft, Gary Kimura, Tom Miller	1993?	Windows NT
HFS+	Apple	1998	Mac OS
FFS	Kirk McKusick	1983	4.2BSD
UFS1	Kirk McKusick	1994	4.4BSD
UFS2	Kirk McKusick	2002	FreeBSD 5.0
Mac OS X UFS	Apple (from UFS1)	2001	Mac OS X
Ext2	Rémy Card	1993	Linux
Ext3	Stephen Tweedie	1999	Linux
ReiserFS V3	Namesys	2001	Linux
Reiser4	Namesys	2005	Linux
XFS	SGI	1994	IRIX
JFS	IBM	?	AIXTemplate:fn
Be File System	Be Inc., D. Giampaolo, C. Meurillon	1996?	BeOS
NSS	Novell	1998	Netware 5
NWFS	Novell	1985	Netware 286
ODS5	DEC	?	VMS
VxFS	VERITAS	1991	SVR4.0
ZFS	Sun	2004	Solaris 10
	Creator	Introduced in	Original operating system

Limits

	Maximum filename length	Allowable characters in directory entriesTemplate:fn	Maximum pathname length	Maximum file size	Maximum volume size Template:fn
FAT12	255 bytes Template:fn	Any Unicode except NUL Template:fn Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	4GiB	1MiB to 512MiB
FAT16	255 bytes Template:fn	Any Unicode except NUL Template:fn Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	4GiB	16MiB to 8GiB
FAT32	255 bytes Template:fn	Any Unicode except NUL Template:fn Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	4GiB	8GiB to 2TiB Template:fn
HPFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	4GiB	2TiBTemplate:fn
NTFS	255 bytes	Any Unicode except NUL	No limit defined Template:fn	16EB	16EB
HFS+	255 charactersTemplate:fn	Any Unicode except : Template:fn Template:fn	?	8EB	?
FFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	4GiB	256TiB
UFS1	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	4GiB to 256TiB	256TiB
UFS2	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	512GiB to 32PiB	1YiB
Mac OS X UFS	?	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	?	?	?
Ext2	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	16GiB to 2TiBTemplate:fn	2TB to 32TB
Ext3	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	16GiB to 2TiBTemplate:fn	2TB to 32TB
ReiserFS V3	4032 bytes/255 characters	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	8TBTemplate:fn	16TB
Reiser4	?	?	No limit defined Template:fn	?	?
XFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	9EBTemplate:fn	9EBTemplate:fn
JFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	8EB	512TB to 4PB
Be File System	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	12288 bytes to 260GiBTemplate:fn	256PiB to 2EiB
NSS	?	Depends on namespace used Template:fn	Only limited by client	8TiB	8TiB
NWFS	?	?	No limit defined Template:fn	4GiB	1TiB
ODS5	236 bytesTemplate:fn	?	4096 bytesTemplate:fn	1TB	1TB
VxFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL Template:fn	No limit defined Template:fn	16EB	?
ZFS	?	?	?	1YiBTemplate:fn	16EiBTemplate:fn
	Maximum filename length	Allowable characters in directory entriesTemplate:fn	Maximum pathname length	Maximum file size	Maximum volume size Template:fn

Features

	Rich File type metadata	Stores file owner	POSIX file permissions	Creation timestamps	Last access/read timestamps	Last entry change timestamps	Last archive timestamps	Access control lists	Security/MAC labels	Hard links	Soft links	Alternate data stream / resource fork
FAT12	Yes Template:fn	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
FAT16	Yes Template:fn	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
FAT32	Yes Template:fn	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
HPFS	Yes	YesTemplate:fn	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	?	No	No	No
NTFS	Yes	Yes	NoTemplate:fn	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	YesTemplate:fn	Yes
HFS+	Partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes
FFS	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
UFS1	No Template:fn	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No Template:fn	No Template:fn	Yes	Yes	No
UFS2	Yes Template:fn	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No Template:fn	No Template:fn	Yes	Yes	No
Mac OS X UFS	Partial	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Ext2	Yes Template:fn	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No
Ext3	Yes Template:fn	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No
ReiserFS V3	Yes Template:fn	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No
Reiser4	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?	Yes	Yes	Not yet
XFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No
JFS	Yes Template:fn	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No
Be File System	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	?	Yes	Yes	No
NSS	Yes Template:fn	Yes	Yes	YesTemplate:fn	YesTemplate:fn	Yes	YesTemplate:fn	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	YesTemplate:fn
NWFS	Yes Template:fn	Yes	?	YesTemplate:fn	YesTemplate:fn	Yes	YesTemplate:fn	Yes	?	?	?	YesTemplate:fn
ODS5	Yes Template:fn	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?	Yes	?	Yes	YesTemplate:fn	No
VxFS	Yes Template:fn	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes
ZFS	?	?	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	?
	Rich File type metadata	Stores file owner	POSIX file permissions	Creation timestamps	Last access/read timestamps	Last entry change timestamps	Last archive timestamps	Access control lists	Security/MAC labels	Hard links	Soft links	Alternate data stream / resource fork

Journaling

	Block journaling	Meta-data only journaling	Case-sensitive	Case-preserving	File Change Log
FAT12	No	No	No	No	No
FAT16	No	No	No	No	No
FAT32	No	No	No	No	No
HPFS	No	No	No	Yes	No
NTFS	PartialTemplate:fn	Yes	YesTemplate:fn	Yes	Yes
HFS+	No	?	YesTemplate:fn	Yes	No
FFS	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
UFS1	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
UFS2	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Mac OS X UFS	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Ext2	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Ext3	Yes	Yes Template:fn	Yes	Yes	No
ReiserFS V3	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Reiser4	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
XFS	No	Yes	Yes Template:fn	Yes	Yes
JFS	?	Yes	YesTemplate:fn	Yes	No
Be File System	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
NSS	?	Yes	YesTemplate:fn	YesTemplate:fn	YesTemplate:fn
NWFS	No	No	YesTemplate:fn	YesTemplate:fn	YesTemplate:fn
ODS5	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
VxFS	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
ZFS	No	?	Yes	Yes	No
	Block journaling	Meta-data only journaling	Case-sensitive	Case-preserving	File Change Log

Features that help to prevent fragmentation

	Delayed allocation	Extents	Variable block size Template:fn
FAT12	No	No	No
FAT16	No	No	No
FAT32	No	No	No
HPFS	No	Yes	?
NTFS	No	?	?
HFS+	No	No	?
FFS	No	No	No
UFS1	No	No	No
UFS2	No	No	Yes
Mac OS X UFS	No	No	No
Ext2	No	No	No
Ext3	No	No	?
ReiserFS V3	No	No	?
Reiser4	No	Yes Template:fn	?
XFS	Yes	Yes Template:fn	?
JFS	No	?	?
Be File System	No	No	?
NSS	No	No	?
NWFS	No	No	?
ODS5	No	No	?
VxFS	No	Yes	No
ZFS	No	?	?
	Delayed allocation	Extents	Variable block size Template:fn

Notes

• Template:fnb HFS, an older version of HFS+, only supported 31 character filenames; some older applications don't work well with names longer than this.
• Template:fnb HFS+ mandates support for an escape sequence to allow arbitrary Unicode. Users of older software might see the escape sequences instead of the desired characters.
• Template:fnb Varies wildly according to block size and fragmentation of block allocation groups.
• Template:fnb 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 128KiB for FAT — which is the cluster size range allowed by the on-disc data structures, although some Installable File System drivers and operating systems do not support cluster sizes larger than 32KiB).
• Template:fnb NTFS access control lists can express essentially any access policy possible using simple POSIX file permissions, but use of a POSIX-like interface is not supported without an add-on such as Services for UNIX or Cygwin.
• Template:fnb 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. (Filesystem Events tracked by NSure)
• Template:fnb While FAT32 partitions this large work fine once created, some software won't allow creation of FAT32 partitions larger than 32GB. This includes, notoriously, the Windows XP installation program.
• Template:fnb ReiserFS has a theoretical maximum file size of 1EB, but "page cache limits this to 8 Ti on architectures with 32-bit int"[1]
• Template:fnb XFS has a limitation under Linux 2.4 of 64 TB file size and 2 TB file system size. This limitation is not present under IRIX.
• Template:fnb Microsoft first introduced FAT32 in Windows 95 OSR2 (OEM Service Release 2) and then later in Windows 98.
• Template:fnb JFS originated on AIX and was completely rewritten for OS/2. The Linux filesystem was based on the OS/2 version.
• Template:fnb The on-disc structures have no inherent limit. Particular Installable File System drivers and operating systems may impose limits of their own, however. MS-DOS does not support full pathnames longer than 260 bytes for FAT12 and FAT16. Windows NT does not support full pathnames longer than 32767 bytes for NTFS.
• Template:fnb This is the limit of the on-disc 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 64GiB.
• Template:fnb The f-node contains a field for a user identifier. This is not used except by OS/2 Warp Server, however.
• Template:fnb Maximum combined filename / filetype length is 236 bytes; each component has an individual maximum length of 255 byes.
• Template:fnb Maximum pathname length is 4096 bytes, but quoted limits on individual components add up to 1664 bytes.
• Template:fnb Record Management Services (RMS) attributes include record type and size, among many others.
• Template:fnb These are referred to as 'aliases'.
• Template:fnb 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.
• Template:fnb 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.
• Template:fnb Published specs say that the 128-bit filesystem provides for up to 2⁶⁴ bytes to describe the file system, filesize, directory entries, etc, with a theoretical maximum of 2¹²⁸ bytes total to describe all storage on such a machine.
• Template:fnb Particular Installable File System drivers and operating systems may not support extended attributes on FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32. The OS/2 and Windows NT filesystem drivers for FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32 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.
• Template:fnb Particular Installable File System drivers and operating systems may not support extended attributes on these filesystem types. Linux kernels prior to 2.6.x either require patching to support extended attributes or do not support extended attributes at all.
• Template:fnb On FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32 files have both long and short names. These are the restrictions upon long names. Short names are exactly 11 8-bit characters long (being space padded, in both the basename and extension parts); may not contain either NUL or character 229, both of which have special meaning (marking the end of the directory or a deleted entry, respectively); and in normal operation do not contain lowercase letters. Particular Installable File System drivers and operating systems may not support long names. Without a third-party driver, MS-DOS (including Windows 95 and Windows 98 booted into DOS-only mode) only provides access to short names. The OS/2 filesystem drivers for FAT12 and FAT16 only provide access to short names.
• Template:fnb These are the restrictions imposed by the on-disc directory entry structures themselves. Particular Installable File System drivers may place restrictions of their own on file and directory names; and particular and operating systems may also place restrictions of their own, across all filesystems. MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, and OS/2 disallow the characters \ / : ? * " > < | and NUL in file and directory names across all filesystems. Unices and Linux disallow the characters / and NUL in file and directory names across all filesystems.
• Template:fnb 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-disc 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.
• Template:fnb 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-disc data structure for a directory does not contain entries by those names, but instead contains a special "start" entry. Whilst on-disc directory entries by those names are not physically prohibited, they cannot be created in normal operation, and a directory containing such entries is corrupt.
• Template:fnb NSS allows files to have multiple names, in separate namespaces.
• Template:fnb 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.
• Template:fnb 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.
• Template:fnb The local time, timezone/UTC offset, and date are derived from the time settings of the reference/single timesync source in the NDS tree.
• Template:fnb Some operating systems implemented extended attributes as a layer over UFS1 with a parallel backing file (e.g., FreeBSD 4.x).
• Template:fnb Access-control lists and MAC labels available as an operating-system feature layered on top of extended attributes.
• Template:fnb NTFS 5.0 and higher can create junctions, which allow entire directories (but not individual files) to be mapped to elsewhere in the directory tree of a locally managed drive. These are implemented through reparse points, which allow the normal process of filename resolution to be extended in a flexible manner.
• Template:fnb Turned off by default.
• Template:fnb While NTFS itself supports case sensitivity, the Windows standard file system drivers cannot create files whose names differ only by case, for compatibility reasons.
• Template:fnb NTFS stores everything, even the file data, as meta-data, so its log is closer to block journaling.
• Template:fnb Data journaling is possible.
• Template:fnb In "extents" mode.
• Template:fnb Only in the realtime chunk of the XFS file system.
• Template:fnb Optionally no on IRIX.
• Template:fnb 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.

Filesystem List

Filesystems: FAT | FATX | FAT12 | FAT16 | FATX16 | FAT32 | FATX32 | NTFS | JFS | Ext | Ext2 | Ext3 | HPFS | ReiserFS | Reiser4 | HFS+ | FFS | UFS1 | UFS2 | UFSMacOSX | XFS | OFS | BFS | BeFS | OpenBFS | NSS | NWFS | ODS5 | VxFS | ZFS | MFS | IFS | AFS | TVFS | MinixFS | SkyFS | AtheOSFS | ArlaFS | CDFS | UDF | CFS | DFS | OpenAFS | GFS | DTFS | CODA | UMSDOS | OldBeFS | RFS | EFS