[sf-lug] filesystem for a 3TB external USB drive

[Paul Ivanov]

Rick Moen, on 2012-01-03 14:19,  wrote:
> Quoting jim (jim at systemateka.com):
> 
> > what is a filesystem? 
> 
> /usr/bin/stat is your friend.
...
> In case you want to ask 'What is a file?', same answer applies.

I took Jim's question to be a more general one, where my response
would have been something like "A specific set of protocols (and
the implementation thereof) for providing a mapping of logical,
hierarchically organized files and directories to their
respective physical manifestation as bits encoded in some media
(be it magnetization of a portion of a hard disk platter, or the
reflectance pattern of a CD, etc)."

A file, then would be "a logical (named) representation of a
chunk of data, possibly with attached metadata, such as
modification/creation/access times, read/write/execute
permissions, etc". And a directory is "A file whose data consists
entirely of the names of other files, which are all said to be
logically contained within the directory."

best,
-- 
Paul Ivanov
http://pirsquared.org | GPG/PGP key id: 0x0F3E28F7
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