Comparison of file systems

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of file systems.

General information

File system	Creator	Year of introduction	Original operating system
DECtape	DEC	1964	PDP-6 Monitor
OS/3x0 FS	IBM	1964	OS/360
Level-D	DEC	1968	TOPS-10
George 3	ICT (later ICL)	1968	George 3
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	Bell Labs	1972	Version 6 Unix
RT-11 file system	DEC	1973	RT-11
Disk Operating System (GEC DOS)	GEC	1973	Core Operating System
CP/M file system	Digital Research (Gary Kildall)	1974	CP/M[1][2]
ODS-1	DEC	1975	RSX-11
GEC DOS filing system extended	GEC	1977	OS4000
FAT (8-bit)	Microsoft (Marc McDonald) for NCR	1977	Microsoft Standalone Disk BASIC-80 (later Microsoft Standalone Disk BASIC-86)
DOS 3.x	Apple	1978	Apple DOS
UCSD p-System	UCSD	1978	UCSD p-System
CBM DOS	Commodore	1978	Commodore BASIC
Atari DOS	Atari	1979	Atari 8-bit
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	Bell Labs	1979	Version 7 Unix
ODS-2	DEC	1979	OpenVMS
FAT12	Seattle Computer Products (Tim Paterson)	1980	QDOS/86-DOS (later IBM PC DOS 1.0)
ProDOS	Apple	1980	Apple SOS (later ProDOS 8)
DFS	Acorn Computers Ltd	1982	Acorn BBC Micro MOS
ADFS	Acorn Computers Ltd	1983	Acorn Electron (later Arthur/RISC OS)
FFS	Kirk McKusick	1983	4.2BSD
FAT16	IBM, Microsoft	1984	PC DOS 3.0, MS-DOS 3.0
MFS	Apple	1984	System 1
Elektronika BK tape format	NPO "Scientific centre" (now Sitronics)	1985	Vilnius Basic, BK monitor program
HFS	Apple	1985	System 2.1
Amiga OFS^[1]	Metacomco for Commodore	1985	Amiga OS
GEMDOS	Digital Research	1985	Atari TOS
NWFS	Novell	1985	NetWare 286
High Sierra	Ecma International	1986	MSCDEX for MS-DOS 3.1/3.2[3]
FAT16B	Compaq	1987	Compaq MS-DOS 3.31
Minix V1 FS	Andrew S. Tanenbaum	1987	MINIX 1.0
Amiga FFS	Commodore	1988	Amiga OS 1.3
ISO 9660:1988	Ecma International, ISO	1988	MS-DOS, "classic" Mac OS, and AmigaOS
HPFS	IBM & Microsoft	1989	OS/2 1.2
Rock Ridge	IEEE	1990 c. 1990	Unix
JFS1	IBM	1990	AIX[a]
VxFS	VERITAS	1991	SVR4.0
ext	Rémy Card	1992	Linux
AdvFS	DEC	1993[4]	Digital Unix
NTFS	Microsoft (Gary Kimura, Tom Miller)	1993	Windows NT 3.1
LFS	Margo Seltzer	1993	Berkeley Sprite
ext2	Rémy Card	1993	Linux, Hurd
Xiafs	Q. Frank Xia	1993	Linux
UFS1	Kirk McKusick	1994	4.4BSD
XFS	SGI	1994	IRIX
HFS	IBM	1994	MVS/ESA (now z/OS)
FAT16X	Microsoft	1995	MS-DOS 7.0 / Windows 95
Joliet ("CDFS")	Microsoft	1995	Microsoft Windows, Linux, "classic" Mac OS, and FreeBSD
UDF	ISO/ECMA/OSTA	1995	—
FAT32, FAT32X	Microsoft	1996	MS-DOS 7.10 / Windows 95 OSR2[b]
QFS	Sun Microsystems	1996	Solaris
GPFS	IBM	1996	AIX, Linux
Be File System	Be Inc. (D. Giampaolo, Cyril Meurillon)	1996	BeOS
Minix V2 FS	Andrew S. Tanenbaum	1997	MINIX 2.0
HFS Plus	Apple	1998	Mac OS 8.1
NSS	Novell	1998	NetWare 5
PolyServe File System (PSFS)	PolyServe	1998	Windows, Linux
ODS-5	DEC	1998	OpenVMS V7.2
WAFL	NetApp	1998	Data ONTAP
ext3	Stephen Tweedie	1999	Linux
ISO 9660:1999	Ecma International, ISO	1999	Microsoft Windows, Linux, "classic" Mac OS, FreeBSD, and AmigaOS
JFS	IBM	1999	OS/2 Warp Server for e-business
GFS	Sistina (Red Hat)	2000	Linux
ReiserFS	Namesys	2001	Linux
zFS	IBM	2001	z/OS (backported to OS/390)
FATX	Microsoft	2002	Xbox
UFS2	Kirk McKusick	2002	FreeBSD 5.0
OCFS	Oracle Corporation	2002	Linux
SquashFS	Phillip Lougher, Robert Lougher	2002	Linux
VMFS2	VMware	2002	VMware ESX Server 2.0
Lustre	Cluster File Systems[5]	2002	Linux
Fossil	Bell Labs	2003	Plan 9 version 4
Google File System	Google	2003	Linux
ZFS	Sun Microsystems	2004	Solaris
Reiser4	Namesys	2004	Linux
Non-Volatile File System	Palm, Inc.	2004	Palm OS Garnet
BeeGFS	Fraunhofer/ ThinkParQ	2005	Linux
GlusterFS	Gluster Inc.	2005	Linux
Minix V3 FS	Andrew S. Tanenbaum	2005	MINIX 3
OCFS2	Oracle Corporation	2005	Linux
NILFS	NTT	2005	Linux
VMFS3	VMware	2005	VMware ESX Server 3.0
GFS2	Red Hat	2006	Linux
ext4	various	2006	Linux
exFAT	Microsoft	2006	Windows CE 6.0
Btrfs	Chris Mason	2007	Linux
JXFS	Hyperion Entertainment	2008	AmigaOS 4.1
HAMMER	Matthew Dillon	2008	DragonFly BSD 2.0
LSFS	StarWind Software	2009	Linux, FreeBSD, Windows
UniFS	Nasuni	2009	Cloud
CASL	Nimble Storage	2010	Linux
OrangeFS	Omnibond and others	2011	Linux
VMFS5	VMware	2011	vSphere 5.0+
CHFS	University of Szeged	2011	NetBSD 6.0+
ReFS	Microsoft	2012	Windows Server 2012
F2FS	Samsung Electronics	2012	Linux
bcachefs	Kent Overstreet	2015	Linux
APFS	Apple	2016	macOS High Sierra, iOS 10.3
NOVA	UC, San Diego	2017	Linux
BlueStore/Cephfs	Red Hat, University of California, Santa Cruz	2017	Linux
HAMMER2	Matthew Dillon[6]	2017	DragonFly BSD 5.0
EROFS	Huawei[7]	2018	Linux, Android
VaultFS	Swiss Vault	2022	Linux / Unix

Metadata

File system	Stores file owner	POSIX file permissions	Creation timestamps	Last access/ read timestamps	Last metadata change timestamps	Last archive timestamps	Access control lists	Security/ MAC labels	Extended attributes/ Alternate data streams/ forks	Metadata checksum/ ECC
Bcachefs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
BeeGFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes	Yes
CP/M file system	No	No	Yes[c]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
DECtape[8]	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Elektronika BK tape format	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Level-D	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (date only)	Yes	Yes	Yes (FILDAE)	No	No	No
RT-11[9]	No	No	Yes (date only)	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)[10]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)[11]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
exFAT	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
FAT12/FAT16/FAT32	No	No	Yes	Yes	No[d]	No	No	No	No[e]	No
HPFS	Yes[f]	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	?	Yes	No
NTFS	Yes	Yes[g]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes[h]	Yes	No
ReFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes[i]	Yes
HFS	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
HFS Plus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	No
FFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
UFS1	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[j]	Yes[j]	No[k]	No
UFS2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[j]	Yes[j]	Yes	Partial
HAMMER	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
LFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
EROFS	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ext	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Xiafs	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
ext2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[l]	Yes[l]	Yes	No
ext3	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[l]	Yes[l]	Yes	No
ext4	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[l]	Yes[l]	Yes	Partial[m]
NOVA	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
Lustre	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
F2FS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[l]	Yes[l]	Yes	No
GPFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
GFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[l]	Yes[l]	Yes	No
NILFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes
ReiserFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[l]	Yes[l]	Yes	No
Reiser4	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
OCFS	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
OCFS2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
XFS	Yes	Yes	Yes[n]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes[l]	Yes	Yes
JFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
QFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
BFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
AdvFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
NSS	Yes	Yes	Yes[o]	Yes[o]	Yes	Yes[o]	Yes	?	Yes[p][q]	No
NWFS	Yes	?	Yes[o]	Yes[o]	Yes	Yes[o]	Yes	?	Yes[p][q]	No
ODS-5	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes	Yes	?	Yes[r]	No
APFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
VxFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes[l]	No
UDF	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Fossil	Yes	Yes[s]	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
ZFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[t]	Yes[u]	Yes
Btrfs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Minix V1	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Minix V2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Minix V3	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
VMFS2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
VMFS3	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
ISO 9660:1988	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Rock Ridge	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[v]	Yes	No	No[w]	No[x]	No[x]	No
Joliet ("CDFS")	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ISO 9660:1999	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
High Sierra	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
SquashFS	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
BlueStore/Cephfs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
File system	Stores file owner	POSIX file permissions	Creation timestamps	Last access/ read timestamps	Last metadata change timestamps	Last archive timestamps	Access control lists	Security/ MAC labels	Extended attributes/ Alternate data streams/ forks	Metadata checksum/ ECC

Features

File capabilities

File system	Hard links	Symbolic links	Block journaling	Metadata-only journaling	Case-sensitive	Case-preserving	File Change Log	XIP	Resident files (inline data)
DECtape	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
BeeGFS	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Level-D	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
RT-11	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
APFS	Yes	Yes	?	?	Optional	Yes	?	?	?
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	Yes	No[y]	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
exFAT	No	No	No	Partial (with TexFAT only)	No	Yes	No	No	No
FAT12	No	No	No	Partial (with TFAT12 only)	No	Partial (with VFAT LFNs only)	No	No	No
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X	No	No	No	Partial (with TFAT16 only)	No	Partial (with VFAT LFNs only)	No	No	No
FAT32 / FAT32X	No	No	No?	Partial (with TFAT32 only)	No	Partial (with VFAT LFNs only)	No	No	No
GFS	Yes	Yes[z]	Yes	Yes[aa]	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
HPFS	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	?
NTFS	Yes	Yes[ab]	No[ac]	Yes[ac] (2000)	Yes[ad]	Yes	Yes	?	Yes (approximately 700 bytes)
HFS Plus	Yes[16]	Yes	No	Yes[ae]	Optional[af]	Yes	Yes[ag]	No	?
FFS	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
UFS1	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
UFS2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[ah] [21] [ai]	Yes	Yes	No	?	No
HAMMER	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	No	?
LFS	Yes	Yes	Yes[aj]	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
EROFS	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
ext	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Xiafs	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
ext2	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[ak]	?
ext3	Yes	Yes	Yes (2001) [al]	Yes (2001)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?
ext4	Yes	Yes	Yes[al]	Yes	Yes, optional [24]	Yes	No	Yes	Yes (approximately 160 bytes)[25]
NOVA	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?
F2FS	Yes	Yes	Yes[aj]	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Lustre	Yes	Yes	Yes[al]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?
NILFS	Yes	Yes	Yes[aj]	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
ReiserFS	Yes	Yes	Yes[am]	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?	?
Reiser4	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	?	?
OCFS	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
OCFS2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
XFS	Yes	Yes	Yes[al]	Yes	Yes[an]	Yes	Yes	?	?
JFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (1990)	Yes[ao]	Yes	No	?	?
QFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
BFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	No	?
NSS	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes[ap]	Yes[ap]	Yes[aq]	No	?
NWFS	Yes[ar]	Yes[ar]	No	No	Yes[ap]	Yes[ap]	Yes[aq]	No	?
ODS-2	Yes	Yes[as]	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	?
ODS-5	Yes	Yes[as]	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	?	?
UDF	Yes	Yes	Yes[aj]	Yes[aj]	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes[27]
VxFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?
Fossil	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?
ZFS	Yes	Yes	Yes[at]	No[at]	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes (112 bytes)[28]
Btrfs	Yes	Yes	Yes[au]	No	Yes	Yes	?	?	Yes (2 KiB)[29]
Bcachefs	Yes	Yes	Yes[av]	No	Yes	Yes	?	?	?
Minix V1	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Minix V2	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Minix V3	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
VMFS2	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
VMFS3	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
ReFS	Yes[aw]	Yes	?	?	Yes[ad]	Yes	?	?	?
ISO 9660	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
Rock Ridge	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
Joliet ("CDFS")	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	?
SquashFS	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
BlueStore/Cephfs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	?
File system	Hard links	Symbolic links	Block journaling	Metadata-only journaling	Case-sensitive	Case-preserving	File Change Log	XIP	Resident files

Block capabilities

Note that in addition to the below table, block capabilities can be implemented below the file system layer in Linux (LVM, integritysetup, cryptsetup) or Windows (Volume Shadow Copy Service, SECURITY), etc.

File system	Internal snapshotting / branching	Encryption	Deduplication	Data checksum/ ECC	Persistent Cache	Multiple Devices	Compression	Self-healing[ax]
DECtape	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
BeeGFS	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Level-D	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
RT-11	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
APFS	Yes	Yes	Yes [30]	No	No	No	Yes	No
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
exFAT	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
FAT12	No	No	No	No	No	No	Partial[ay]	No
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X	No	No	No	No	No	No	Partial[ay]	No
FAT32 / FAT32X	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
GFS	No	No	?	No	No	No	No	No
HPFS	?	No	?	No	No	No	No	No
NTFS	No	Yes	Yes[az][32]	No	No	No	Yes	No
HFS Plus	No	No[ba]	No	No	No	No	No	No
FFS	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
UFS1	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
UFS2	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
HAMMER	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
LFS	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
EROFS	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
ext	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Xiafs	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ext2	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ext3	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ext4	No	Yes, experimental [33]	No	No[34]	No	No	No	No
NOVA	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	?
F2FS	No	Yes, experimental [35]	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Lustre	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
NILFS	Yes, continuous[aj]	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
ReiserFS	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Reiser4	?	Yes[bb]	?	No	No	No	Yes	No
OCFS	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
OCFS2	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
XFS	No	No	Yes[36]	No[34]	No	No	No	No
JFS	?	No	?	No	No	No	only in JFS1 on AIX[37]	No
QFS	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
BFS	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
NSS	Yes	Yes	?	No	No	No	Yes	No
NWFS	?	No	?	No	No	No	Yes	No
ODS-2	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ODS-5	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
UDF	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
VxFS	Yes[bc]	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Fossil	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
ZFS	Yes	Yes[bd]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[be]	Yes
Btrfs	Yes	No	Yes	Yes[bf]	No	Yes	Yes[bg]	Yes
Bcachefs	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[bh]	No	Yes	Yes[bi]	No
Minix V1	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Minix V2	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Minix V3	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
VMFS2	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
VMFS3	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ReFS	No[bj]	No	Yes	No[bk]	No	No	No[bl]	No[bk]
ISO 9660	No	No	No[bm]	No	No	No	No	No
Rock Ridge	No	No	No[bm]	No	No	No	No	No
Joliet ("CDFS")	No	No	No[bm]	No	No	No	No	No
SquashFS	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No
BlueStore/Cephfs	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
File system	Internal snapshotting / branching	Encryption	Deduplication	Data checksum/ ECC	Persistent Cache	Multiple Devices	Compression	Self-healing[ax]

Resize capabilities

"Online" and "offline" are synonymous with "mounted" and "not mounted".

File system	Host OS	Offline grow	Online grow	Offline shrink	Online shrink	Add and remove physical volumes
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X	misc.	Yes[bn]	No	Yes[bn]	No	No
FAT32 / FAT32X	misc.	Yes[bn]	No	Yes[bn]	No	No
exFAT	misc.	No	No	No	No	No
NTFS	Windows	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ReFS	Windows	?	Yes	?	No	No
HFS	macOS	No	No	No	No	No
HFS+	macOS	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
APFS	macOS	?	?	?	?	?
EROFS	Linux	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
SquashFS	Linux	No	No	No	No	No
NOVA	Linux	No	No	No	No	No
JFS[47]	Linux	Yes	No	No	No	No
XFS[48]	Linux	No	Yes	No[49]	No[49]	No
Lustre[50]	Linux	?	Yes	No	No	Yes
F2FS[51]	Linux	Yes	No	No	No	No
NTFS[52]	Linux	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
ext2[53]	Linux	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
ext3[53]	Linux	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
ReiserFS[54]	Linux	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Reiser4[55]	Linux	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
ext4[53]	Linux	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
Btrfs[56]	Linux	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bcachefs[43]	Linux	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
NILFS[57]	Linux	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
ZFS	misc.	No	Yes	No	Yes	Partial[58]
JFS2	AIX	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
UFS2[59]	FreeBSD	Yes	Yes (FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE or later)	No	No	No
HAMMER	DragonflyBSD	?	?	?	?	?
BlueStore/Cephfs	Linux	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

Allocation and layout policies

File system	Sparse files	Block suballocation	Tail packing	Extents	Variable file block size[bo]	Allocate-on-flush	Copy on write	Trim support
DECtape	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
BeeGFS	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Level-D	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	?
APFS	Yes	?	?	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes[60][61]
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	?	No
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	?	No
exFAT	No	No	No	Partial (only if the file fits into one contiguous block range)	No	No	No	Yes (Linux)
FAT12	Partial (only inside of compressed volumes)[62]	Partial (only inside of Stacker 3/4 and DriveSpace 3 compressed volumes[31])	No	Partial (only inside of compressed volumes)[63]	No	No	No	Yes (Linux)
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X	Partial (only inside of compressed volumes)[62]	Partial (only inside of Stacker 3/4 and DriveSpace 3 compressed volumes[31])	No	Partial (only inside of compressed volumes)[63]	No	No	No	Yes (Linux)
FAT32 / FAT32X	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes (Linux)
GFS	Yes	No	Partial[bp]	No	No	No	?	Yes
HPFS	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	?	Yes (Linux)
NTFS	Yes	Partial	No	Yes	No	No	?	Yes (NT 6.1+; Linux)
HFS Plus	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	?	Yes (macOS)
FFS	Yes	8:1[bq]	No	No	No	No	?	No
UFS1	Yes	8:1[bq]	No	No	No	No	?	No
UFS2	Yes	8:1[bq]	No	No	Yes	No	?	Yes[64][65]
LFS	Yes	8:1[bq]	No	No	No	No	Yes	?
EROFS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
ext	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Xiafs	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	?	?
ext2	Yes	No[br]	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
ext3	Yes	No[br]	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
ext4	Yes	No[br]	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
NOVA	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	?
F2FS	Yes	No	No	Partial[bs]	No	Yes	Yes	Yes[66]
Lustre	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	?	?
NILFS	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes (Linux NILFS2)
ReiserFS	Yes	Yes[bt]	Yes	No	No	No	?	?
Reiser4	Yes	Yes[bt]	Yes	Yes[bu]	No	Yes	?	Testing[67]
OCFS	?	No	No	Yes	No	No	?	?
OCFS2	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	?	Yes (Linux)
XFS	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes, on request[68]	Yes (Linux)
JFS	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	?	Yes (Linux)
QFS	?	Yes	No	No	No	No	?	?
BFS	?	No	No	Yes	No	No	?	Yes (Haiku)
NSS	?	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	?	?
NWFS	?	Yes[bv]	No	No	No	No	?	?
ODS-5	?	No	No	Yes	No	No	?	?
VxFS	Yes	?	No	Yes	No	No	?	?
UDF	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	?[bw]	Yes, for write once read many media	No
Fossil	?	No	No	No	No	No	?	?
ZFS	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Btrfs	Yes	Yes	No[29]	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bcachefs	?	?	?	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	?
VMFS2	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	?	?
VMFS3	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	?	?
ReFS	Yes	?	?	?	No	?	Yes	Yes (NT 6.1+)
ISO 9660	No	No	No	Yes[bx]	No	No	No	No
Rock Ridge	No	No	No	Yes[bx]	No	No	No	No
Joliet ("CDFS")	No	No	No	Yes[bx]	No	No	No	No
SquashFS	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
BlueStore/Cephfs	Yes	?	?	?	?	No	Yes	Yes
File system	Sparse files	Block suballocation	Tail packing	Extents	Variable file block size[bo]	Allocate-on-flush	Copy on write	Trim support

OS support

File system	DOS	Linux	macOS	Windows 9x (historic)	Windows (current)	Classic Mac OS	FreeBSD	OS/2	BeOS	Minix	Solaris	z/OS	Android[69]
APFS	No	Partial (read-only with apfs-fuse[70] or linux-apfs[71])	Yes (Since macOS Sierra)	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
BeeGFS	No	Yes	?	No	No	No	No	No	?	?	?	No	No
DECtape	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Level-D	No	?	?	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?	?	No
RT-11	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	No	?	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	?	?	?	No	No
exFAT	No	Yes (since 5.4,[72] available as a kernel module or FUSE driver for earlier versions)	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes (available as a FUSE driver)	No	No	No	Yes (available as a FUSE driver)	No	With kernel 5.10
FAT12	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial (via dosdir, dosread, doswrite)	Yes	?	Yes
FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X	Yes (FAT16 from DOS 3.0, FAT16B from DOS 3.31, FAT16X from DOS 7.0)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial (via dosdir, dosread, doswrite, not FAT16X)	Yes	?	Yes
FAT32 / FAT32X	Yes (from DOS 7.10)	Yes	Yes	Yes (from Windows 95 OSR2)	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	?	Yes
GFS	No	Yes	?	No	No	No	No	?	?	?	?	?	No
HPFS	Partial (with third-party drivers)	Yes	?	No	No	?	Yes	Yes (from OS/2 1.2)	?	No	?	?	No
NTFS	Partial (with third-party drivers)	Yes Native since Linux Kernel 5.15 NTFS3. Older kernels may use backported NTFS3 driver or ntfs-3g[73]	Read only, write support needs Paragon NTFS or ntfs-3g	Needs 3rd-party drivers like Paragon NTFS for Win98, DiskInternals NTFS Reader	Yes	No	Yes with ntfs-3g	?	Yes with ntfs-3g	No	Yes with ntfs-3g	?	With third party tools
Apple HFS	No	Yes	No write support since Mac OS X 10.6 and no support at all since macOS 10.15	No	Needs Paragon HFS+ [74]	Yes	No	?	Yes	No	?	No	No
Apple HFS Plus	No	Partial - writing support only to unjournalled FS	Yes	No	Needs Paragon HFS+ [74]	Yes from Mac OS 8.1	No	?	with addon	No	?	No	No
FFS	No	?	Yes	No	?	?	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	No
UFS1	No	Partial - read only	Yes	No	Partial (with ufs2tools, read only)	?	Yes	No	?	?	Yes	?	No
UFS2	No	Yes	Yes	No	Partial (with ufs2tools, read only)	?	Yes	No	?	?	?	?	No
LFS	No	?	?	No	No	?	No	No	?	?	?	?	No
EROFS	No	Yes	Needs - since erofs-utils 1.4	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
ext	No	Yes - until 2.1.20	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Xiafs	No	Yes - until 2.1.20 Experimental port available to 2.6.32 and later [75][76]	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ext2	No	Yes	Needs Paragon ExtFS [77] or ext2fsx	Partial (read-only, with explore2fs)[78]	Needs Paragon ExtFS [79] or partial with Ext2 IFS[80] or ext2fsd[81]	No	Yes	No	Yes	?	?	?	No
ext3	No	Yes	Needs Paragon ExtFS [77] or partial with ext2fsx (journal not updated on writing)	Partial (read-only, with explore2fs)[78]	Needs Paragon ExtFS [79] or partial with Ext2 IFS[80] or ext2fsd[81]	Partial (read only)^[citation needed]	Yes[82]	No	with addon	?	Yes	?	Yes
ext4	No	Yes	Needs Paragon ExtFS [77]	No	Yes, with the optional WSL2; physical and VHDX virtual disks.[83][84]	?	Yes since FreeBSD 12.0[82]	No	with addon	?	?	?	Yes
NOVA	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Lustre	No	Yes[85]	?	No	No	?	No	?	?	?	Yes	?	No
NILFS	No	Yes as an external kernel module	?	No	?	?	No	?	?	?	?	?	No
F2FS	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
ReiserFS	No	Yes	?	No	No	?	Partial - Read Only from 6.0 to 10.x[86] and dropped in 11.0[87][88]	?	with addon	?	?	?	No
Reiser4	No	Yes with a kernel patch	?	No	No	?	No	?	?	?	?	?	No
SpadFS	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	?	No	No	No	No	No	No
OCFS	No	Yes	?	No	No	?	No	No	?	?	?	?	No
OCFS2	No	Yes	?	No	No	?	No	No	?	?	?	?	No
XFS	No	Yes	?	No	No	?	Partial	?	with addon (read only)	?	?	?	No
JFS	No	Yes	?	No	No	?	No	Yes	?	?	?	?	No
QFS	No	Partial - client only[89]	?	No	No	?	No	No	?	?	Yes	?	No
Be File System	No	Partial - read-only	?	No	No	?	No	No	Yes	?	?	?	No
NSS	No	Yes via EVMS[by]	?	No	No	?	No	No	?	?	?	?	No
NWFS	Partial (with Novell drivers)	?	?	No	No	?	Yes	No	?	?	?	?	No
ODS-2	No	?	?	No	No	?	No	No	?	?	?	?	No
ODS-5	No	?	?	No	No	?	No	No	?	?	?	?	No
UDF	No	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	?	No
VxFS	No	Yes	?	No	No	?	No	No	?	?	Yes	?	No
Fossil	No	Yes[bz]	Yes[bz]	No	No	No	Yes[bz]	No	No	No	Yes[bz]	?	No
ZFS	No	Yes with FUSE[90] or as an external kernel module[91]	Yes with Read/Write Developer Preview[92]	No	Yes[93]	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
Btrfs	No	Yes	?	No	Yes with WinBtrfs[94]	?	No	?	?	?	?	?	No
Bcachefs	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
VMFS2	No	?	?	No	No	?	No	No	?	?	?	?	No
VMFS3	No	?	?	No	No	?	No	No	?	?	?	?	No
IBM HFS	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
IBM zFS	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
ReFS	No	Needs Paragon ReFS for Linux	?	No	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	No
ISO 9660	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Rock Ridge	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	?	No
Joliet ("CDFS")	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	No
SquashFS	No	Yes	Partial (There are ports of unsquashfs and mksquashfs.)	No	Partial (There are ports of unsquashfs and mksquashfs.)	No	Partial (There are ports of unsquashfs and mksquashfs and fusefs-port.[95][96])	No	No	No	No	No	No
BlueStore/Cephfs	No	Yes	No[ca]	No	No[cb]	No	No[ca]	No	No	No	No	No	No
File system	DOS	Linux	macOS	Windows 9x (historic)	Windows (current)	Classic Mac OS	FreeBSD	OS/2	BeOS	Minix	Solaris	z/OS	Android

Limits

While storage devices usually have their size expressed in powers of 10 (for instance a 1 TB Solid State Drive will contain at least 1,000,000,000,000 (10¹², 1000⁴) bytes), filesystem limits are invariably powers of 2, so usually expressed with IEC prefixes. For instance, a 1 TiB limit means 2⁴⁰, 1024⁴ bytes. Approximations (rounding down) using power of 10 are also given below to clarify.

File system	Maximum filename length	Allowable characters in directory entries[cc]	Maximum pathname length	Maximum file size	Maximum volume size[cd]	Max number of files
AdvFS	255 characters	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 TiB (17.59 TB)	16 TiB (17.59 TB)	?
APFS	255 UTF-8 characters	Unicode 9.0 encoded in UTF-8[97]	?	8 EiB (9.223 EB)	?	2^63 [98]
Bcachefs	255 bytes	Any byte except '/' and NUL	No limit defined	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	2^64
BeeGFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	?
BFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	12,288 bytes to 260 GiB (279.1 GB)[cg]	256 PiB (288.2 PB) to 2 EiB (2.305 EB)	Unlimited
BlueStore/Cephfs	255 characters	any byte, except null, "/"	No limit defined	Max. 2^64 bytes, 1 TiB (1.099 TB) by default [99]	Not limited	Not limited, default is 100,000 files per directory [100]
Btrfs	255 bytes	Any byte except '/' and NUL	No limit defined	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	2^64
CBM DOS	16 bytes	Any byte except NUL	0 (no directory hierarchy)	16 MiB (16.77 MB)	16 MiB (16.77 MB)	?
CP/M file system	8.3	ASCII except for < > . , ; : = ? * [ ]	No directory hierarchy (but accessibility of files depends on user areas via USER command since CP/M 2.2)	32 MiB (33.55 MB)	512 MiB (536.8 MB)	?
DECtape	6.3	A–Z, 0–9	DTxN:FILNAM.EXT = 15	369,280 bytes (577 × 640)	369,920 bytes (578 × 640)	?
Disk Operating System (GEC DOS)	?	?	?	? at least 131,072 bytes	?	?
Elektronika BK tape format	16 bytes	?	No directory hierarchy	64 KiB (65.53 KB)	Not limited. Approx. 800 KiB (819.2 KB) (one side) for 90 min cassette	?
EROFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL, /[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	1 EiB (1.152 EB)	2^64
exFAT	255 UTF-16 characters	Unicode except for control codes 0x0000 - 0x001F or " * / : < > ? \ | [101]	32,760 characters with each path component no more than 255 characters[102]	16 EiB (18.44 EB)[102]	64 ZiB (75.55 ZB) (2^76 bytes)	?
ext	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	2 GiB (2.147 GB)	2 GiB (2.147 GB)	?
ext2	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL, /[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 2 TiB (2.199 TB)[cd]	2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 32 TiB (35.18 TB)	?
ext3	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL, /[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 2 TiB (2.199 TB)[cd]	2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 32 TiB (35.18 TB)	?
ext4	255 bytes[103]	Any byte except NUL, /[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 16 TiB (17.59 TB)[cd][104]	1 EiB (1.152 EB)	2^32 (static inode limit specified at creation)
F2FS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL, /[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	4,228,213,756 KiB (4.329 TB)	16 TiB (17.59 TB)	?
FAT (8-bit)	6.3 (binary files) / 9 characters (ASCII files)	ASCII (0x00 and 0xFF not allowed in first character)	No directory hierarchy	?	?	?
FAT12/FAT16	8.3 (255 UCS-2 characters with LFN)[ch]	SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | [cc][ce]	No limit defined[cf]	32 MiB (33.55 MB) (4 GiB (4.294 GB))[ci]	1 MiB (1.048 MB) to 32 MiB (33.55 MB)	?
FAT16B/FAT16X	8.3 (255 UCS-2 characters with LFN)[ch]	SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | [cc][ch][ce]	No limit defined[cf]	2 (4) GiB[ci] (2.147 GB)	16 MiB (16.77 MB) to 2 (4) GiB (2.147 GB)	?
FAT32/FAT32X	8.3 (255 UCS-2 characters with LFN)[ch]	SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | [cc][ch][ce]	32,760 characters with each path component no more than 255 characters[102]	4 GiB (4.294 GB)[102]	512 MiB (536.8 MB) to 16 TiB (17.59 TB)[cj]	?
FATX	42 bytes[ch]	ASCII.	No limit defined[cf]	2 GiB (2.147 GB)	16 MiB (16.77 MB) to 2 GiB (2.147 GB)	?
FFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	4 GiB (4.294 GB)	256 TiB (281.4 TB)	?
Fossil	?	?	?	?	?	?
GEC DOS filing system extended	8 bytes	A–Z, 0–9. Period was directory separator	? No limit defined (workaround for OS limit)	? at least 131,072 bytes	?	?
GEMDOS	8.3	A-Z, a-z, 0-9 ! @ # $ % ^ & ( ) + - = ~ ` ; ' " , < > | [ ] ( ) _[106]	?	?	?	?
GFS2	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	100 TiB (109.95 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB)[ck]	100 TiB (109.95 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB)[cl]	?
GFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB)[cm]	2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB)[cm]	?
GPFS	255 UTF-8 codepoints	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	9 EiB (10.37 EB)	524,288 YiB (2^99 bytes)	?
HAMMER	1023 bytes[109]	Any byte except NUL[ce]	?	?	1 EiB (1.152 EB)[110]	?
HFS	31 bytes	Any byte except :	Unlimited	2 GiB (2.147 GB)	2 TiB (2.199 TB)	?
HFS Plus	255 UTF-16 characters[cn]	Any valid Unicode[ce][co]	Unlimited	slightly less than 8 EiB (9.223 EB)	slightly less than 8 EiB (9.223 EB)[111][112]	?
High Sierra Format	?	?	?	?	?	?
HPFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[cp]	No limit defined[cf]	2 GiB (2.147 GB)	2 TiB (2.199 TB)[cq]	?
IBM SFS	8.8	?	?	Non-hierarchical[113]	?	?
ISO 9660:1988	Level 1: 8.3, Level 2 & 3: ~ 180	Depends on Level[cr]	~ 180 bytes?	4 GiB (4.294 GB) (Level 1 & 2) to 8 TiB (8.796 TB) (Level 3)[cs]	8 TiB (8.796 TB)[ct]	?
ISO 9660:1999	?	?	?	?	?	?
JFS	255 bytes	Any Unicode except NUL	No limit defined[cf]	4 PiB (4.503 PB)	32 PiB (36.02 PB)	?
JFS1	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	8 EiB (9.223 EB)	512 TiB (562.9 TB) to 4 PiB (4.503 PB)	?
Joliet ("CDFS")	64 characters	All UCS-2 code except *, /, \, :, ;, and ?[114]	?	same as ISO 9660:1988	same as ISO 9660:1988	?
Level-D	6.3	A–Z, 0–9	DEVICE:FILNAM.EXT[PROJCT,PROGRM] = 7 + 10 + 15 = 32; + 5*7 for SFDs = 67	34,359,738,368 words (2^35); 206,158,430,208 SIXBIT bytes	Approx 12 GiB (12.88 GB) (64 × 178 MiB (186.6 MB))	?
Lustre	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 EiB (18.44 EB) on ZFS	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	?
MFS	255 bytes	Any byte except :	No path (flat filesystem)	256 MiB (268.4 MB)	256 MiB (268.4 MB)	?
MicroDOS file system	14 bytes	?	?	16 MiB (16.77 MB)	32 MiB (33.55 MB)	?
Minix V1 FS	14 or 30 bytes, set at filesystem creation time	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	256.5 MiB (268.9 MB) [cu]	64 MiB (67.10 MB)	?
Minix V2 FS	14 or 30 bytes, set at filesystem creation time	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	2 GiB (2.147 GB) [cu]	1 GiB (1.073 GB)	?
Minix V3 FS	60 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	2 GiB (2.147 GB)	4 GiB (4.294 GB)	?
NILFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	8 EiB (9.223 EB)	8 EiB (9.223 EB)	?
NOVA	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL, /[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	?
NSS	256 characters	Depends on namespace used[cv]	Only limited by client	8 TiB (8.796 TB)	8 TiB (8.796 TB)	?
NTFS	255 characters	In Win32 namespace: any UTF-16 code unit (case-insensitive) except /\:*"?<>| as well as NUL In POSIX namespace: any UTF-16 code unit (case-sensitive) except / as well as NUL[115]	32,767 characters with each path component (directory or filename) up to 255 characters long[cf]	16 TiB (17.59 TB) to 8 PiB (9.007 PB)[cw][116]	16 TiB (17.59 TB) to 8 PiB (9.007 PB)[cw][116]	2^32
NWFS	80 bytes[cx]	Depends on namespace used[cv]	No limit defined[cf]	4 GiB (4.294 GB)	1 TiB (1.099 TB)	?
OCFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	8 TiB (8.796 TB)	8 TiB (8.796 TB)	?
OCFS2	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	4 PiB (4.503 PB)	4 PiB (4.503 PB)	?
ODS-5	236 bytes[cy]	?	4,096 bytes[cz]	1 TiB (1.099 TB)	1 TiB (1.099 TB)	?
QFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 EiB (18.44 EB)[da]	4 PiB (4.503 PB)[da]	?
ReFS	255 UTF-16 characters[117]	In Win32 namespace: any UTF-16 code unit (case-insensitive) except /\:*"?<>| as well as NUL In POSIX namespace: any UTF-16 code unit (case-sensitive) except / as well as NUL[117][118]	32,767 characters with each path component (directory or filename) up to 255 characters long[117]	16 EiB (18.44 EB)[117][119]	1 YiB (1.208 YB)[117]	?
ReiserFS	4,032 bytes/255 characters	Any byte except NUL or '/'[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	8 TiB (8.796 TB)[db] (v3.6), 4 GiB (4.294 GB) (v3.5)	16 TiB (17.59 TB)	?
Reiser4	3,976 bytes	Any byte except / and NUL	No limit defined[cf]	8 TiB (8.796 TB) on x86	?	?
Rock Ridge	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL or /[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	same as ISO 9660:1988	same as ISO 9660:1988	?
RT-11	6.3	A–Z, 0–9, $	0 (no directory hierarchy)	33,554,432 bytes (65536 × 512)	33,554,432 bytes	?
SquashFS	256 bytes	?	No limit defined	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	?
UDF	255 bytes	Any Unicode except NUL	1,023 bytes[dc]	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	512 MiB (536.8 MB) to 16 TiB (17.59 TB)	?
UFS1	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 256 TiB (281.4 TB)	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	Subdirectory per directory is 32,767[121]
UFS2	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	512 GiB (549.7 GB) to 32 PiB (36.02 PB)	512 ZiB (604.4 ZB)[122] (2^79 bytes)	Subdirectory per directory is 32,767[121]
UniFS	No limit defined (depends on client)	?	No limit defined (depends on client)	Available cache space at time of write (depends on platform)	No limit defined	No limit defined
VaultFS	configurable (1024 default)	Any byte except NUL	No limit defined	No limit defined	No limit defined	No limit defined
Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS)	14 bytes	Any byte except NUL and /[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 MiB (16.77 MB)[dd]	32 MiB (33.55 MB)	?
Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS)	14 bytes	Any byte except NUL or /[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	1 GiB (1.073 GB)[de]	2 TiB (2.199 TB)	?
VMFS2	128	Any byte except NUL or /[ce]	2,048	4 TiB (4.398 TB)[df]	64 TiB (70.36 TB)	?
VMFS3	128	Any byte except NUL or /[ce]	2,048	2 TiB (2.199 TB)[df]	64 TiB (70.36 TB)	?
VxFS	255 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	?	?
XFS	255 bytes[dg]	Any byte except NUL or /[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	8 EiB (9.223 EB)[dh]	8 EiB (9.223 EB)[dh]	2^64
Xiafs	248 bytes	Any byte except NUL[ce]	No limit defined[cf]	64 MiB (67.10 MB)	2 GiB (2.147 GB)	?
ZFS	1023 bytes	Any Unicode except NUL	No limit defined[cf]	16 EiB (18.44 EB)	281,474,976,710,656 YiB (2^128 bytes)	2^128
File system	Maximum filename length	Allowable characters in directory entries[cc]	Maximum pathname length	Maximum file size	Maximum volume size[cd]	Max number of files

See also

• List of file systems
• Comparison of file archivers
• List of archive formats
• Comparison of archive formats

Notes

1. IBM introduced JFS with the initial release of AIX Version 3.1 in 1990. This file system now called JFS1. The new JFS, on which the Linux port was based, was first shipped in OS/2 Warp Server for e-Business in 1999. The same sourcebase was also used for release JFS2 on AIX 5L.
2. Microsoft first introduced FAT32 in MS-DOS 7.1 / Windows 95 OSR2 (OEM Service Release 2) and then later in Windows 98. NT-based Windows did not have any support for FAT32 up to Windows NT4; Windows 2000 was the first NT-based Windows OS that received the ability to work with it.
3. Implemented in later versions as an extension
4. Some FAT implementations, such as in Linux, show file modification timestamp (mtime) in the metadata change timestamp (ctime) field. This timestamp is however, not updated on file metadata change.
5. Particular Installable File System drivers and operating systems may not support extended attributes on FAT12 and FAT16. The OS/2 and Windows NT filesystem drivers for FAT12 and FAT16 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.
6. The f-node contains a field for a user identifier. This is not used except by OS/2 Warp Server, however.
7. NTFS access control lists can express any access policy possible using simple POSIX file permissions (and far more), but use of a POSIX-like interface is not supported without an add-on such as Services for UNIX or Cygwin.
8. As of Vista, NTFS has support for Mandatory Labels, which are used to enforce Mandatory Integrity Control.^[12]
9. Initially, ReFS lacked support for ADS, but Server 2012 R2 and up add support for ADS on ReFS
10. Access-control lists and MAC labels are layered on top of extended attributes.
11. Some operating systems implemented extended attributes as a layer over UFS1 with a parallel backing file (e.g., FreeBSD 4.x).
12. Some Installable File System drivers and operating systems may not support extended attributes, access control lists or security labels on these filesystems. Linux kernels prior to 2.6.x may either be missing support for these altogether or require a patch.
13. Metadata is mostly checksummed,^[13] however Direct/indirect/triple-indirect block maps are not protected by checksums^[14]
14. Creation time stored since June 2015, xfsprogs version 3.2.3
15. The local time, time zone/UTC offset, and date are derived from the time settings of the reference/single timesync source in the NDS tree.
16. 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.
17. 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.
18. Record Management Services (RMS) attributes include record type and size, among many others.
19. File permission in 9P are a variation of the traditional Unix permissions with some minor changes, e.g. the suid bit is replaced by a new 'exclusive access' bit.
20. Supported on FreeBSD and Linux implementations, support may not be available on all operating systems.
21. Solaris "extended attributes" are really full-blown alternate data streams, in both the Solaris UFS and ZFS.
22. Access times are preserved from the original file system at creation time, but Rock Ridge file systems themselves are read-only.
23. libburnia can back up and restore ACLs with file system creation and extraction programs, but no kernel support exists.
24. libburnia can back up and restore extended attributes and MAC labels with file system creation and extraction programs, but no kernel support exists.
25. System V Release 4, and some other Unix systems, retrofitted symbolic links to their versions of the Version 7 Unix file system, although the original version didn't support them.
26. Context based symlinks were supported in GFS, GFS2 only supports standard symlinks since the bind mount feature of the Linux VFS has made context based symlinks obsolete
27. Optional journaling of data
28. As of Windows Vista, NTFS fully supports symbolic links.^[15] NTFS 3.0 (Windows 2000) and higher can create junctions, which allow entire directories (but not individual files) to be mapped to elsewhere in the directory tree of the same partition (file system). These are implemented through reparse points, which allow the normal process of filename resolution to be extended in a flexible manner.
29. NTFS stores everything, even the file data, as meta-data, so its log is closer to block journaling.
30. While NTFS itself supports case sensitivity, the Win32 environment subsystem cannot create files whose names differ only by case for compatibility reasons. When a file is opened for writing, if there is any existing file whose name is a case-insensitive match for the new file, the existing file is truncated and opened for writing instead of a new file with a different name being created. Other subsystems like e. g. Services for Unix, that operate directly above the kernel and not on top of Win32 can have case-sensitivity.
31. Metadata-only journaling was introduced in the Mac OS X 10.2.2 HFS Plus driver; journaling is enabled by default on Mac OS X 10.3 and later.
32. Although often believed to be case sensitive, HFS Plus normally is not. The typical default installation is case-preserving only. From Mac OS X 10.3 on the command newfs_hfs -s will create a case-sensitive new file system.^[17] HFS Plus version 5 optionally supports case-sensitivity. However, since case-sensitivity is fundamentally different from case-insensitivity, a new signature was required so existing HFS Plus utilities would not see case-sensitivity as a file system error that needed to be corrected. Since the new signature is 'HX', it is often believed this is a new filesystem instead of a simply an upgraded version of HFS Plus.^[18][19]
33. Mac OS X Tiger (10.4) and late versions of Panther (10.3) provide file change logging (it's a feature of the file system software, not of the volume format, actually).^[20]
34. "Soft dependencies" (softdep) in NetBSD, called "soft updates" in FreeBSD provide meta-data consistency at all times without double writes (journaling)
35. Journaled Soft Updates (SU+J) are the default as of FreeBSD 9.x-RELEASE ^[22][23]
36. UDF, LFS, and NILFS are log-structured file systems and behave as if the entire file system were a journal.
37. Linux kernel versions 2.6.12 and newer.
38. Off by default.
39. Full block journaling for ReiserFS was added to Linux 2.6.8.
40. Optionally no on IRIX and Linux.
41. 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.
42. 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.
43. 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.^[26]
44. Available only in the "NFS" namespace.
45. These are referred to as "aliases".
46. ZFS is a transactional filesystem using copy-on-write semantics, guaranteeing an always-consistent on-disk state without the use of a traditional journal. However, it does also implement an intent log to provide better performance when synchronous writes are requested.
47. Btrfs is a transactional filesystem using copy-on-write semantics, guaranteeing an always-consistent on-disk state without the use of a traditional journal. It keeps track of last five transactions and uses checksums to find problematic drives, making write intent logs unnecessary.
48. Bcachefs is a transactional filesystem using copy-on-write semantics, guaranteeing an always-consistent on-disk state without the use of a traditional journal. Journal commits are fairly expensive operations as they require issuing FLUSH and FUA operations to the underlying devices. By default, a journal flush is issued one second after a filesystem update has been done, which primarily records btree updates ordered by when they occurred. This option may be useful on a personal workstation or laptop, and perhaps less appropriate on a server.
49. Since Windows 10 Enterprise Insider Preview build 19536
50. A file system is self-healing if its capable to proactively autonomously detect and correct all but grave errors, faults and corruptions online both in internal metadata AND data. See US7694191B1 as example. This usually requires full checksumming as well as internal redundancy as well as corresponding logic.
51. only inside of Stacker 3/4 and DriveSpace 3 compressed volumes^[31]
52. Supported only on Windows Server SKUs. However, partitions deduplicated on Server can be used on Client.
53. HFS+ does not actually encrypt files: to implement FileVault, OS X creates an HFS+ filesystem in a sparse, encrypted disk image that is automatically mounted over the home directory when the user logs in.
54. Reiser4 supports transparent compression and encryption with the cryptcompress plugin which is the default file handler in version 4.1.
55. VxFS provides an optional feature called "Storage Checkpoints" which allows for advanced file system snapshots.
56. Applies to proprietary ZFS release 30 and ZFS On Linux. Encryption support is not yet available in all OpenZFS ports.^[38][39][40]
57. LZJB (optimized for performance while providing decent data compression)
    LZ4 (faster & higher ratio than lzjb)
    gzip levels: 1 (fastest) to 9 (best), default is 6
    zstd positive: 1 (fastest) to 19 (best), default is 3
    zstd negative: 1(best & default)-10, 20, 30, …, 100, 500, 1000(fastest)
    zle: compresses runs of zeros.^[41]
58. disabling copy-on-write (COW) to prevent fragmentation also disables data checksumming
59. zlib levels: 1 to 9, default is 3
    LZO (no levels) faster than ZLIB, worse ratio
    zstd levels: 1 to 15, default is 3 (higher levels are not available)^[42]
60. none
    CRC-32C (default)
    crc64
    chacha20/poly1305 (When encryption is enabled. Encryption can only be specified for the entire filesystem, not per file or directory)^[43]
61. none (default)
    The three currently supported algorithms are gzip, LZ4, zstd.
    The compression level may also be optionally specified, as an integer between 0 and 15, e.g. lz4:15. 0 specifies the default compression level, 1 specifies the fastest and lowest compression ratio, and 15 the slowest and best compression ratio.^[44]
62. * 3.7: Added file-level snapshot (only available in Windows Server 2022).^[45]
63. By using the per-file "integrity stream" that internally stores a checksum per cluster. Those per cluster checksums are not accessible so it is actually a per file feature and not a per block feature. Integrity streams are not enabled by default.^[46]
64. * 3.9: Added post process compression with LZ4 and ZSTD and transparent decompression.
65. Some file system creation implementations reuse block references and support deduplication this way. This is not supported by the standard, but usually works well due to the file system's read-only nature.
66. With software based on GNU Parted.
67. 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.
68. Only for "stuffed" inodes
69. Other block:fragment size ratios supported; 8:1 is typical and recommended by most implementations.
70. Fragments were planned, but never actually implemented on ext2 and ext3.
71. Stores one largest extent in disk, and caches multiple extents in DRAM dynamically.
72. Tail packing is technically a special case of block suballocation where the suballocation unit size is always 1 byte.
73. In "extents" mode.
74. Each possible size (in sectors) of file tail has a corresponding suballocation block chain in which all the tails of that size are stored. The overhead of managing suballocation block chains is usually less than the amount of block overhead saved by being able to increase the block size but the process is less efficient if there is not much free disk space.
75. Depends on UDF implementation.
76. ISO 9660 Level 3 only
77. Supported using only EVMS; not currently supported using LVM
78. Provided in Plan 9 from User Space
79. FUSE based driver available that can eliminate need for iSCSI gateways or SMB shares, but the physical backend store BlueStore only runs on Linux.
80. Filesystem driver "Dokany" available that can eliminate need for iSCSI gateways or SMB shares, but the physical backend store BlueStore only runs on Linux.
81. These are the restrictions imposed by the on-disk directory entry structures themselves. Particular Installable File System drivers may place restrictions of their own on file and directory names; operating systems may also place restrictions of their own, across all filesystems. DOS, Windows, and OS/2 allow only the following characters from the current 8-bit OEM codepage in SFNs: A-Z, 0-9, characters ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, as well as 0x80-0xFF and 0x20 (SPACE). Specifically, lowercase letters a-z, characters " * / : < > ? \ | + , . ; = [ ], control codes 0x00-0x1F, 0x7F and in some cases also 0xE5 are not allowed.) In LFNs, any UCS-2 Unicode except \ / : ? * " > < | and NUL are allowed in file and directory names across all filesystems. Unix-like systems disallow the characters / and NUL in file and directory names across all filesystems.
82. 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 128 KiB (131.0 KB) for FAT — which is the cluster size range allowed by the on-disk data structures, although some Installable File System drivers and operating systems do not support cluster sizes larger than 32 KiB (32.76 KB)).
83. 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-disk 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.
84. The on-disk structures have no inherent limit. Particular Installable File System drivers and operating systems may impose limits of their own, however. Limited by its Current Directory Structure (CDS), DOS does not support more than 32 directory levels (except for DR DOS 3.31-6.0) or full pathnames longer than 66 bytes for FAT, or 255 characters for LFNs. Windows NT does not support full pathnames longer than 32,767 bytes for NTFS. Older POSIX APIs which rely on the PATH_MAX constant have a limit of 4,096 bytes on Linux but this can be worked around. Linux itself has no hard path length limits.^[123][124]
85. Varies wildly according to block size and fragmentation of block allocation groups.
86. Depends on whether the FAT12, FAT16, and FAT32 implementation has support for LFNs. Where it does not, as in OS/2, DOS, Windows 95, Windows 98 in DOS-only mode and the Linux "msdos" driver, file names are limited to 8.3 format of 8-bit OEM characters (space padded in both the basename and extension parts) and may not contain NUL (end-of-directory marker) or character 5 (replacement for character 229 which itself is used as deleted-file marker). Short names also must not contain lowercase letters. A few special device names (CON, NUL, AUX, PRN, LPT1, COM1, etc.) should be avoided, as some operating systems (notably DOS, OS/2 and Windows) reserve them.
87. On-disk structures would support up to 4 GiB (4.294 GB), but practical file size is limited by volume size.
88. While FAT32 partitions this large work fine once created, some software won't allow creation of FAT32 partitions larger than 32 GiB (34.35 GB). This includes, notoriously, the Windows XP installation program and the Disk Management console in Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista. Use FDISK from a Windows ME Emergency Boot Disk to avoid.^[105]
89. Depends on CPU arch. For 32bit kernels the max is 16 TiB (17.59 TB). ^[107]
90. Depends on CPU arch. For 32bit kernels the max is 16 TiB (17.59 TB). ^[108]
91. Depends on kernel version and arch. For 2.4 kernels the max is 2 TiB (2.199 TB). For 32-bit 2.6 kernels it is 16 TiB (17.59 TB). For 64-bit 2.6 kernels it is 8 EiB (9.223 EB).
92. The "classic" Mac OS provides two sets of functions to retrieve file names from an HFS Plus volume, one of them returning the full Unicode names, the other shortened names fitting in the older 31 byte limit to accommodate older applications.
93. HFS Plus mandates support for an escape sequence to allow arbitrary Unicode. Users of older software might see the escape sequences instead of the desired characters.
94. 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-disk data structure for a directory does not contain entries by those names, but instead contains a special "start" entry. Whilst on-disk directory entries by those names are not physically prohibited, they cannot be created in normal operation, and a directory containing such entries is corrupt.
95. This is the limit of the on-disk 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 64 GiB (68.71 GB).
96. ISO 9660#Restrictions
97. Through the use of multi-extents, a file can consist of multiple segments, each up to 4 GiB (4.294 GB) in size. See ISO 9660#The 2 GiB (2.147 GB) (or 4 GiB (4.294 GB) depending on implementation) file size limit
98. Assuming the typical 2048 Byte sector size. The volume size is specified as a 32 bit value identifying the number of sectors on the volume.
99. Sparse files can be larger than the file system size, even though they can't contain more data.
100. NSS allows files to have multiple names, in separate namespaces.
101. This is the limit of the on-disk structures. The NTFS driver for Windows NT limits the volume size that it can handle to 256 TiB (281.4 TB) and the file size to 16 TiB (17.59 TB) respectively; in Windows 10 version 1709, the limit is 8 PiB (9.007 PB) when using 2 MiB (2.097 MB) cluster size.
102. Some namespaces had lower name length limits. "LONG" had an 80-byte limit, "NWFS" 80 bytes, "NFS" 40 bytes and "DOS" imposed 8.3 filename.
103. Maximum combined filename/filetype length is 236 bytes; each component has an individual maximum length of 255 bytes.
104. Maximum pathname length is 4,096 bytes, but quoted limits on individual components add up to 1,664 bytes.
105. QFS allows files to exceed the size of disk when used with its integrated HSM, as only part of the file need reside on disk at any one time.
106. ReiserFS has a theoretical maximum file size of 1 EiB (1.152 EB), but "page cache limits this to 8 Ti on architectures with 32 bit int"^[120]
107. This restriction might be lifted in newer versions.
108. The file size in the inode is 1 8-bit byte followed by 1 16-bit word, for 24 bits. The actual maximum was 8,847,360 bytes, with 7 singly-indirect blocks and 1 doubly-indirect block; PWB/UNIX 1.0's variant had 8 singly-indirect blocks, making the maximum 524,288 bytes or half a MB.
109. The actual maximum was 1,082,201,088 bytes, with 10 direct blocks, 1 singly-indirect block, 1 doubly-indirect block, and 1 triply-indirect block. The 4.0BSD and 4.1BSD versions, and the System V version, used 1,024-byte blocks rather than 512-byte blocks, making the maximum 4,311,812,608 bytes or approximately 4 GiB (4.294 GB).
110. Maximum file size on a VMFS volume depends on the block size for that VMFS volume. The figures here are obtained by using the maximum block size.
111. Note that the filename can be much longer XFS#Extended attributes
112. XFS has a limitation under Linux 2.4 of 64 TiB (70.36 TB) file size, but Linux 2.4 only supports a maximum block size of 2 TiB (2.199 TB). This limitation is not present under IRIX.

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External links

• A speed comparison of filesystems on Linux 2.4.5 (archived)
• Filesystems (ext3, reiser, xfs, jfs) comparison on Debian Etch Archived 2018-03-04 at the Wayback Machine (April 23, 2006)
• Block allocation strategies of various filesystems
• What are the (dis)advantages of ext4, ReiserFS, JFS, and XFS? - Unix & Linux Stack Exchange