Files in the Unix System

Abstract

One of the most important functions of any operating system is to save, retrieve, and manage various files. To be useful, files must be easy to store and easy to find again. To be practical, files must fit conveniently onto the available physical media. These requirements imply that the file system must have a good logical structure, i.e., one which makes sense to users in terms of their needs; and that it must have a good physical structure, well suited to the devices used for file storage.