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NAME | DESCRIPTION | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
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filesystems(5) File Formats Manual filesystems(5)
filesystems - Linux filesystem types: ext, ext2, ext3, ext4, hpfs,
iso9660, JFS, minix, msdos, ncpfs nfs, ntfs, proc, Reiserfs, smb,
sysv, umsdos, vfat, XFS, xiafs
When, as is customary, the proc filesystem is mounted on /proc,
you can find in the file /proc/filesystems which filesystems your
kernel currently supports; see proc(5) for more details. There is
also a legacy sysfs(2) system call (whose availability is
controlled by the CONFIG_SYSFS_SYSCALL kernel build configuration
option since Linux 3.15) that enables enumeration of the currently
available filesystem types regardless of /proc availability and/or
sanity.
If you need a currently unsupported filesystem, insert the
corresponding kernel module or recompile the kernel.
In order to use a filesystem, you have to mount it; see mount(2)
and mount(8).
The following list provides a short description of the available
or historically available filesystems in the Linux kernel. See
the kernel documentation for a comprehensive description of all
options and limitations.
erofs is the Enhanced Read-Only File System, stable since Linux
5.4. See erofs(5).
ext is an elaborate extension of the minix filesystem. It has
been completely superseded by the second version of the
extended filesystem (ext2) and has been removed from the
kernel (in Linux 2.1.21).
ext2 is a disk filesystem that was used by Linux for fixed disks
as well as removable media. The second extended filesystem
was designed as an extension of the extended filesystem
(ext). See ext2(5).
ext3 is a journaling version of the ext2 filesystem. It is easy
to switch back and forth between ext2 and ext3. See
ext3(5).
ext4 is a set of upgrades to ext3 including substantial
performance and reliability enhancements, plus large
increases in volume, file, and directory size limits. See
ext4(5).
hpfs is the High Performance Filesystem, used in OS/2. This
filesystem is read-only under Linux due to the lack of
available documentation.
iso9660
is a CD-ROM filesystem type conforming to the ISO/IEC 9660
standard.
High Sierra
Linux supports High Sierra, the precursor to the
ISO/IEC 9660 standard for CD-ROM filesystems. It is
automatically recognized within the iso9660
filesystem support under Linux.
Rock Ridge
Linux also supports the System Use Sharing Protocol
records specified by the Rock Ridge Interchange
Protocol. They are used to further describe the
files in the iso9660 filesystem to a UNIX host, and
provide information such as long filenames, UID/GID,
POSIX permissions, and devices. It is automatically
recognized within the iso9660 filesystem support
under Linux.
JFS is a journaling filesystem, developed by IBM, that was
integrated into Linux 2.4.24.
minix is the filesystem used in the Minix operating system, the
first to run under Linux. It has a number of shortcomings,
including a 64 MB partition size limit, short filenames,
and a single timestamp. It remains useful for floppies and
RAM disks.
msdos is the filesystem used by DOS, Windows, and some OS/2
computers. msdos filenames can be no longer than 8
characters, followed by an optional period and 3 character
extension.
ncpfs is a network filesystem that supports the NCP protocol,
used by Novell NetWare. It was removed from the kernel in
Linux 4.17.
To use ncpfs, you need special programs, which can be found
at ⟨ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/ncpfs⟩.
nfs is the network filesystem used to access disks located on
remote computers.
ntfs is the filesystem native to Microsoft Windows NT,
supporting features like ACLs, journaling, encryption, and
so on.
proc is a pseudo filesystem which is used as an interface to
kernel data structures rather than reading and interpreting
/dev/kmem. In particular, its files do not take disk
space. See proc(5).
Reiserfs
is a journaling filesystem, designed by Hans Reiser, that
was integrated into Linux 2.4.1.
smb is a network filesystem that supports the SMB protocol,
used by Windows. See ⟨https://www.samba.org/samba/smbfs/⟩.
sysv is an implementation of the System V/Coherent filesystem
for Linux. It implements all of Xenix FS, System V/386 FS,
and Coherent FS.
umsdos is an extended DOS filesystem used by Linux. It adds
capability for long filenames, UID/GID, POSIX permissions,
and special files (devices, named pipes, etc.) under the
DOS filesystem, without sacrificing compatibility with DOS.
tmpfs is a filesystem whose contents reside in virtual memory.
Since the files on such filesystems typically reside in
RAM, file access is extremely fast. See tmpfs(5).
vfat is an extended FAT filesystem used by Microsoft Windows95
and Windows NT. vfat adds the capability to use long
filenames under the MSDOS filesystem.
XFS is a journaling filesystem, developed by SGI, that was
integrated into Linux 2.4.20.
xiafs was designed and implemented to be a stable, safe
filesystem by extending the Minix filesystem code. It
provides the basic most requested features without undue
complexity. The xiafs filesystem is no longer actively
developed or maintained. It was removed from the kernel in
Linux 2.1.21.
fuse(4), btrfs(5), ext2(5), ext3(5), ext4(5), nfs(5), proc(5),
sysfs(5), tmpfs(5), xfs(5), fsck(8), mkfs(8), mount(8)
This page is part of the man-pages (Linux kernel and C library
user-space interface documentation) project. Information about
the project can be found at
⟨https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/⟩. If you have a bug report
for this manual page, see
⟨https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/docs/man-pages/man-pages.git/tree/CONTRIBUTING⟩.
This page was obtained from the tarball man-pages-6.15.tar.gz
fetched from
⟨https://mirrors.edge.kernel.org/pub/linux/docs/man-pages/⟩ on
2025-08-11. If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML
version of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-
to-date source for the page, or you have corrections or
improvements to the information in this COLOPHON (which is not
part of the original manual page), send a mail to
[email protected]
Linux man-pages 6.15 2025-05-17 filesystems(5)
Pages that refer to this page: fstab(5), proc_filesystems(5), mkfs(8), mount(8)
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HTML rendering created 2025-09-06 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface. For details of in-depth Linux/UNIX system programming training courses that I teach, look here. Hosting by jambit GmbH. |
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