Among the announcements of the WWDC presentation, the results of which became the most significant technological theme of the week, one topic, which was very important for all users of Apple products, related to OS X and iOS was not considered. Apple goes from using the HFS + file system, which is already three decades old, to APFS. The basis of the new operating system was shown to the developers. What will be the difference between the APFS file system and the upcoming transition to it for users?
This topic was discussed in sufficient detail in the zdnet.com resource posted by Robin Harris (WWDC 2016: Apple File System a welcome update for MacOS and iOS). Of course, the fact that today we know about the new file system is technical details, and a complete understanding of the meaning of the terminology that applies to APFS is not yet available, since it is unclear how exactly new functions will be implemented and that they, ultimately, will mean for users.
From the documentation to it follows that the release of the new file system is planned to be implemented in 2017. This means that it will not be fully supported until the release of MacOS 10.12.1. The UNIX kernel of MacOS makes it easy to change file systems, so APFS can become an option already in the later versions of Sierra.
Apple warns that APFS is in the early stages of development and should not be used for anything important yet. In addition, it requires a MacOS Sierra. To date, the user will not be able to boot from it, and it is sensitive to the register of the keyboard. With APFS also do not work Time Machine, FileVault and Fusion. It remains only to hope that the support of these technologies or their successors will appear with time.
APFS has a number of important features, including 64-bit inodes (inodes, inodes). APFS is capable of supporting more than 9 quintillion files in one partition of the media.
The accuracy of time stamps is nanosecond, which is important for the journal and cluster systems. "Copy-on-write" (copying metadata in the process of writing) helps to recover data after system failures.
Support for TRIM. HFS + is characterized by sub-functional support for TRIM. APFS manages TRIM operations asynchronously after storing metadata on stable media.
Native coding. The user can choose from different encoding schemes, selecting the one specific for each of the APFS partitions. This includes including encryption on several key-encryption (multi-key encryption) with the ability to determine their keys for files and a separate key for important metadata.
Native support for SMB. SMB is a technology that is used outside the Apple ecosystem to share data in networks.
The features of the new operating system considered above will be of interest first of all to IT professionals. But it also has such qualities that ordinary users will be able to appreciate.
Optimization of SSD. APFS works with disks, but it also offers an additional new key function - "write coalescing". Flash SSD writes down slowly enough, therefore instead of independent small portions of record APFS is capable to collect written down in group and to carry out record of the big volume simultaneously that provides productivity increase.
APFS partitions can dynamically grow and shrink as far as the drive's limit. There is no need to re-allocate partitions on the disk in this file system.
Cloning allows you to create a copy of a file or directory without using additional disk space. When a clone is modified, only the changed blocks are written to the new locations on the disk. This means that the user can have multiple versions of the file, which will take up much less space than before.
Snapshot snapshots have long been used in enterprise information storage. Just as it happens with clones, this function allows you to write only those blocks of the file system that have been modified. Old blocks stored in the file system can be restored to an earlier time state. It is very useful in cases where a malicious code appeared on the Mac.
Currently, it is not yet known in detail how APFS will manage metadata. However, the very fact of Apple's move to a more modern file system is important.
In March 2016, Apple announced its new smartphones and tablets. Apple and Google this year "compete" for the first line in the ranking of the most expensive corporations in the world.
What does the new Mac file system mean for ordinary users and developers, whom the company does not get tired of rejoicing?
The article is based on materials .
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