# 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 |
| 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 | 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 |
| 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 |
| VxFS | VERITAS | 1991 | SVR4.0 |
| ext | Rémy Card | 1992 | Linux |
| AdvFS | DEC | 1993 | 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 |
| 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 | 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 | 2017 | DragonFly BSD 5.0 |
| EROFS | Huawei | 2018 | Android |

## 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 | File system |
| Bcachefs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Bcachefs |
| BeeGFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | BeeGFS |
| CP/M file system | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | CP/M file system |
| DECtape | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | DECtape |
| Elektronika BK tape format | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | Elektronika BK |
| Level-D | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (date only) | Yes | Yes | Yes (FILDAE) | No | No | No | Level-D |
| RT-11 | No | No | Yes (date only) | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | RT-11 |
| Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS) |
| Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS) |
| exFAT | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | exFAT |
| FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 |
| HPFS | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | Yes | No | HPFS |
| NTFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | NTFS |
| ReFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | ReFS |
| HFS | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | HFS |
| HFS Plus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | HFS Plus |
| FFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | FFS |
| UFS1 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | UFS1 |
| UFS2 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | UFS2 |
| HAMMER | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | HAMMER |
| LFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | LFS |
| ext | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ext |
| Xiafs | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Xiafs |
| ext2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ext2 |
| ext3 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ext3 |
| ext4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Partial | ext4 |
| NOVA | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | NOVA |
| Lustre | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Lustre |
| F2FS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | F2FS |
| GPFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPFS |
| GFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | GFS |
| NILFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | NILFS |
| ReiserFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ReiserFS |
| Reiser4 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Reiser4 |
| OCFS | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | OCFS |
| OCFS2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | OCFS2 |
| XFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | XFS |
| JFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | JFS |
| QFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | QFS |
| BFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | BFS |
| AdvFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | AdvFS |
| NSS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | NSS |
| NWFS | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | NWFS |
| ODS-5 | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | No | ODS-5 |
| APFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | APFS |
| VxFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Yes | No | VxFS |
| UDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | UDF |
| Fossil | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Fossil |
| ZFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ZFS |
| Btrfs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Btrfs |
| Minix V1 | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Minix V1 |
| Minix V2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Minix V2 |
| Minix V3 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Minix V3 |
| VMFS2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | VMFS2 |
| VMFS3 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | VMFS3 |
| ISO 9660:1988 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ISO 9660:1988 |
| Rock Ridge | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Rock Ridge |
| Joliet ("CDFS") | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Joliet ("CDFS") |
| ISO 9660:1999 | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | ISO 9660:1999 |
| High Sierra | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | High Sierra |
| SquashFS | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | SquashFS |
| BlueStore/Cephfs | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | BlueStore/Cephfs |
| 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 | File system |

## 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 | 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 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
| HPFS | No | No | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? |
| NTFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes (2000) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes (approximately 700 bytes) |
| HFS Plus | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Optional | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | Yes | No | ? | No |
| HAMMER | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? |
| LFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
| 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 | ? |
| ext3 | Yes | Yes | Yes (2001) | Yes (2001) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
| ext4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, optional | Yes | No | Yes | Yes (approximately 160 bytes) |
| NOVA | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? |
| F2FS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
| Lustre | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
| NILFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
| ReiserFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| JFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (1990) | Yes | Yes | No | ? | ? |
| QFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | ? |
| BFS | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | No | ? |
| NSS | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
| NWFS | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
| ODS-2 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | ? |
| ODS-5 | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| UDF | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| VxFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ? | ? |
| Fossil | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | ? |
| ZFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes (112 bytes) |
| Btrfs | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | ? | ? | ? |
| Bcachefs | Yes | Yes | Yes | 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 | Yes | ? | ? | Yes | 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 |
| 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 | 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 | No |
| FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X | No | No | No | No | No | No | Partial | 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 | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| HFS Plus | No | No | 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 |
| 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 | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| NOVA | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | ? |
| F2FS | No | Yes, experimental | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| Lustre | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| NILFS | Yes, continuous | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| ReiserFS | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Reiser4 | ? | Yes | ? | 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 | No | No | No | No | No |
| JFS | ? | No | ? | No | No | No | only in JFS1 on AIX | 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 | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Fossil | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| ZFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Btrfs | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bcachefs | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | 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 | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| ISO 9660 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Rock Ridge | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Joliet ("CDFS") | No | No | No | 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 |

### 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 | No | Yes | No | No |
| FAT32 / FAT32X | misc. | Yes | No | Yes | 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 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| SquashFS | Linux | No | No | No | No | No |
| NOVA | Linux | No | No | No | No | No |
| JFS | Linux | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| XFS | Linux | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Lustre | Linux | ? | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| F2FS | Linux | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| NTFS | Linux | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| ext2 | Linux | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| ext3 | Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| ReiserFS | Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Reiser4 | Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| ext4 | Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Btrfs | Linux | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Bcachefs | Linux | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| NILFS | Linux | No | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| ZFS | misc. | No | Yes | No | Partial | Yes |
| JFS2 | AIX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| UFS2 | 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 | 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 |
| 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) | Partial (only inside of Stacker 3/4 and DriveSpace 3 compressed volumes) | No | Partial (only inside of compressed volumes) | No | No | No | Yes (Linux) |
| FAT16 / FAT16B / FAT16X | Partial (only inside of compressed volumes) | Partial (only inside of Stacker 3/4 and DriveSpace 3 compressed volumes) | No | Partial (only inside of compressed volumes) | No | No | No | Yes (Linux) |
| FAT32 / FAT32X | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes (Linux) |
| GFS | Yes | No | Partial | 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 | No | No | No | No | ? | No |
| UFS1 | Yes | 8:1 | No | No | No | No | ? | No |
| UFS2 | Yes | 8:1 | No | No | Yes | No | ? | Yes |
| LFS | Yes | 8:1 | No | No | No | No | Yes | ? |
| ext | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Xiafs | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| ext2 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| ext3 | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| ext4 | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| NOVA | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | ? |
| F2FS | Yes | No | No | Partial | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lustre | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? |
| NILFS | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes (Linux NILFS2) |
| ReiserFS | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| Reiser4 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ? | Testing |
| 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 | 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 | No | No | No | No | ? | ? |
| ODS-5 | ? | No | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
| VxFS | Yes | ? | No | Yes | No | No | ? | ? |
| UDF | Yes | No | No | Yes | No | ? | 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 | Yes | 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 | No | No | No | No |
| Rock Ridge | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Joliet ("CDFS") | No | No | No | Yes | 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 | 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 |
| APFS | No | Partial (read-only with apfs-fuse or linux-apfs) | 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, 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 | 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+ | Yes | No | ? | Yes | No | ? | No | No |
| Apple HFS Plus | No | Partial - writing support only to unjournalled FS | Yes | No | Needs Paragon HFS+ | 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 |
| 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 | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| ext2 | No | Yes | Needs Paragon ExtFS or ext2fsx | Partial (read-only, with explore2fs) | Needs Paragon ExtFS or partial with Ext2 IFS or ext2fsd | No | Yes | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No |
| ext3 | No | Yes | Needs Paragon ExtFS or partial with ext2fsx (journal not updated on writing) | Partial (read-only, with explore2fs) | Needs Paragon ExtFS or partial with Ext2 IFS or ext2fsd | Partial (read only) | Yes | No | with addon | ? | Yes | ? | Yes |
| ext4 | No | Yes | Needs Paragon ExtFS | No | Yes, with the optional WSL2; physical and VHDX virtual disks. | ? | Yes since FreeBSD 12.0 | No | with addon | ? | ? | ? | Yes |
| NOVA | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Lustre | No | Yes | ? | 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 and dropped in 11.0 | ? | 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 | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | ? | ? | Yes | ? | No |
| Be File System | No | Partial - read-only | ? | No | No | ? | No | No | Yes | ? | ? | ? | No |
| NSS | No | Yes via EVMS | ? | 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 | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | ? | No |
| ZFS | No | Yes with FUSE or as an external kernel module | Yes with Read/Write Developer Preview | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Btrfs | No | Yes | ? | No | Yes with WinBtrfs | ? | 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.) | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| BlueStore/Cephfs | No | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | 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 (10$^{12}$, 1000$^4$) bytes), filesystem limits are invariably powers of 2, so usually expressed with IEC prefixes. For instance, a 1 TiB limit means 2$^{40}$, 1024$^4$ bytes. Approximations (rounding down) using power of 10 are also given below to clarify.
| File system | Maximum filename length | Allowable characters in directory entries | Maximum pathname length | Maximum file size | Maximum volume size | Max number of files |
| AdvFS | 255 characters | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 16 TiB (17.59 TB) | 16 TiB (17.59 TB) | ? |
| APFS | 255 UTF-8 characters | Unicode 9.0 encoded in UTF-8 | ? | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | ? | 2$^{63}$ |
| 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 | No limit defined | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | ? |
| BFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 12,288 bytes to 260 GiB (279.1 GB) | 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 | Not limited | Not limited, default is 100,000 files per directory |
| 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 | ? |
| exFAT | 255 UTF-16 characters | Unicode except for control codes 0x0000 - 0x001F or " * / : < > ? \ | | 32,760 characters with each path component no more than 255 characters | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 64 ZiB (75.55 ZB) (2$^{76}$ bytes) | ? |
| ext | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | ? |
| ext2 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL, / | No limit defined | 16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 2 TiB (2.199 TB) | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 32 TiB (35.18 TB) | ? |
| ext3 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL, / | No limit defined | 16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 2 TiB (2.199 TB) | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 32 TiB (35.18 TB) | ? |
| ext4 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL, / | No limit defined | 16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 16 TiB (17.59 TB) | 1 EiB (1.152 EB) | 2$^{32}$ (static inode limit specified at creation) |
| F2FS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL, / | No limit defined | 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) | SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | | No limit defined | 32 MiB (33.55 MB) (4 GiB (4.294 GB)) | 1 MiB (1.048 MB) to 32 MiB (33.55 MB) | ? |
| FAT16B/FAT16X | 8.3 (255 UCS-2 characters with LFN) | SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | | No limit defined | 2 (4) GiB (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) | SFN: OEM A-Z, 0-9, ! # $ % & ' ( ) - @ ^ _ ` { } ~, 0x80-0xFF, 0x20. LFN: Unicode except NUL, " * / : < > ? \ | | 32,760 characters with each path component no more than 255 characters | 4 GiB (4.294 GB) | 512 MiB (536.8 MB) to 16 TiB (17.59 TB) | ? |
| FATX | 42 bytes | ASCII. | No limit defined | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 16 MiB (16.77 MB) to 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | ? |
| FFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 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 ! @ # $ % ^ & ( ) + - = ~ ` ; ' " , < > | [ ] ( ) _ | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| GFS2 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 100 TiB (109.95 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | 100 TiB (109.95 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | ? |
| GFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) to 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | ? |
| GPFS | 255 UTF-8 codepoints | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 9 EiB (10.37 EB) | 524,288 YiB (2$^{99}$ bytes) | ? |
| HAMMER | 1023 bytes | Any byte except NUL | ? | ? | 1 EiB (1.152 EB) | ? |
| HFS | 31 bytes | Any byte except : | Unlimited | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) | ? |
| HFS Plus | 255 UTF-16 characters | Any valid Unicode | Unlimited | slightly less than 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | slightly less than 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | ? |
| High Sierra Format | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| HPFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) | ? |
| IBM SFS | 8.8 | ? | ? | Non-hierarchical | ? | ? |
| ISO 9660:1988 | Level 1: 8.3, Level 2 & 3: ~ 180 | Depends on Level | ~ 180 bytes? | 4 GiB (4.294 GB) (Level 1 & 2) to 8 TiB (8.796 TB) (Level 3) | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) | ? |
| ISO 9660:1999 | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
| JFS | 255 bytes | Any Unicode except NUL | No limit defined | 4 PiB (4.503 PB) | 32 PiB (36.02 PB) | ? |
| JFS1 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 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 ? | ? | 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 | No limit defined | 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 | No limit defined | 256.5 MiB (268.9 MB) | 64 MiB (67.10 MB) | ? |
| Minix V2 FS | 14 or 30 bytes, set at filesystem creation time | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 1 GiB (1.073 GB) | ? |
| Minix V3 FS | 60 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | 4 GiB (4.294 GB) | ? |
| NILFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | ? |
| NOVA | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL, / | No limit defined | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | ? |
| NSS | 256 characters | Depends on namespace used | 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 | 32,767 characters with each path component (directory or filename) up to 255 characters long | 16 TiB (17.59 TB) to 8 PiB (9.007 PB) | 16 TiB (17.59 TB) to 8 PiB (9.007 PB) | 2$^{32}$ |
| NWFS | 80 bytes | Depends on namespace used | No limit defined | 4 GiB (4.294 GB) | 1 TiB (1.099 TB) | ? |
| OCFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) | ? |
| OCFS2 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 4 PiB (4.503 PB) | 4 PiB (4.503 PB) | ? |
| ODS-5 | 236 bytes | ? | 4,096 bytes | 1 TiB (1.099 TB) | 1 TiB (1.099 TB) | ? |
| QFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 4 PiB (4.503 PB) | ? |
| ReFS | 255 UTF-16 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 | 32,767 characters with each path component (directory or filename) up to 255 characters long | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 1 YiB (1.208 YB) | ? |
| ReiserFS | 4,032 bytes/255 characters | Any byte except NUL or '/' | No limit defined | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) (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 | 8 TiB (8.796 TB) on x86 | ? | ? |
| Rock Ridge | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL or / | No limit defined | 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 | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | 512 MiB (536.8 MB) to 16 TiB (17.59 TB) | ? |
| UFS1 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 16 GiB (17.17 GB) to 256 TiB (281.4 TB) | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | Subdirectory per directory is 32,767 |
| UFS2 | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 512 GiB (549.7 GB) to 32 PiB (36.02 PB) | 512 ZiB (604.4 ZB) (2$^{79}$ bytes) | Subdirectory per directory is 32,767 |
| 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 |
| Version 6 Unix file system (V6FS) | 14 bytes | Any byte except NUL and / | No limit defined | 16 MiB (16.77 MB) | 32 MiB (33.55 MB) | ? |
| Version 7 Unix file system (V7FS) | 14 bytes | Any byte except NUL or / | No limit defined | 1 GiB (1.073 GB) | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) | ? |
| VMFS2 | 128 | Any byte except NUL or / | 2,048 | 4 TiB (4.398 TB) | 64 TiB (70.36 TB) | ? |
| VMFS3 | 128 | Any byte except NUL or / | 2,048 | 2 TiB (2.199 TB) | 64 TiB (70.36 TB) | ? |
| VxFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 16 EiB (18.44 EB) | ? | ? |
| XFS | 255 bytes | Any byte except NUL or / | No limit defined | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | 8 EiB (9.223 EB) | 2$^{64}$ |
| Xiafs | 248 bytes | Any byte except NUL | No limit defined | 64 MiB (67.10 MB) | 2 GiB (2.147 GB) | ? |
| ZFS | 1023 bytes | Any Unicode except NUL | No limit defined | 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 | Maximum pathname length | Maximum file size | Maximum volume size | Max number of files |