minix

is the filesystem used in the Minix operating system, the first to run under Linux. It has a number of shortcomings: a 64MB partition size limit, short filenames, a single timestamp, etc. It remains useful for floppies and RAM disks. 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 It has been completely superseded by the second version of the extended filesystem (ext2) and has been removed from the kernel (in 2.1.21). is the high performance disk filesystem used by Linux for fixed disks as well as removable media. The second extended filesystem was designed as an extension of the extended file system (ext). ext2 offers the best performance (in terms of speed and CPU usage) of the filesystems supported under Linux. is a journaling version of the ext2 filesystem. It is easy to switch back and forth between ext2 and ext3.

ext2

ext3

Reiserfs is a journaling filesystem, designed by Hans Reiser, that was integrated into Linux in kernel 2.4.1. XFS JFS xiafs is a journaling filesystem, developed by SGI, that was integrated into Linux in kernel 2.4.20. is a journaling filesystem, developed by IBM, that was integrated into Linux in kernel 2.4.24. 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 xia filesystem is no longer actively developed or maintained. It was removed from the kernel in 2.1.21. 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. 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. is an extended DOS filesystem used by Microsoft Windows95 and Windows NT. VFAT adds the capability to use long filenames under the MSDOS filesystem. 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). is a CD-ROM filesystem type conforming to the ISO 9660 standard. High Sierra Linux supports High Sierra, the precursor to the ISO

msdos

umsdos

vfat

proc

iso9660

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 file-system support under Linux. hpfs is the High Performance Filesystem, used in OS/2. This file system is read-only under Linux due to the lack of available documentation. is an implementation of the SystemV/Coherent filesystem for Linux. It implements all of Xenix FS, SystemV/386 FS, and Coherent FS. is the network filesystem used to access disks located on remote computers. is a network filesystem that supports the SMB protocol, used by Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, and Lan Manager. To use smb fs, you need a special mount program, which can be found in the ksmbfs package, found at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/Filesystems/smbfs. ncpfs is a network filesystem that supports the NCP protocol, used by Novell NetWare. To use ncpfs, you need special programs, which can be found at ftp://linux01.gwdg.de/pub/ncpfs.

sysv

nfs smb

NTFS (New Technology File System)[1] is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Wind ows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7.[5] NTFS supersedes the FAT file system as the preferred file system for Microsoft s W indows operating systems. NTFS has several improvements over FAT and HPFS (High Performance File System) such as improved support for metadata and the use of ad vanced data structures to improve performance, reliability, and disk space utili zation, plus additional extensions such as security access control lists (ACL) a nd file system journaling.

Syntax who [-a] [-b] [-d] [-H] [-l] [-m] [-nx] [-p] [-q] [-r] [-s] [-t] [-T] [-u] [am i

] [ file ] -a Process /var/adm/utmp or the named file with -b, -d, -l, -p, -r, -t, -T, and -u options turned on. -b Indicate the time and date of the last reboot. -d Display all processes that have expired and not been respawned by init . The exit field appears for dead processes and contains the termination and exit values (as returned by wait), of the dead process. This can be useful in determ ining why a process terminated. -H Output column headings above the regular output. -l List only those lines on which the system is waiting for someone to logi n. The name field is LOGIN in such cases. Other fields are the same as for user entries except that the state field does not exist. -m Output only information about the current terminal. -n x Take a numeric argument, x, which specifies the number of users to displ ay per line. x must be at least 1. The -n option may only be used with -q. -p List any other process which is currently active and has been previously spawned by init . The name field is the name of the program executed by init as found in /sbin/inittab. The state, line , and idle fields have no meaning. The comment field shows the id field of the line from /sbin/inittab that spawned thi s process. -q (quick who ) display only the names and the number of users currently lo gged on. When this option is used, all other options are ignored. -r Indicate the current run-level of the init process. -s (default) List only the name, line, and time fields. -t Indicate the last change to the system clock (using the date utility) by root. See su and date. -T Same as the -s option, except that the state field is also written. stat e is one of the characters listed under the /usr/bin/who version of this option. If the -u option is used with -T, the idle time is added to the end of the prev ious format. -u List only those users who are currently logged in. The name is the user' s login name. The line is the name of the line as found in the directory /dev. T he time is the time that the user logged in. The idle column contains the number of hours and minutes since activity last occurred on that particular line. A do t (.) indicates that the terminal has seen activity in the last minute and is th erefore ``current''. If more than twenty-four hours have elapsed or the line has not been used since boot time, the entry is marked old. This field is useful wh en trying to determine whether a person is working at the terminal or not. The p id is the process-ID of the user's shell. The comment is the comment field assoc iated with this line as found in /sbin/inittab. This can contain information abo ut where the terminal is located, the telephone number of the dataset, terminal if hard-wired, and so forth. am i In the "C" locale, limit the output to describing the invoking user, equ ivalent to the -m option. The am and i or I must be separate arguments. file Specify a path name of a file to substitute for the database of logged-o n users that who uses by default. Examples who The general format for output is: name [state] line time [idle] [pid] [comment] [exit] where: name user's login name. state capability of writing to the terminal. line name of the line found in /dev. time time since user's login. idle time elapsed since the user's last activity. pid user's process id. comment comment line in inittab(4). Below is an example of what this may look like

chope pts/0 mrhope pts/1

Apr 23 10:43 May 6 18:19

(shell.computerhope.com) (shell.computerhope.com)

Tip If you're wanting to see who's been on use the last command. who -r Display the run-level of each user, as shown below. run-level 3 2010-10-15 12:43 last=S

Ext2 Ext2 stands for second extended file system. It was introduced in 1993. Developed by Rmy Card. This was developed to overcome the limitation of the original ext file syste m. Ext2 does not have journaling feature. On flash drives, usb drives, ext2 is recommended, as it doesn t need to do the over head of journaling. Maximum individual file size can be from 16 GB to 2 TB Overall ext2 file system size can be from 2 TB to 32 TB Ext3 Ext3 stands for third extended file system. It was introduced in 2001. Developed by Stephen Tweedie. Starting from Linux Kernel 2.4.15 ext3 was available. The main benefit of ext3 is that it allows journaling. Journaling has a dedicated area in the file system, where all the changes ar e tracked. When the system crashes, the possibility of file system corruption is less because of journaling. Maximum individual file size can be from 16 GB to 2 TB Overall ext3 file system size can be from 2 TB to 32 TB There are three types of journaling available in ext3 file system. Journal Metadata and content are saved in the journal. Ordered Only metadata is saved in the journal. Metadata are journaled on ly after writing the content to disk. This is the default. Writeback Only metadata is saved in the journal. Metadata might be journ aled either before or after the content is written to the disk. You can convert a ext2 file system to ext3 file system directly (without bac kup/restore). BOOTING PROCESS In Linux, the flow of control during a boot is from BIOS, to boot loader, to ker nel. The kernel then starts the scheduler (to allow multi-tasking) and runs the first userland (i.e. outside kernel space) program Init (which sets up the user environment[clarification needed] and allows user interaction and login), at whi ch point the kernel goes idle unless called externally. In detail: The BIOS performs hardware-platform specific startup tasks

Once the hardware is recognized and started correctly, the BIOS loads and ex ecutes the partition boot code from the designated boot device, which contains p hase 1 of a Linux boot loader. Phase 1 loads phase 2 (the bulk of the boot loade r code). Some loaders may use an intermediate phase (known as phase 1.5) to achi eve this since modern large disks may not be fully readable without further code . The boot loader often presents the user with a menu of possible boot options . It then loads the operating system, which decompresses into memory, and sets u p system functions such as essential hardware and memory paging, before calling start_kernel(). start_kernel() then performs the majority of system setup (interrupts, the r est of memory management, device initialization, drivers, etc.) before spawning separately, the idle process and scheduler, and the Init process (which is execu ted in user space). The scheduler effectively takes control of the system management, as the ker nel goes dormant (idle). The Init process executes scripts as needed that set up all non-operating sy stem services and structures in order to allow a user environment to be created, and then presents the user with a login screen. On shutdown, Init is called to close down all user space functionality in a cont rolled manner, again via scripted directions, following which Init terminates an d the Kernel executes its own shutdown.