The File System Interface is an Anachronism

Abstract

Contemporary file systems implement a set of abstractions and semantics that are suboptimal for many (if not most) purposes. The philosophy of using the simple mechanisms of the file system as the basis for a vast array of higher-level mechanisms leads to inefficient and incorrect implementations. We propose several extensions to the canonical file system model, including explicit support for lock files, indexed files, and resource forks, and the benefit of session semantics for write updates. We also discuss the desirability of application-level file system transactions and file system support for versioning.