Porting the SGI XFS File System to Linux

The limitations of traditional Linux file systems are becoming evident as new application demands for Linux file systems arise. SGI has ported the XFS file system to the Linux operating system to address these constraints. This paper describes the major technical areas that were addressed in this port, specifically regarding the file system interface to the operating system, buffer caching in XFS, and volume management layers. In addition, this paper describes some of the legal issues surrounding the porting of the XFS file system, and the encumbrance review process that SGI performed.

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