A Simple File System…
Occasionally I will reread some of my favorite chapters from any given programming book I particularly like. One of those books is Operating Systems: Three Easy Pieces (OSTEP) by Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau and Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau. Chapter 40 is one that I came back to recently and really enjoyed.
Chapter 40 in OSTEP covers the basics of a minimal file system. For example, what major data structures are necessary and how to handle partition a logical sea of bytes into individual chunks of files.
The simplicity of it all, maybe perceived rather than actual due to clear writing, motivated me to try writing a file system of my own. The file system was to be simple and entirely for the purpose of learning and eventually teaching the topic. My solution is written in Python and handles only toy sizes of data, but its enough to clearly see the moving pieces of a production File System.
