Support for nanosecond time stamp granularityįile systems create a log of writes. By comparison, HFS+ can only address up to 4,294,967,295 objects.
64 bits can represent up to 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 objects, so Apple’s definitely looking at the future of big storage with APFS. These attributes can include object manipulation metadata like change, access or modify time, and owner and permission data. Let’s take a look at some of the new, modern features of APFS.Īn inode is a data structure used to represent a file system object like a file or a directory, with each inode storing the attributes and disk block location(s) of the file system object’s data. Currently, iOS, watchOS and tvOS use HFS+ Case Sensitive (or what’s called HFSX) as a file system, but they’ll be using APFS as well.
Related: See the Rocket Yard’s complete WWDC 2016 coverage hereĪPFS is what’s known as a modern file system, containing features that will make it usable on every device that Apple makes from the Apple Watch to the Mac Pro. Our recommendation? Only try APFS from a beta version of macOS Sierra on an external volume that doesn’t have critical information on it. HFS+ is unlike many Unix-based file systems in that it can be configured to be case-insensitive, and running OS X with case-sensitive HFS+ has been known to cause issues.
There are also issues dealing with the current, early version of APFS as it is case-sensitive. File Vault encryption is out of the question since APFS has its own encryption scheme built-in. APFS volumes currently cannot be used as startup disks, Time Machine volumes, or even as part of a Fusion Drive. The newly re-named macOS Sierra will give Mac users their first look at APFS soon, but if you are planning to be part of the public beta test for the new operating system, there are some things you’ll want to look out for. ( Note: You can read Apple’s APFS documentation here and watch an introduction video here.)
As new versions of Apple operating systems roll out later in 2016 - macOS Sierra, iOS 10, tvOS 10 and watchOS 3 - existing devices will use APFS. With the roots of the file system now over 30 years old, Apple just announced a new file system called APFS (Apple File System) that will be shipped on all new Apple devices starting in 2017. All Macs currently use a file system called HFS+ (Hierarchical File System Plus), an outgrowth of the original Hierarchical File System that was introduced in 1985 with Mac System 2.1. A file system is used by an operating system like macOS and iOS to read from and write to some sort of storage, whether it’s a huge hard disk drive or a speedy solid-state drive (SSD). Without a file system, your Mac, iPhone, iPad or even your Apple Watch would not work.
IOS 10.3 Update with APFS Now Available to public