installable file system
<operating system> (IFS or "File System Driver", "FSD") An API that
allows you to extend OS/2 to access files stored on disk in formats other than
FAT and HPFS, and access files that are stored on a network file server.
For example an IFS could provide programs running under OS/2 (including DOS and
Windows programs) with access to files stored under Unix using the Berkeley fast
file system.
The other variety of IFS (a "remote file system" or "redirector") allows file
sharing over a LAN, e.g. using Unix's Network File System protocol. In this
case, the IFS passes a program's file access requests to a remote file server,
possibly also translating between different file attributes used by OS/2 and the
remote system.
Documentation on the IFS API has been available only by special request from
IBM.
An IFS is structured as an ordinary 16-bit DLL with entry points for opening,
closing, reading, and writing files, the swapper, file locking, and Universal
Naming Convention. The main part of an IFS that runs in ring 0 is called by the
OS/2 kernel in the context of the caller's process and thread. The other part
that runs in ring 3 is a utility library with entry points for FORMAT, RECOVER,
SYS, and CHKDSK.
EDM/2 article.
(1999-04-07)
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