Boot File System
{{Short description|UnixWare file system}}
{{infobox filesystem
| name = BFS
| full_name = Boot File System
| developer = Bell Labs{{Citation needed|date=October 2015}}
| introduction_os = UNIX System V
| partition_id = 0x63 (MBR)
| directory_struct = single inode table
| file_struct = 16-bit inodes
| max_filename_size = 14 characters
| OS = SVR4, UnixWare{{Citation needed|date=August 2022}}
}}
The Boot File System (named BFS on Linux, but BFS also refers to the Be File System) was used on UnixWare to store files necessary to its boot process.{{Cite journal
|title=UnixWare architecture supports multiplatform interoperability
|journal=InfoWorld
|date=28 June 1993
|page=66
}}
It does not support directories, and only allows contiguous allocation for files, to make it simpler to be used by the boot loader.
Implementations
Besides the UnixWare support, Martin Hinner wrote a bfs kernel module for Linux that supports it.{{cite web | url=http://martin.hinner.info/fs/bfs/ | title=UnixWare boot filesystem for Linux | author=Martin Hinner | date=1999 | publisher=Martin Hinner | access-date=2008-12-21 }}
He documented the file system layout as part of the process.{{cite web | url=http://martin.hinner.info/fs/bfs/bfs-structure.html | title=The BFS filesystem structure | author=Martin Hinner | date=1999 | publisher=Martin Hinner | access-date=2008-12-21 }}
The Linux kernel implementation of BFS was written by Tigran Aivazian and it became part of the standard kernel sources on 28 October 1999 (Linux version 2.3.25).{{cite web | url=http://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/iBCS/bfs/ | title=Linux Implementation of SCO UnixWare BFS | author=Tigran Aivazian | date=1999 | publisher=Tigran Aivazian | access-date=2018-06-14 }}
The original BFS was written at AT&T Bell Laboratories for the UNIX System V, Version 4.0 porting base in 1986.{{Citation needed|date=October 2015}} It was written by Ron Schnell, who is also the author of Dunnet (game).{{Citation needed|date=October 2015}}
BFS was the first non-S5{{Clarify|date=October 2015}} (System V) Filesystem written using VFS (Virtual Filesystem) for AT&T UNIX.