3 ms·

Apple rolls out its new file system in iOS 10.3 beta

35 points by phr4ts 10y ago

baldfat 10y ago
HFS+ has been horrible and needed to be addressed years ago. In the words of Linus "Possibly the worst file system ever." http://www.cio.com/article/2868393/linus-torvalds-apples-hfs-is-probably-the-worst-file-system-ever.html http://www.cio.com/article/2868393/linus-torvalds-apples-hfs... I had hope of ZFS continuing but APFS has some good and bad items in it. The opinion is a developer of ZFS on the new APFS. https://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analysis-of-the-good-and-bad-in-apples-new-apfs-file-system/ https://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analy...
overcast 10y ago
I've been pretty excited about this since APFS was announced, but I think I'll hold off on the first beta release on my phone. Let the potential hysteria blow over first.
therealmarv 10y ago
Make backups... changing a file system on such a big user base seems incredible scary for me. Kudos to Apple if it always goes well.
- gdavisson 10y ago
  Keep in mind, this is being done in a seed release to developers. I don't have any inside information, but I'd expect it to be a while (i.e. iOS 11 and/or macOS 10.13 at the earliest) before APFS becomes the default format. My guess is that they're trying to get some broader experience with APFS from a group that's relatively small (compared to the deployed base) and relatively used to dealing with and reporting bugs. In short: it's a beta test.
  - soneil 10y ago
    I would actually be very surprised if this doesn't land in 10.3 on release. It'd be very, very unusual for them to diverge (especially since converting apfs to hfs live doesn't work). On the other hand, iOS seems like the perfect place to go live first - all filesystem access is by apple, or via blessed APIs - it should present the fewest edge-cases.
    - tinus_hn 10y ago
      Also Apple has experience with backup-and-restore upgrades on iOS, which are impractical on the Mac. If I remember correctly iOS 7 also required a full restore.
citrusui 10y ago
I'm on the iOS 10.3 beta, and for the most part, my iPhone 7 feels faster. Whether or not that is because of the new filesystem is unknown, but it is a welcome change nonetheless. So far, I've yet to find out if the iPhone filesystem hierarchy has changed. According to crash logs, apps still launch from /Applications, processes from /usr and /var and so on. For some reason I expected it to change... I now realize it is based on the old UNIX structure, with of course Apple's modifications.

35 points by phr4ts 10y ago

HFS+ has been horrible and needed to be addressed years ago. In the words of Linus "Possibly the worst file system ever." http://www.cio.com/article/2868393/linus-torvalds-apples-hfs-is-probably-the-worst-file-system-ever.html http://www.cio.com/article/2868393/linus-torvalds-apples-hfs... I had hope of ZFS continuing but APFS has some good and bad items in it. The opinion is a developer of ZFS on the new APFS. https://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analysis-of-the-good-and-bad-in-apples-new-apfs-file-system/ https://arstechnica.com/apple/2016/06/a-zfs-developers-analy...

overcast 10y ago

I've been pretty excited about this since APFS was announced, but I think I'll hold off on the first beta release on my phone. Let the potential hysteria blow over first.

therealmarv 10y ago

Make backups... changing a file system on such a big user base seems incredible scary for me. Kudos to Apple if it always goes well.

gdavisson 10y ago
Keep in mind, this is being done in a seed release to developers. I don't have any inside information, but I'd expect it to be a while (i.e. iOS 11 and/or macOS 10.13 at the earliest) before APFS becomes the default format. My guess is that they're trying to get some broader experience with APFS from a group that's relatively small (compared to the deployed base) and relatively used to dealing with and reporting bugs. In short: it's a beta test.
- soneil 10y ago
  I would actually be very surprised if this doesn't land in 10.3 on release. It'd be very, very unusual for them to diverge (especially since converting apfs to hfs live doesn't work). On the other hand, iOS seems like the perfect place to go live first - all filesystem access is by apple, or via blessed APIs - it should present the fewest edge-cases.
  - tinus_hn 10y ago
    Also Apple has experience with backup-and-restore upgrades on iOS, which are impractical on the Mac. If I remember correctly iOS 7 also required a full restore.

citrusui 10y ago

I'm on the iOS 10.3 beta, and for the most part, my iPhone 7 feels faster. Whether or not that is because of the new filesystem is unknown, but it is a welcome change nonetheless. So far, I've yet to find out if the iPhone filesystem hierarchy has changed. According to crash logs, apps still launch from /Applications, processes from /usr and /var and so on. For some reason I expected it to change... I now realize it is based on the old UNIX structure, with of course Apple's modifications.