4 ms·

What new features do users gain from the new file system?

by untog 9y ago

mygo 9y ago
being able to duplicate a 1GB directory in an instant
- untog 9y ago
  Is that a new feature? Isn't that just a performance improvement?
  - zbentley 9y ago
    "What are these 'car' things? Do they really offer new features over horses? Isn't that just a performance improvement?"
  - OskarS 9y ago
    It is most certainly a new feature. APFS is copy-on-write, so when you duplicate a folder, it happens instantly regardless of how big it is because it doesn't have to make a copy until you start modifying the files. Moreover, because of COW, duplicate folders don't take up any extra hard-drive space. I literally just duplicated a 100 gigabyte folder to test, it completed instantly and I'm not using any more drive space than I was before. It will only start using drive space if i start modifying the files. APFS is seriously cool (there are many other features besides this). It's not revolutionary (ZFS and Btrfs did all this before), but it's miles past HFS+. Apple has needed a new filesystem for more than a decade, and I'm glad it has finally happened, even if the OS update that brought it sucks pretty badly.
coldtea 9y ago
Optimized for SSDs, 64-bit inodes, faster timestamping (modification times etc), faster size calculations, faster cloning, safer copies, per-disk and file encryption, space saving sparse files, and more.
tinus_hn 9y ago
The main feature is that it is a modern filesystem that doesn’t carry around 25 years of baggage.
- swiley 9y ago
  That doesn't mean anything other than "it's new which is somehow better."
  - tinus_hn 9y ago
    It implies the design isn’t compromised by decisions that only made sense 25 years ago. For instance originally HFS didn’t even have journalling, it’s bolted on and not integrated.
    - mrguyorama 9y ago
      It looks like the replacement has been compromised by other things however
tfar 9y ago
Certainly not transparent file system compression. Can save developers couple 10 GBs but hey (source code, binaries, debug symbols, all compress nicely).
braderhart 9y ago
You get your password leaked in this release!

What new features do users gain from the new file system?

by untog 9y ago

What new features do users gain from the new file system?

mygo 9y ago

being able to duplicate a 1GB directory in an instant

untog 9y ago
Is that a new feature? Isn't that just a performance improvement?
- zbentley 9y ago
  "What are these 'car' things? Do they really offer new features over horses? Isn't that just a performance improvement?"
- OskarS 9y ago
  It is most certainly a new feature. APFS is copy-on-write, so when you duplicate a folder, it happens instantly regardless of how big it is because it doesn't have to make a copy until you start modifying the files. Moreover, because of COW, duplicate folders don't take up any extra hard-drive space. I literally just duplicated a 100 gigabyte folder to test, it completed instantly and I'm not using any more drive space than I was before. It will only start using drive space if i start modifying the files. APFS is seriously cool (there are many other features besides this). It's not revolutionary (ZFS and Btrfs did all this before), but it's miles past HFS+. Apple has needed a new filesystem for more than a decade, and I'm glad it has finally happened, even if the OS update that brought it sucks pretty badly.

coldtea 9y ago

Optimized for SSDs, 64-bit inodes, faster timestamping (modification times etc), faster size calculations, faster cloning, safer copies, per-disk and file encryption, space saving sparse files, and more.

tinus_hn 9y ago

The main feature is that it is a modern filesystem that doesn’t carry around 25 years of baggage.

swiley 9y ago
That doesn't mean anything other than "it's new which is somehow better."
- tinus_hn 9y ago
  It implies the design isn’t compromised by decisions that only made sense 25 years ago. For instance originally HFS didn’t even have journalling, it’s bolted on and not integrated.
  - mrguyorama 9y ago
    It looks like the replacement has been compromised by other things however

tfar 9y ago

Certainly not transparent file system compression. Can save developers couple 10 GBs but hey (source code, binaries, debug symbols, all compress nicely).

braderhart 9y ago

You get your password leaked in this release!