[TUHS] Early non-Unix filesystems?

[Greg 'groggy' Lehey]

On Friday, 18 March 2016 at 10:48:32 +1000, Warren Toomey wrote:
> It's a bit off-topic, but what were non-Unix filesystems like around
> 1969-1970?

A year or two earlier, maybe: the Master File Directory of UNIVAC
EXEC-8.  It's an amazingly complex and quite versatile system that
makes the Unix file system look simple.  There's some documentation at
http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/univac/1100, though right now I
can't find the references I'm looking for.

> The PDP-7 filesystem has i-nodes (file metadata) and filenames
> separate from the i-nodes. This allows hard links and thus a
> non-tree structured filesystem.
>
> This has always struck me to be one of the most important features
> of the Unix filesystem: names separated from the rest of the file
> metadata,

Agreed.  In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it's one of the most
important features of Unix.  And I'm pretty sure that the MFD didn't
have anything as straightforward and powerful.  But I'll research and
see if I can comeup with something interesting.

Greg
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