TheMinix file system is the nativefile system of theMinixoperating system. It was written byAndrew S. Tanenbaum in the 1980s and aimed to replicate the structure of theUnix File System while omitting complex features, and was intended to be a teaching aid. It largely fell out of favour among Linux users by 1994 due to the popularity of other filesystems - most notablyext2 - and its lack of features, including limited partition sizes and filename length limits.

MINIX was written byAndrew S. Tanenbaum in the 1980s, as aUnix-like operating system whose source code could be used freely in education. The MINIX file system was designed for use with MINIX; it copies the basic structure of theUnix File System but avoids any complex features in the interest of keeping the source code clean, clear and simple, to meet the overall goal of MINIX to be a useful teaching aid.^[1]

WhenLinus Torvalds first started writing hisLinux operating system kernel (1991), he was working on a machine running MINIX, and adopted its file system layout. This soon proved problematic, since MINIX restricted filename lengths to 14 characters (30 in later versions), it limitedpartitions to 64 megabytes,^[2] and the file system was designed for teaching purposes, not performance.^[3] The Linux implementation of the MINIX fs was multi-threaded, whereas the MINIX implementation of the fs was single-threaded.^[4] Theextended file system (ext; April 1992) was developed to replace MINIX's, but it was only with the second version of this,ext2, that Linux obtained a commercial-grade file system.^[3] As of 1994, the MINIX file system was "scarcely in use" among Linux users.^[2]

A MINIX file system has six components:^[1]

• TheBoot Block which is always stored in the first block. It contains theboot loader that loads and runs anoperating system at system startup.
• The second block is theSuperblock which stores data about the file system, that allows the operating system to locate and understand other file system structures. For example, the number ofinodes andzones, the size of the two bitmaps and the starting block of thedata area.
• Theinodebitmap is a simplemap of theinodes that tracks which ones are in use and which ones are free by representing them as either a one (in use) or a zero (free).
• Thezone bitmap works in the same way as theinode bitmap, except it tracks the zones.
• Theinodes area. Each file or directory is represented as an inode, which records metadata including type (file, directory, block, char, pipe), IDs for user and group, three timestamps that record the date and time of last access, last modification and last status change. An inode also contains a list of addresses that point to the zones in thedata area where the file or directory data is actually stored.
• Thedata area is the largest component of the file system, using the majority of the space. It is where the actual file and directory data are stored.

• List of file systems
• MINIX 3
• Minix-vmd

• File, file system, and memory size limits in Minix
• Minix Filesystem Tool
• Introduction to the minix file system

• 1987 software
• Unix file system technology
• Disk file systems
• File systems supported by the Linux kernel
• Minix

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata