GNOME VFS
Encyclopedia
GnomeVFS is short for GNOME
Virtual File System. It provides an abstraction layer
for the reading, writing and execution of files. It was primarily used by the Nautilus file manager and other GNOME applications before GNOME 2.22.
A cause of confusion is the fact that the file system
abstraction used by the Linux kernel
is also called the virtual file system
(VFS) layer. This is however at a lower level.
A replacement called GVFS
is currently in development which also allows partitions to be mounted through FUSE
.
, the GNOME project has declared GnomeVFS deprecated
in favour of GVFS
and GIO
, requesting that developers not use it in new applications.
GNOME
GNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
Virtual File System. It provides an abstraction layer
Abstraction (computer science)
In computer science, abstraction is the process by which data and programs are defined with a representation similar to its pictorial meaning as rooted in the more complex realm of human life and language with their higher need of summarization and categorization , while hiding away the...
for the reading, writing and execution of files. It was primarily used by the Nautilus file manager and other GNOME applications before GNOME 2.22.
A cause of confusion is the fact that the file system
File system
A file system is a means to organize data expected to be retained after a program terminates by providing procedures to store, retrieve and update data, as well as manage the available space on the device which contain it. A file system organizes data in an efficient manner and is tuned to the...
abstraction used by the Linux kernel
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel used by the Linux family of Unix-like operating systems. It is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software....
is also called the virtual file system
Virtual file system
A virtual file system or virtual filesystem switch is an abstraction layer on top of a more concrete file system. The purpose of a VFS is to allow client applications to access different types of concrete file systems in a uniform way...
(VFS) layer. This is however at a lower level.
A replacement called GVFS
GVFS
GVFS is the virtual filesystem for the GNOME desktop, which allows users easy access to remote data via SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, SMB, and local data via HAL integration, OBEX and others....
is currently in development which also allows partitions to be mounted through FUSE
Filesystem in Userspace
Filesystem in Userspace is a loadable kernel module for Unix-like computer operating systems that lets non-privileged users create their own file systems without editing kernel code...
.
, the GNOME project has declared GnomeVFS deprecated
Deprecation
In the process of authoring computer software, its standards or documentation, deprecation is a status applied to software features to indicate that they should be avoided, typically because they have been superseded...
in favour of GVFS
GVFS
GVFS is the virtual filesystem for the GNOME desktop, which allows users easy access to remote data via SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, SMB, and local data via HAL integration, OBEX and others....
and GIO
GIO (Gnome)
GIO provides a modern, easy-to-use VFS API that sits at the right level in the library stack. The goal is to overcome the shortcomings of GnomeVFS and provide an API that is so good that developers prefer it over raw POSIX calls. It ships with GLib as a separate library called libgio-2.0...
, requesting that developers not use it in new applications.