NTFS-3G
Encyclopedia
NTFS-3G is an open source
cross-platform
implementation of the Microsoft Windows
NTFS
file system with read-write support. NTFS-3G often uses the FUSE
file system interface, so it can run unmodified on many different operating system
s. It is runnable on Linux
, FreeBSD
, NetBSD
, OpenSolaris, BeOS
, QNX
, WinCE, Nucleus
, VxWorks
, Haiku
, MorphOS
, and Mac OS X
. It is licensed under either the GNU General Public License
or a proprietary license. It is a partial fork
of ntfsprogs
and is under active maintenance and development.
NTFS-3G was introduced by one of the senior Linux NTFS developers, Szabolcs Szakacsits (ˈsɒboltʃ ˈsɒkɒtʃitʃ), in July 2006. The first stable version was released on 2007-02-21 as version 1.0. The developers of NTFS-3G later formed a company, Tuxera Ltd.
, to further develop the code. NTFS-3G is now the free "community edition", while Tuxera NTFS is the proprietary version.
. Support to modify access control list
s and permission
s is available. NTFS partitions are mounted
using the Filesystem in Userspace
(FUSE) interface.
NTFS-3G supports partial NTFS journaling
, so if an unexpected computer failure leaves the file system in an inconsistent state, the volume can be repaired. As of 2009, a volume having an unclean journal file is recovered and mounted by default. The ‘norecover’ mount option can be used to disable this behavior.
is comparable to that of other filesystems' drivers in-kernel, provided that the CPU is powerful enough. On embedded or old systems, the high processor usage can severely limit performance..
Current versions often show 100% CPU utilization on dealing with big files on fragmented NTFS file systems .
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
cross-platform
Cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform, or multi-platform, is an attribute conferred to computer software or computing methods and concepts that are implemented and inter-operate on multiple computer platforms...
implementation of the Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
NTFS
NTFS
NTFS is the standard file system of Windows NT, including its later versions Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7....
file system with read-write support. NTFS-3G often uses the 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...
file system interface, so it can run unmodified on many different operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
s. It is runnable on Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
, FreeBSD
FreeBSD
FreeBSD is a free Unix-like operating system descended from AT&T UNIX via BSD UNIX. Although for legal reasons FreeBSD cannot be called “UNIX”, as the direct descendant of BSD UNIX , FreeBSD’s internals and system APIs are UNIX-compliant...
, NetBSD
NetBSD
NetBSD is a freely available open source version of the Berkeley Software Distribution Unix operating system. It was the second open source BSD descendant to be formally released, after 386BSD, and continues to be actively developed. The NetBSD project is primarily focused on high quality design,...
, OpenSolaris, BeOS
BeOS
BeOS is an operating system for personal computers which began development by Be Inc. in 1991. It was first written to run on BeBox hardware. BeOS was optimized for digital media work and was written to take advantage of modern hardware facilities such as symmetric multiprocessing by utilizing...
, QNX
QNX
QNX is a commercial Unix-like real-time operating system, aimed primarily at the embedded systems market. The product was originally developed by Canadian company, QNX Software Systems, which was later acquired by Canadian BlackBerry-producer Research In Motion.-Description:As a microkernel-based...
, WinCE, Nucleus
Nucleus RTOS
Nucleus OS is a real-time operating system and toolset created by the Embedded Systems Division of Mentor Graphics for various central processing unit platforms. Nucleus OS is an embedded software solution and is in an estimated 2.11 billion devices worldwide.Development is typically done on a...
, VxWorks
VxWorks
VxWorks is a real-time operating system developed as proprietary software by Wind River Systems of Alameda, California, USA. First released in 1987, VxWorks is designed for use in embedded systems.- History :...
, Haiku
Haiku (operating system)
Haiku is a free and open source operating system compatible with BeOS. Its development began in 2001, and the operating system became self-hosting in 2008, with the first alpha release in September 2009, the second in May 2010 and the third in June 2011....
, MorphOS
MorphOS
MorphOS is an Amiga-compatible computer operating system. It is a mixed proprietary and open source OS produced for the Pegasos PowerPC processor based computer, PowerUP accelerator equipped Amiga computers, and a series of Freescale development boards that use the Genesi firmware, including the...
, and Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
. It is licensed under either the GNU General Public License
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License is the most widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU Project....
or a proprietary license. It is a partial fork
Fork (software development)
In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a legal copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct piece of software...
of ntfsprogs
Ntfsprogs
Ntfsprogs is a collection of free Unix utilities for managing the NTFS filesystem used by Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4.0, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7 on a harddisk partition. 'ntfsprogs' was the first stable method of writing to NTFS partitions in...
and is under active maintenance and development.
NTFS-3G was introduced by one of the senior Linux NTFS developers, Szabolcs Szakacsits (ˈsɒboltʃ ˈsɒkɒtʃitʃ), in July 2006. The first stable version was released on 2007-02-21 as version 1.0. The developers of NTFS-3G later formed a company, Tuxera Ltd.
Tuxera
Tuxera Inc. is a Finnish company specialized in developing file systems' software, whose most widely deployed commercial software is "Tuxera NTFS for Mac".It was founded in 2008 by Szabolcs Szakacsits, current President and CTO.- History :...
, to further develop the code. NTFS-3G is now the free "community edition", while Tuxera NTFS is the proprietary version.
Features
NTFS-3G supports all operations for writing files: files of any size can be created, modified, renamed, moved, or deleted on NTFS partitions. Transparent compression is supported, but there is no support for encryptionEncrypting File System
The Encrypting File System on Microsoft Windows is a feature introduced in version 3.0 of NTFS that provides filesystem-level encryption...
. Support to modify access control list
Access control list
An access control list , with respect to a computer file system, is a list of permissions attached to an object. An ACL specifies which users or system processes are granted access to objects, as well as what operations are allowed on given objects. Each entry in a typical ACL specifies a subject...
s and permission
File system permissions
Most current file systems have methods of administering permissions or access rights to specific users and groups of users. These systems control the ability of the users to view or make changes to the contents of the filesystem....
s is available. NTFS partitions are mounted
Mount (computing)
Mounting takes place before a computer can use any kind of storage device . The user or their operating system must make it accessible through the computer's file system. A user can access only files on mounted media.- Mount point :A mount point is a physical location in the partition used as a...
using the Filesystem in Userspace
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...
(FUSE) interface.
NTFS-3G supports partial NTFS journaling
Journaling file system
A journaling file system is a file system that keeps track of the changes that will be made in a journal before committing them to the main file system...
, so if an unexpected computer failure leaves the file system in an inconsistent state, the volume can be repaired. As of 2009, a volume having an unclean journal file is recovered and mounted by default. The ‘norecover’ mount option can be used to disable this behavior.
Performance
Benchmarks show that the driver's performance via FUSEFilesystem 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...
is comparable to that of other filesystems' drivers in-kernel, provided that the CPU is powerful enough. On embedded or old systems, the high processor usage can severely limit performance..
Current versions often show 100% CPU utilization on dealing with big files on fragmented NTFS file systems .
History
- NTFS-3G forked from the Linux-NTFS project on 2006-10-31.
- On 2007-02-21, Szabolcs Szakacsits announced "the release of the first open source, freely available, stable read/write NTFS driver, NTFS-3G 1.0."
- On 2009-10-05, NTFS-3G for Mac was brought under the auspices of TuxeraTuxeraTuxera Inc. is a Finnish company specialized in developing file systems' software, whose most widely deployed commercial software is "Tuxera NTFS for Mac".It was founded in 2008 by Szabolcs Szakacsits, current President and CTO.- History :...
Ltd. and a proprietary version called Tuxera NTFS for Mac was made available. - On April 12th, 2011 it was announced that Ntfsprogs project was merged with NTFS-3G.