installable file system

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installable file system - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  installable file system
  
     <operating system> (IFS or "File System Driver", "FSD") An
     API that allows you to extend OS/2 to access files stored
     on disk in formats other than FAT and HPFS, and access
     files that are stored on a network file server.
  
     For example an IFS could provide programs running under OS/2
     (including DOS and Windows programs) with access to files
     stored under Unix using the Berkeley fast file system.
  
     The other variety of IFS (a "remote file system" or
     "redirector") allows file sharing over a LAN, e.g. using
     Unix's Network File System protocol.  In this case, the
     IFS passes a program's file access requests to a remote file
     server, possibly also translating between different file
     attributes used by OS/2 and the remote system.
  
     Documentation on the IFS API has been available only by
     special request from IBM.
  
     An IFS is structured as an ordinary 16-bit DLL with entry
     points for opening, closing, reading, and writing files, the
     swapper, file locking, and Universal Naming Convention.  The
     main part of an IFS that runs in ring 0 is called by the
     OS/2 kernel in the context of the caller's process and
     thread.  The other part that runs in ring 3 is a utility
     library with entry points for FORMAT, RECOVER, SYS, and
     CHKDSK.
  
     EDM/2 article (http://edm2.com/0103/).
  
     (1999-04-07)