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
For example an IFS could provide programs running under OS/2
(including DOS and Windows programs) with access to files
The other variety of IFS (a "remote file system" or
"redirector") allows file sharing over a
LAN, e.g. using
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
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.
(1999-04-07)