This topic describes the file system concept.
A file system operates within the file server to provide services which
deliver the required function to the client API. The elocal.fsy file
system, a core part of the operating system, drives the local media—ROM, RAM
and CF card. A VFAT file system is used in each case, which
maps directly onto the client API.
Other file systems may be implemented, for example to support remote file systems over a network. Such file systems may be installed dynamically without any reboot. They may also be uninstalled dynamically, and so free up resources.
Installable file systems must present a Symbian platform native interface
for clients, no matter what the interface and specification of the remote
file system. This is trivial for Windows, OS/2 and DOS, since Symbian platform
maps these directly. For Unix, minor changes such as swapping directory separators
between / and \ are needed. For
systems such as IBM's mainframes, and DEC's VMS, more radical mappings are
needed, to transform between the remote file system's record-based architecture,
and Symbian platform's byte-based architecture.