Apple to use flash-optimized Apple File System

Apple has announced a new file system that will be used for iOS, macOS, tvOS and watchOS. The file system is optimized for flash memory and encryption, according to Apple.

Apple File System can be used as a Developer Preview in macOS 10.12 Sierra and should be released in 2017. Ultimately, Apple wants iOS, tvOS and watchOS to be based on the file system as well. The manufacturer reports at WWDC that the file system is optimized for use with flash memory or SSDs and offers features such as ‘strong encryption’, copy-on-write metadata, space sharing, file and folder cloning and snapshots.

On one page, Apple lists the differences between APFS and HFS+. HFS+, which Apple now uses for OS X, is based on the 30-year-old Hierarchical File System. For example, APFS will support 64bit inode numbers instead of 32bit. Also, unlike HFS+, the file system supports asynchronous trim operations when deleting files and freeing up storage space.

In terms of encryption, APFS supports single-key and multi-key encryption with separate keys for file data and for metadata. Apple will use aes-xts or aes-cbc, depending on the hardware.

There are still some stumbling blocks to use. For example, APFS cannot yet be used for boot disks, file names are still case-sensitive, Time Machine backups are not yet supported, volumes cannot yet be encrypted with FileVault and the file system cannot yet handle Fusion Drives from Apple computers. .