The Elephant file system

[Adam J Richardson]

Andrew Falanga wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I was doing some research for file systems at work and came across
> some semi-technical papers on a file system called elephant.  Since
> this paper mentions that the designers first tried their
> implementation on FreeBSD 2.2.7, I thought I'd ask here if anyone has
> ever heard of this file system.  If so, is this something that is
> available in FreeBSD or is this just an interesting academic exercise?
>  If this isn't is use, why?  Also, if not in use, is there another
> file system (by another name) that does something similar?  This file
> system sounds like a great idea.
> 
> A link to get the paper I mentioned is here:
> 
> http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Alistair_Veitch/papers/elephant-hotos/index.html
> 
> Andy

Hi Andy,

I only read the abstract but this sounds like what Google do with Gmail. 
Perhaps this paper is where they got the idea for it. [Did Gmail start 
before or after 2001? I have no idea.]

Sounds like a neat idea, as long as it doesn't become the main file 
system, because it definitely isn't for me. I have small hard drives and 
no money. Disk space is definitely a scarce resource for me. Sigh.

Adam J Richardson