JAMFS- a followup to RKFS

This is part one of a series of posts on Linux Filesystem development..

I'm presuming that you are here, because you are interested in filesystem development in Linux and you are familiar with the rkfs. That(rkfs) is one of the most important and basic documents that you have to read and try to understand. Also i'm assuming that you are familiar with the very interesting and equally intriguing VFS, the linux Virtual FileSystem, also known by other names. Inorder to proceed in the field of linux filesystem development, you will have you appreciate the beauty and genius of the VFS.

Now, what we did in jamfs(JAM stands primarily for the initials of its creators, and maybe for it being a modified version of rkfs) was not that big an achievement primarily because we still have kept the filesystem as a memory one and haven't touched the memory management coding done by Mr. Ravikiran. We took on the project so that we could study the VFS and understand it as much as we could, the major modification that we did for the project was that we changed the single file approach by Ravi[hope he doesnt mind me calling him Ravi ;) ] to a filesystem that could handle as many files as needed and include calls like 'rename' file, etc..

Before you proceed further, please understand that my project was very hasty one, and there are a few bugs, which I havent fixed yet. I do not intend to walk you through the same path Ravi has taken you, I'm writing this article for people like me who initially read Ravi's material and went searching for something more. Also i strongly recommend that you have alongside with you abook on linux kernel developement, if possible a chm file or a e-book(enabling quick and efficient searching). Apart from this I will list out the major things you will need to know before you kick start your project.