Developer(s) | Junjiro Okajima |
---|---|
Full name | Advanced multi layered unification filesystem |
Introduced | 2006 |
Features | |
File system permissions | POSIX |
Other | |
Supported operating systems | Linux via third-party kernel module |
aufs (short for advanced multi-layered unification filesystem) implements a union mount for Linux file systems. The name originally stood for AnotherUnionFS until version 2.
Developed by Junjiro Okajima in 2006,[1] aufs is a complete rewrite of the earlier UnionFS. It aimed to improve reliability and performance, but also introduced some new concepts, like writable branch balancing,[2] and other improvements – some of which are now implemented in the UnionFS 2.x branch.
aufs was rejected for merging into mainline Linux. Its code was criticized for being "dense, unreadable, [and] uncommented".[3] Instead, OverlayFS was merged in the Linux kernel.[4][5] After several attempts to merge aufs into mainline kernel, the author has given up.[6]