| Developer(s) | ISO/IEC, Ecma International |
|---|---|
| Variants | ISO 13490 |
| Introduced | 1988 |
| Limits | |
| Max volume size | 8 TB |
| Other | |
| Supported operating systems | Cross platform |
| Optical discs |
|---|
 |
ISO 9660 (also known as ECMA-119) is a file system for optical disc media. The file system is an international standard available from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Since the specification is available for anybody to purchase,[1] implementations have been written for many operating systems.
ISO 9660 traces its roots to the High Sierra Format,[2] which arranged file information in a dense, sequential layout to minimize nonsequential access by using a hierarchical (eight levels of directories deep) tree file system arrangement, similar to UNIX and FAT. To facilitate cross platform compatibility, it defined a minimal set of common file attributes (directory or ordinary file and time of recording) and name attributes (name, extension, and version), and used a separate system use area where future optional extensions for each file may be specified. High Sierra was adopted in December 1986 (with changes) as an international standard by Ecma International as ECMA-119[3] and submitted for fast tracking to the ISO, where it was eventually accepted as ISO 9660:1988.[4] Subsequent amendments to the standard were published in 2013 and 2020.
The first 16 sectors of the file system are empty and reserved for other uses. The rest begins with a volume descriptor set (a header block which describes the subsequent layout) and then the path tables, directories and files on the disc. An ISO 9660 compliant disc must contain at least one primary volume descriptor describing the file system and a volume descriptor set terminator which is a volume descriptor that marks the end of the descriptor set. The primary volume descriptor provides information about the volume, characteristics and metadata, including a root directory record that indicates in which sector the root directory is located. Other fields contain metadata such as the volume's name and creator, along with the size and number of logical blocks used by the file system. Path tables summarize the directory structure of the relevant directory hierarchy. For each directory in the image, the path table provides the directory identifier, the location of the extent in which the directory is recorded, the length of any extended attributes associated with the directory, and the index of its parent directory path table entry.
There are several extensions to ISO 9660 that relax some of its limitations. Notable examples include Rock Ridge (Unix-style permissions and longer names), Joliet (Unicode, allowing non-Latin scripts to be used), El Torito (enables CDs to be bootable) and the Apple ISO 9660 Extensions (file characteristics specific to the classic Mac OS and macOS, such as resource forks, file backup date and more).
- ^ "ISO 9660:1988(en), Information processing – Volume and file structure of CD-ROM for information interchange". ISO (International Organization for Standardization). ISO. 1988. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
- ^ "Working Paper for Information Processing: Volume and File Structure of CD-ROM for Information Interchange". Optical Information Systems. 7 (1): 29–49. January 1987.
- ^ "Volume and File Structure of CDROM for Information Interchange". Ecma International. December 1987.
- ^ Volume and File Structure of CD-ROM for Information Interchange (corrected ed.). Geneva: International Organization for Standardization (ISO). 1 September 1988.