Book details of 'Inside the Windows 95 File System (Nutshell Handbook)'

Title	Inside the Windows 95 File System (Nutshell Handbook)
Author(s)	Stan Mitchell
ISBN	156592200X
Language	English
Publisher	O'Reilly & Associates

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Reviewer amazon.com wrote:
If you're a C programmer who's been dying to peek at the structures beneath the surface of the Windows 95 file system, this is the book for you. Jam packed with hands-on examples, it illustrates in gory detail how IFSMgr (the Installable File System Manager) in Windows 95 directs generic file-access requests from a variety of sources to the appropriate devices. Sections on VFAT, virtual memory, and VCACHE also describe low level file operations.
Reviewer Rob Slade wrote:
Data recovery people might be just a tad disappointed. This is not actually about the physical file system of sectors and tracks per se, but about file system management inside Win95. The file system that the user or application sees may be remarkably different from any physical device layout, and may, in fact, partake of a number of devices. Chapter one's title of "From IFSMgr to the Internet" is not exactly hype, and works on two levels. The first is an explanation of the Installable File System Manager and its provision for management of local storage, resources access by packet requests over a network, and resources dealt with as (byte) serial data. (Hmmmm. Is Microsoft doing a UNIX on us, and seeing absolutely everything as a file?) The second is a demonstration run with the author's own (and provided) MultiMon utility in order to learn what we can about file system activity from a session with an Internet browser. Chapter two gives us some more sample sessions, but with strictly limited programs for more precise review of specific calls. Using MultiMon to trace the boot process, and the various ways IFSMgr is used by different types of applications, is covered in chapter three. File system APIs (Applications Programming Interfaces) are detailed in chapter four for Win32, KERNEL32, and Win16. Chapter five looks at the interrupts used by DOS. Chapter six starts to looks at the installable parts of the file system, the File System Drivers (FSDs) and the requests that can be dispatched to them. Monitoring of file activity, and some more parts of MultiMon, are in chapter seven. The structure and characteristics of FSDs are detailed in chapter eight, which also gives a sample driver that can be used to drive a monochrome monitor. Chapter nine looks at the VFAT system, including some structural details on FAT32. Virtual memory in Win95 (and the reason its swap file is not a swap file) is examined in chapter ten. Caching is reviewed in chapter eleven. A survey of IFSMgr services, and some of the things the documentation doesn't tell you, is included in chapter twelve. Chapter thirteen talks about the network client software, with some comments on the proposed Common Internet File System (CIFS). Chapter fourteen looks to the future, and particularly to the relevant aspects of the Windows NT file system. Appendices provide more documentation on MultiMon, IFSMgr data structures, IFS development aids, and a bibliography. This si definitely a programming, rather than system support or administration, manual, although some of the functions could be useful in diagnosing problems. Those who are working on Win9x applications that make extensive use of the file system will undoubtedly find much assistance here. BKIW95FS.RVW 981121
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Book description:

This book details the Windows 95 File System, depicting the role it plays in providing opportunities and challenges for developers. Over the course of the book, Stan Mitchell progressively strips away the layers of the Win95 File System, which reside in a component named Installable File System Manager or IFSMgr, providing the reader with information that is crucial for effective File System development. With the knowledge gained from this book, developers will have the ability to make crucial design decisions with the vast amount of new File System features. At present, there is a dearth of information about the Windows 95 File System. Microsoft has documented the Installable File System (IFS) in the Windows 95 device driver kit, yet it lacks example programs and background information on the File System's architecture or design. Stan's book, however, takes a "hands-on" approach and, where appropriate, demonstrates ideas with example code. The reader gets a view of the File System like a building that is going up, before the floors and walls are erected and the plumbing is in clear view. The book doesn't attempt to rebuild Windows 95 from the ground up, but it does trace through Windows 95 from the "Big Bang" to its quiescent state (Kernel idle). Armed with this background, the reader will approach examples of the Windows 95 operating system modes in the book, and examine how the File System is accessed from each of them. This book is vital to the large audience of people who don't write device drivers for a living, but who need to know about this new File System in Win95 that, appearances aside, is quite different from what the PC world has used for the last ten years. Includes a diskette containing MULTIMON, a general-purpose monitor developed by Stan Mitchell for examining Windows internals.