S5 version	Table of Contents (frame/ no frame)
(14) File System III

• Note that in UNIX, disks are mounted on to the file system at any level, not just the root (cf. MacOS "desktop"). The boot disk always provides the root (/) directory.

• On a Macintosh you need to know the disk your file is on. This is also true on a DOS/Windows machine. On a UNIX machine you just need to know the path to your file.

File systems can be remote, actually attached to some other computer on the network. They can normally be treated just the same as local file systems, except they may be a bit slower. The Northstar system keeps all the user files on central servers. Some Central Research machines keep local files in addition to using the remote file servers.

Most Unix systems can also mount disks with "foreign" file systems (e.g. MAC HFS, DOS FAT, NT, OS/2). Operations on such file systems are restricted to conform to the procedures of the foreign system (permissions, owner, filename limits)