{
  "slug": "filesystem-aging",
  "term": "Filesystem aging",
  "aliases": [
    "file system aging"
  ],
  "definition": "Filesystem aging is the evolution of allocation layout through file operations that can degrade performance even when the logical contents remain comparable.",
  "note": "This is layout history, not calendar age or NAND wear. A benchmark should distinguish within-file placement, locality between related files and the distribution of remaining free space.",
  "related": [
    "free-space-fragmentation",
    "dynamic-layout-score",
    "ssd-preconditioning",
    "ssd-steady-state"
  ],
  "limitations": [
    "Effects depend on workload, filesystem version, cache policy and hardware.",
    "Historical aging experiments are not a ranking of current filesystems."
  ],
  "citations": [
    {
      "id": "conway17",
      "title": "Conway et al. File Systems Fated for Senescence? Nonsense, Says Science! FAST 2017, pp. 45-58, sections 3.3, 4 and 6.",
      "url": "https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/fast17/fast17-conway.pdf",
      "accessed": "2026-10-14"
    },
    {
      "id": "conway19",
      "title": "Conway et al. Filesystem Aging: It's more Usage than Fullness. HotStorage 2019, sections 3-4 and Figure 3.",
      "url": "https://www.usenix.org/system/files/hotstorage19-paper-conway.pdf",
      "accessed": "2026-10-14"
    }
  ],
  "status": "shipping",
  "advantages": [],
  "supersedes": [],
  "supersededBy": [],
  "firstSeen": null,
  "lastSeen": null,
  "updated": "2026-10-14"
}