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Analysis of file usage in personal computer environments

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Abstract

This paper discusses collection, analysis and interpretation of data pertaining to files in personal computer (PC) environments. We developed programs to collect and analyze data from PCs running the OS/21 operating system and using the High Performance File System (HPFS). The data collection program gathers the information about file sizes, the times and dates of file creation, the last file access, and the last file update by scanning the contents of disk storage devices. The gathered information is used to analyze the distributions of file sizes, functional file lifetimes, and functional lifetimes of file's data. The analysis shows that: most files are small (more than 60% of files on a system are smaller than 8 Kbytes), about 60% of files on a system have never been accessed again after being created and very few files are ever modified.

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References

  1. R. Duncan, “Design Goals and Implementation of the New High Performance File System,” Microsoft Systems Journal, pp. 1–13, Sept. 1989.

  2. E. Muharemagic, I. Mahgoub, and M. Milenkovic, “Analysis of File Sizes and File Lifetimes in Personal Computer Environments,” Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Pittsburgh Conf. on Modeling and Simulation, May 1992.

  3. J.K. Ousterhout, et al., “A Trace-Driven Analysis of the UNIX 4.2 BSD File System,” Proceedings of the 10th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, ACM, pp. 15–24, 1985.

  4. M. Satyanarayanan, “A Study of File Sizes and Functional Lifetimes,’ Proceedings of the 8th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, ACM, pp. 96–126, Dec. 1981.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Florida Atlantic University, P.O. Box 3091, 33431-0991, Boca Raton, FL

    Edin A. Muharemagic & Imadeldin O. Mahgoub

  2. Visual Subsystems, IBM, Boca Raton, FL

    Milan Milenkovic

Authors
  1. Edin A. Muharemagic
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  2. Imadeldin O. Mahgoub
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  3. Milan Milenkovic
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Recommended by: N. Boudriga

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Muharemagic, E.A., Mahgoub, I.O. & Milenkovic, M. Analysis of file usage in personal computer environments. Distrib Parallel Databases 3, 315–324 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01299676

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01299676

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