File Sharing in OS

File Sharing in an Operating System(OS) denotes how information and files are shared between different users, computers, or devices on a network; and files are units of data that are stored in a computer in the form of documents/images/videos or any others types of information needed.

For Example: Suppose letting your computer talk to another computer and exchange pictures, documents, or any useful data. This is generally useful when one wants to work on a project with others, send files to friends, or simply shift stuff to another device. Our OS provides ways to do this like email attachments, cloud services, etc. to make the sharing process easier and more secure.

Now, file sharing is nothing like a magical bridge between Computer A to Computer B allowing them to swap some files with each other.

Primary Terminology Related to File Sharing

Let’s see what are the various ways to achieve this, but there are some important terminologies one should know beforehand. Let’s discuss those primary terminologies first:

• Folder/Directory: It is basically like a container for all of our files on a computer. The folder can contain files and even other folders maintaining like hierarchical structure for organizing data.
• Networking: It is involved in connecting computers or devices where we need to share the resources. Networks can be local (LAN) or global (Internet).
• IP Address: It is numerical data given to every connected device on the network
• Protocol: It is given as the set of rules which drives the communication between devices on a network. In the context of file sharing, protocols define how files are transferred between computers.
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP): FTP is a standard network protocol used to transfer files between a client and a server on a computer network. 

Various Ways to Achieve File Sharing

Let’s see the various ways through which we can achieve file sharing in an OS.

1. Server Message Block (SMB)

SMB is like a network based file sharing protocol mainly used in windows operating systems. It allows our computer to share files/printer on a network. SMB is now the standard way for seamless file transfer method and printer sharing.

Example: Imagine in a company where the employees have to share the files on a particular project . Here SMB is employed to share files among all the windows based operating system.orate on projects. SMB/CIFS is employed to share files between Windows-based computers. Users can access shared folders on a server, create, modify, and delete files.

SMB File Sharing

Read more about SMB in the article :

SMB and it’s implementation

2. Network File System (NFS)

NFS is a distributed based file sharing protocol mainly used in Linux/Unix based operating System. It allows a computer to share files over a network as if they were based on local. It provides a efficient way of transfer of files between servers and clients.

Example: Many Programmer/Universities/Research Institution uses Unix/Linux based Operating System. The Institutes puts up a global server datasets using NFS. The Researchers and students can access these shared directories and everyone can collaborate on it.

NFS File Sharing

Read more about NFS in the article:

NFS and it’s architecture

3. File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

It is the most common standard protocol for transferring of the files between a client and a server on a computer network. FTPs supports both uploading and downloading of the files, here we can download,upload and transfer of files from Computer A to Computer B over the internet or between computer systems.

Example: Suppose the developer makes changes on the server. Using the FTP protocol, the developer connects to the server they can update the server with new website content and updates the existing file over there.

Read more about FTP: FTP and it’s implementation

FTP File Sharing

4. Cloud-Based File Sharing

It involves the famous ways of using online services like Google Drive, DropBox , One Drive ,etc. Any user can store files over these cloud services and they can share that with others, and providing access from many users. It includes collaboration in realtime file sharing and version control access.

Ex: Several students working on a project and they can use Google Drive to store and share for that purpose. They can access the files from any computer or mobile devices and they can make changes in realtime and track the changes over there.

Cloud Based File Sharing

These all file sharing methods serves different purpose and needs according to the requirements and flexibility of the users based on the operating system.

Conclusion

The above blod discusses how file sharing in OS is done, and how the data is transferred over there.
Dicsussed few terminologies used for knowing file sharing and four prominent methods: SMB for seamless sharing in Windows, NFS for efficient sharing in Unix/Linux, FTP for standard file transfers, and cloud-based sharing via services like Google Drive.

Frequently Asked Questions on File Sharing – FAQs

What is file sharing in Operating System (OS)?

File Sharing in an Operating System(OS) denotes how information and files are shared between different users, computers, or devices on a network. These fles can be basically anything like images,documents,etc. and are exchanges between among all the users between the devices.

Few ways to achieve file sharing in OS.

Some common ways for achieving file sharing in OS is: Server Message Block (SMB), Network File System (NFS), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and cloud-based file sharing services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and One Drive.

How IP Address helps in file sharing?

It is a numerical data given to every to the each connected device on the network, to help the communication between the devices.