Home / server / Questions / 445234
In Process
Graham Perrin
Asked: 2012-11-04 22:25:05 +0800 CST

ZFS terminology: does 'root file system' accurately describe the file system at the root of a pool?

  • 772

I began using the expression root file system.

Recently in search engines I see, that three-word expression has different interpretations in relation to ZFS.

To avoid future misunderstandings:

  • if not 'root file system' (the first answer below), what single generic expression should I use when describing the file system at the root of a pool?

… and is an appropriate tag for this question? ;-)

zfs

2 Answers

  1. root file system

    … because it appears in the ZFS man page for zpool:

    screenshot of the man page

    • 1

  2. Should you need to avoid ambiguity, you might want to use the "root dataset" expression or even "ZFS root dataset".

    rootfs is probably still an appropriate tag although it has even more different interpretations than "root file system".

    • 1