What is LTFS?
Linear Tape File System (LTFS) is an open-source file system specification developed by IBM that allows users to access data on magnetic tape cartridges using a familiar drag-and-drop interface. Introduced in 2010, LTFS treats tape cartridges like any other removable storage device—similar to how you would interact with an external hard drive or USB flash drive. Before LTFS, retrieving data from tape required proprietary backup software, complex command-line operations, and often the same backup application that originally wrote the data. Users had to navigate through backup catalogs and restore procedures, making tape storage inaccessible to non-technical users and creating vendor lock-in situations. LTFS fundamentally reimagines tape storage by implementing a self-describing format. The tape cartridge itself contains both the data and an index that describes where files are located on the tape. This index is written in XML format and stored in a dedicated partition on the tape, allowing any LTFS-compatible system to read the cartridge without requiring external databases or proprietary software.
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