It has to manage storage capacity, data placement, directories and file names, metadata, data integrity, and access permissions. The file system is very much the operating system's bookkeeper, and it may interact with or be part of other protocols like NFS or SMB to support network access to mounted file systems. We're glad you asked! File systems take care of organizing files by providing the means to store, retrieve, and modify data on a given physical device, such as a hard drive, array of flash memory, or optical disc.
