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<concept id="GUID-310A8A9C-98E7-59EE-9376-8E572580190F" xml:lang="en"><title>File services in Symbian platform</title><shortdesc>This topic describes the common concepts of file systems

and files used by Symbian platform.</shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<p>Like other software systems, Symbian platform can store data so

that it is kept when a handset is powered down. </p>

<p>On PCs, a file is kept on magnetic disk or optical media such as

CD or DVD. On older generations of personal organisers, a file was

often kept in RAM, needing a permanent power supply, and a backup

battery to guarantee this. On the most recent telephone handsets,

files are normally stored in flash memory, either NOR flash or NAND

flash, and also on removable devices such as MultiMediaCard (MMC),

Secure Digital card (SD card), Memory Stick or Compact flash (CF). </p>

<p>There are more sophisticated services for persisting data such

as streams, stores, central repository etc. that applications can

use, but they all rely, either directly or indirectly, on the commonly

understood idea of the file. </p>

<p>The ROM on a typical handset is located in non-volatile flash memory,

allowing it to be upgraded by the handset manufacturer after initial

production. The location for user data is almost always flash memory

(NAND or NOR), on the grounds of cost, although rotating media devices

capable of holding large amounts of data are likely in future handsets. </p>

<ul>

<li id="GUID-798E9ED1-24DF-5990-9D1E-CD043B94B722"><p> <xref href="GUID-310A8A9C-98E7-59EE-9376-8E572580190F.dita#GUID-310A8A9C-98E7-59EE-9376-8E572580190F/GUID-DD8C4BFB-9816-5EA5-A9F2-5146C64BBC9C">Basic concepts</xref>  </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-BBB6D4C2-4AE6-55CD-BC65-416BCF705F31"><p> <xref href="GUID-310A8A9C-98E7-59EE-9376-8E572580190F.dita#GUID-310A8A9C-98E7-59EE-9376-8E572580190F/GUID-62387DD0-D8E4-5426-8432-B14696291AF8">Accessing file services</xref>  </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-B6AEF9DA-60D3-5728-9C46-59EE5C98346C"><p> <xref href="GUID-310A8A9C-98E7-59EE-9376-8E572580190F.dita#GUID-310A8A9C-98E7-59EE-9376-8E572580190F/GUID-9FF4525A-EBFD-5E9F-BD86-C6B75E5C35EF">Security issues</xref>  </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-ACF583E3-3FAA-52FE-9A07-8172A4BBBCC9"><p> <xref href="GUID-310A8A9C-98E7-59EE-9376-8E572580190F.dita#GUID-310A8A9C-98E7-59EE-9376-8E572580190F/GUID-849F5D6E-7911-55F8-839A-019D1BF16726">File systems and mounting a drive</xref>  </p> </li>

</ul>

<section id="GUID-DD8C4BFB-9816-5EA5-A9F2-5146C64BBC9C"><title>Basic

concepts</title> <p>Symbian platform uses a number of file concepts

that are common to most operating systems, for example, drives and

directories. </p> <p><b>Drives</b> </p> <p>Symbian platform uses the concept of the <i>drive</i>. This idea is similar to that in other operating systems,

i.e. it corresponds to a logical device. A media device such as a

MultiMediaCard can be logically split into partitions, and each partition

is treated as a separate drive. Symbian platform adopts a DOS-like

convention where each drive is identified by a single letter. This

means that there can be up to 26 drives on a handset, identified by

the letters <filepath>A:</filepath> through to <filepath>Z:</filepath>. In practice, there are far fewer than this, and the number depends

on the individual manufacturer's handset </p> <p>Internally, Symbian

platform uses the idea of a drive number instead of a letter, and

some legacy API items take a drive number as input, or return a drive

number as output. However, there are functions that can translate

drive numbers to and from drive letters: <xref href="GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC.dita#GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC/GUID-A0F50C51-A4F0-33C1-BBD4-757DEC4B7F2E"><apiname>RFs::DriveToChar()</apiname></xref> and <xref href="GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC.dita#GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC/GUID-D545B868-0549-37A9-AACE-288E7C9CE8C3"><apiname>RFs::CharToDrive()</apiname></xref>. </p> <p>The main ROM

on a handset is always identified as the <filepath>Z:</filepath> drive.

Other drives may be in use: sixteen of the drives <filepath>C:</filepath> to <filepath>R:</filepath> are usually reserved as local drives,

i.e. for media devices located within the handset. A common convention

is to adopt <filepath>C:</filepath> as the main user data drive. and

to designate <filepath>D:</filepath> or <filepath>E:</filepath> as

drives for removable media. <i>Be aware</i>, however, that this is

a convention that some handset manufacturers may not follow, so you

are always advised to check the full SDK that applies to a specific

handset for guidance. Indeed, as a matter of principle, you should

always use the <xref href="GUID-629AB2C9-BEDD-5166-8B09-F8DFF7527C03.dita">system drive</xref> for user data. </p> <p><b>Volume</b> </p> <p>The concept of the volume applies to removable

media. As users insert and remove individual devices, so different

volumes are said to be mounted and demounted. For media types that

can be split into partitions, each partition corresponds to a separate

volume. </p> <p><b>File names and directory structures</b> </p> <p>Files have names,

and Symbian platform uses a hierarchical directory structure in which

to organize them; this is similar to schemes adopted by other operating

systems. For example: </p> <codeblock id="GUID-C4330879-E93B-5939-A810-8D4A1E5B14DB" xml:space="preserve">C:\AAA\BBB\CCC\DDD.EXT</codeblock> <p>There are four main parts to the structure: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-39D18587-8793-511F-B3CC-8CFA6D129F80"><p>the <i>drive</i>; this is always at the top of the hierarchy, and is represented

by a drive letter and a colon. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-8F5F5EB0-721F-5C5B-90B6-08E2CB92BA98"><p>the <i>path</i>; this is a list of names, each name representing a level in the

hierarchy. Each directory name is separated by a back slash character,

and the last directory name is always terminated by a back slash character. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-BD848A50-9BEA-5E08-ACDB-92EDB9C5CA86"><p>the <i>filename</i>; this is everything after the final backslash, and before the dot

if there is a file extension. Symbian platform supports long file

filenames. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-07E1D5CB-9D9B-5141-AD7B-76F839AA2FC0"><p>the <i>extension</i>, everything after the final dot. There is no restriction on the

length of the extension; limits on length apply to the whole structure,

not to any single part of it. </p> </li>

</ul> <p>You will find that the whole structure is sometimes referred

to as the full file name or the full path name. The maximum length

of a full file name is limited to 256 characters. Symbian platform

does not use the extension to identify the software or application

that can access the data. Instead, files have UIDs embedded within

them, and the mapping of files to applications is done through these

UIDs. For more information, see <b>Symbian^3 Tools Guide &gt; Building</b>.</p> <p>The case of full path names is always preserved, but operations

on names are case insensitive. This means that two files that have

the same name but differ only in case are considered to refer to the

same file. </p> <p>Full file names are normally manipulated programmatically.

Extracting drive names, filenames, file extensions, and changing the

names of a directory structure are typical activities. Symbian platform

provides you with the <xref href="GUID-E79A3B03-F8CB-37DB-A2A8-1C6C4E4D739A.dita"><apiname>TParse</apiname></xref>, <xref href="GUID-A6268E58-68EC-3041-93FD-5368CD230947.dita"><apiname>TParsePtr</apiname></xref>, and <xref href="GUID-C65BCDAB-0476-3EAC-9BFC-37243AE43FE9.dita"><apiname>TParsePtrC</apiname></xref> classes to help you do this manipulation. </p> <p>See <xref href="GUID-ECF9E432-EA93-5284-B0E6-A1211289CBD8.dita">parsing

paths and filenames</xref> . </p> </section>

<section id="GUID-62387DD0-D8E4-5426-8432-B14696291AF8"><title>Accessing

file services</title> <p>On Symbian platform, file services are a

common resource. Like other common or shared resources on Symbian

platform, file services are handled by a server - the file server.

Applications and other software that require access to files, directories

and drives are clients of the file server, and send file-related requests

using the <xref href="GUID-198DCED1-F429-5C95-A51D-53AE416687E8.dita">file

server client-side API</xref>. </p> <p>The file server is multithreaded,

which allows each logical drive to be accessed concurrently. More

than one request can be issued for the same drive, but these requests

are handled sequentially. For example, a request to read or write

data to a MultiMediaCard can be handled at the same time as a request

to read or write data to the main user drive. </p> <p>The file server

has a main thread that initially handles all requests. Short requests,

such as those that require access to the ROM drive, and those that

do not require access to any media, run in the file server. </p> <p>The services provided by the file server can be divided into two

types: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-12F7606D-835D-5948-B0F0-EBACC5F6E569"><p>those that give

you access to individual files, directories and drives using the <xref href="GUID-BE0804F6-4375-3C8A-8C83-968F510466E0.dita"><apiname>RFile</apiname></xref>, <xref href="GUID-12AE154F-7741-38C0-ADFE-9784FCF5E516.dita"><apiname>RDir</apiname></xref> and <xref href="GUID-9D7E765B-6872-3EB9-9D5B-1503FA466EC1.dita"><apiname>RFormat</apiname></xref> classes. </p> <p>See also <xref href="GUID-30B2AF3F-E120-5D47-AAA2-529555625B55.dita">How to use sessions,

files, and directories</xref>. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-9E40CF33-C35E-52CE-80B9-8A019F34F305"><p>those that allow

you to do higher level longer running operations such as moving, copying

and deleting files, using the <xref href="GUID-82CEC14F-1479-3922-846A-9FCDB6465EF7.dita"><apiname>CFileMan</apiname></xref> class, scanning

directory trees using the <xref href="GUID-C657AF2D-1183-3CD2-ACAF-3B0B00FC91BB.dita"><apiname>CDirScan</apiname></xref> class, and tracking

the progress of these operations using the <xref href="GUID-E608485F-B3E3-3310-A80E-169D8B9D2234.dita"><apiname>MFileManObserver</apiname></xref> class. </p> <p>See also <xref href="GUID-ACF6C0A2-87ED-55B3-B22A-9B331D9940AC.dita">File management and

searching</xref>.  </p> </li>

</ul> <p>Like most other servers, the client API allows you to make

file requests synchronously or asynchronously. </p> <p>See also <xref href="GUID-6047DB3F-DC92-51DF-9EEB-00E79E890B54.dita">client-server</xref>. </p> </section>

<section id="GUID-9FF4525A-EBFD-5E9F-BD86-C6B75E5C35EF"><title>Security

issues</title> <p>Security considerations restrict the parts of a

handset's directory structure that an application is allowed to access.

The concept is referred to as <i>data caging</i>. </p> <p>There are

a number of principles involved: </p> <ul>

<li id="GUID-21674EE5-40A3-5F71-9973-C089FD838585"><p>The fundamental

principle is the separation of executable code from data. Executable

code can only reside in the <filepath>/sys/bin/</filepath> directory.

Executables cannot be loaded from any location other than <filepath>/sys/bin/</filepath>. Unless an application has the appropriate system

capabilities, the <filepath>/sys/</filepath> directory is not visible

to that application. System capabilities are a discrete set of 'permissions'

that give access to various sensitive system services, and which can

only be granted to applications, if justified, through the <xref href="https://www.symbiansigned.com/app/page" scope="external">Symbian

Signed</xref> scheme. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-4A1854CE-25CB-5630-A27C-73931D937567"><p>Applications

have their own private directory, under which they are free to create

further directory structures and files, and to write to those files.

This is the directory structure <filepath>/private/&lt;app_SID&gt;/</filepath>. <i>&lt;app_SID&gt;</i> is known as a secure identifier and, in general,

is used when verifying an executable's rights of access to system

resources. Here, it is used to form the path name for the executable's

private directory. The secure identifier is a UID which is allocated

to a developer through the <xref href="https://www.symbiansigned.com/app/page" scope="external">Symbian

Signed</xref> scheme, and is guaranteed to be unique within the handset

on which the application is installed. The UID is coded into the <filepath>mmp</filepath> file(s) that define the application's source files,

link requirements, and general characteristics. </p> <p>Other applications

have no right of access to an application's private directory. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-2814D086-A660-5294-9952-E6D66243B652"><p>There is a directory <filepath>/resource/</filepath> to which all applications have read access,

but no write access. The purpose of this directory is to conatin common

read-only files. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-FC6EE81A-59FA-5AC5-8EC4-3034597F8829"><p>All other directories

are accessible for both reading and writing. This allows the use of

standard file system hierarchies that may be available on removable

media. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-95121831-873B-5E79-B07C-410858FC9779"><p>The above principles

apply regardless of the drive. </p> </li>

</ul> <p>It is possible to pass an open file to another process, or

between a client and server, so that the target can access the file

without knowing the full path name. The only information that is passed

to the target is the filename and extension. </p> </section>

<section id="GUID-849F5D6E-7911-55F8-839A-019D1BF16726"><title>File

systems and mounting a drive</title> <p>The varying characteristics

of media types can mean that different media types require different

formats. A common format is VFAT, and typically, this is used for

removable media to maintain compatibility with other systems. This

also means that long file names are supported. </p> <p>In Symbian

platform, format schemes are implemented by what are called file systems;

they are constructed as plugins to the file server. This means that

the file server itself is independent of the format scheme, and also

means that a phone manufacturer is free to add new file systems to

a handset. The ROM is an exception - it has its own file system built

into the main file server code. </p> <p>A file system must be associated

with a drive before the drive can be used. This is known as mounting

the drive, and is typically done at system boot time. </p> <p>In practice,

an application does not need to concern itself with the format scheme. </p> </section>