from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
file
computer file
<file system> An element of data storage in a {file system}.
The history of computing is rich in varied kinds of files and
{file systems}, whether ornate like the {Macintosh file
system} or deficient like many simple pre-1980s file systems
that didn't have {directories}. However, a typical file has
these characteristics:
* It is a single sequence of bytes (but consider {Macintosh}
{resource forks}).
* It has a finite length, unlike, e.g., a {Unix} {device}.
* It is stored in a {non-volatile storage} medium (but see
{ramdrive}).
* It exists (nominally) in a {directory}.
* It has a name that it can be referred to by in file
operations, possibly in combination with its {path}.
Additionally, a file system may support other {file
attributes}, such as {permissions}; timestamps for creation,
last modification, and last access and revision numbers (a` la
{VMS}).
Compare: {document}.
(2007-01-04)