System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems

How a CacheFS File System Works

You create a CacheFS file system on a client system so that file systems you cache can be accessed by the client locally instead of across the network. The following figure shows the relationship of the components that are involved in using CacheFS file systems.

Figure 19–1 How a CacheFS File System Works

Graphic of CacheFS components. Identifies the relationship
between the back file system from the server and the cached file system on
the client.

The back file system is the file system that you specify to be mounted in the cache. A back file system can be either NFS or HSFS (High Sierra File System). When the user attempts to access files that are part of the back file system, those files are placed in the cache. The front file system is the file system that is mounted in the cache and is accessed from the local mount point. The front file system type must be UFS.

To the user, the initial request to access a file in a CacheFS file system might seem slow. However, subsequent uses of the same file are faster.