Віртуальна Файлова Система

GIO, a part of GLib, is the core library used for file and folder operations in GNOME applications. GIO provides a unified file system abstraction layer with pluggable backends. In GNOME, the GVFS library provides a GIO backend implementing multiple network and local protocols. Using GIO with GVFS allows your application to work with files on remote machines as easily as local files.

GIO can provide extensive information about files and folders, including the MIME type and icon of a file and which applications can be used to open a file. Since the GVFS uses the standard from freedesktop.org to determine file types and associations, it works correctly on different free desktop environments, helping independent software developers create software that can be run in different environments.

GIO is used throughout the GNOME desktop. The file manager, Nautilus, uses GIO to display folders on local and remote systems. For the user, this means that network servers act just like local folders: They can drag and drop files between them, view the files' properties, and open the file with an application. Using GIO will allow your application to open all the files that users can access on their desktop.

Докладну інформацію про GIO наведено у Посібнику з GIO.

In previous versions of GNOME, the GnomeVFS library was used for access to files and folders. While GnomeVFS provided many of the same features, including transparent access to remote folders, it had a number of limitations which have been addressed in GIO. GnomeVFS is deprecated and should not be used in newly written code, although it will continue to be supported throughout the GNOME 2 lifetime. For information on GnomeVFS, see GnomeVFS - Filesystem Abstraction Library.