oaknut-afs
A Python library for reading, writing, and creating Acorn Level 3 File Server (AFS) disc partitions — the private on-disc filesystem the Level 3 File Server served to BBC Micro, Master, and Archimedes clients over Econet.
AFS is a hierarchical, multi-user filesystem: it has real directories, a
per-file owner and public access model, and a $.Passwords file of user
accounts. It is identified by the AFS0 magic in its info sectors.
Part of a dual-partition disc. An AFS filesystem does not occupy a disc alone — it lives in the tail cylinders of an old-map ADFS disc. The real
WFSINITutility (and oaknut'sinitialise()) shrinks the ADFS partition and carves the AFS region out of the space freed. oaknut-afs reads and writes that region; oaknut-adfs handles the host.
Part of the oaknut monorepo.
What it does
- Read and write an AFS partition: browse the directory tree, read and write files, create and remove directories, and edit metadata (owner and public access, the native two-byte datestamp).
- Partition and initialise (
initialise()): theWFSINITanalogue — repartition an old-map ADFS disc and lay down an empty AFS filesystem in the tail, with its map, root, and$.Passwordsfile. - Manage users (
UserSpec,PasswordsFile): create accounts with passwords and disc-space allocations; the built-inSyst,Boot, andWelcomeaccounts are handled. - Import a host tree (
import_host_tree()): populate a new filesystem from a directory of files with.infsidecars. - Merge (
merge()) two AFS partitions, and emplace shipped libraries (SHIPPED_LIBRARIES) such as the standardLibrary.
Passwords are stored as the file server stored them: up to six cleartext ASCII
bytes in $.Passwords, with no encryption — oaknut reproduces the format
faithfully rather than obscuring it.
Installation
uv add oaknut-afs # or: pip install oaknut-afs
oaknut-afs works with any PEP 517 build
front-end and package manager; the examples use
uv.
Usage
Creating and populating a filesystem
from oaknut.afs import AFS, UserSpec
with AFS.create_file(
"server.dat",
capacity="10MB",
disc_name="Server",
users=[UserSpec(name="RJS", quota="2MB")],
) as afs:
# Creating the RJS account also creates its home directory, $.RJS.
(afs.root / "RJS" / "ReadMe").write_text("Welcome to the file server.\n")
Reading
from oaknut.afs import AFS
with AFS.from_file("server.dat") as afs:
for entry in afs.root.iterdir():
print(entry.name)
text = (afs.root / "RJS" / "ReadMe").read_text()
For dual ADFS + AFS discs, the
disc
CLI reaches the AFS partition through the ADFS host with an afs: prefix
(disc ls 'server.dat:afs:$'), routed by content identification.
Development
The package is developed in the oaknut workspace. From the repository root:
uv sync # install all workspace members editable
uv run pytest packages/oaknut-afs/tests # this package's tests
uv run ruff check # lint
Architecture
oaknut-afs depends on oaknut-adfs (to place and read the partition within its
ADFS host), oaknut-discimage, and oaknut-file, and contributes AFS to the
oaknut.filesystem extension axis so that AFS partitions are identified,
listed, and read through the disc CLI alongside the disc-based filing
systems. Sector-level access comes from
oaknut-discimage;
metadata and the acorn codec from
oaknut-file.
Further reading
- AFS0 on-disc format — Rick Murray's notes on the Level 3 File Server's private format.
- Acorn Econet — the network the file server served over.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.
1 maintainer
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