OS File Types

There are several types of files supported by many OS. For example, Windows based operating system supports following types of files:

And UNIX based operating system supports following types of files:

  • Directories
  • Regular files
  • Character special files
  • Block special files

Now, let's describe all the above different-different types of files supported by both windows and unix based operating systems.

Regular Files

Regular files contains user information.

Generally, regular files are either ASCII files or binary files.

Now, let's describe briefly about ASCII files and binary files.


ASCII files basically consist of lines of text.

The big plus point or advantage of ASCII files is that they can be displayed and printed as is, and they can also be edited using any text editor such as Notepad, Wordpad, Notepad+, etc.

Binary Files

Binary files on listing on the printer gives some random junk.

Generally, binary files have some internal structure that only known to the programs that use them.

Technically, binary files are just a sequence of bytes, the OS will only execute a file if it has proper format.


Directories are the system files that are used to maintain the structure of the file system.

Character Special Files

Basically, character special files are related to the I/O and used to model serial input/output devices such as printers, networks, etc.

Block Special Files

Basically, block special files are used to model the disks.

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