AFP Fullform

AFP stands for Apple Filing Protocol. It is a Mac OS network protocol that is used for sharing files among servers and clients. It permits users to access files that belong to external systems. It is an application and session layer protocol. Features :

• It supports Unicode file names.
• It provides a Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX).
• It also provides Access Control List (ACL) permissions that specify which system processes and users are allowed to access the objects and perform the necessary operations.
• It offers a storage facility for structured data using Resource Fork and unstructured data using Data Fork.
• It supports both TCP/IP and AppleTalk for communication and to provide various services.
• Commands like create directory, close directory, copy file, delete file and close volume can be executed in AFP protocol.

Advantages :

• It offers security features to the system that limits the users to access hazardous files using advanced file locking mechanisms.
• It also includes named extended attributes that can be used by the users to map un-interpreted computer files with metadata.
• Along with local file access, it also supports Server file access by building a remote file server connection.
• It provides 100% compatibility with the Mac file system (HFS+) and is also the native file-sharing protocol.
• It provides built-in features such as Spotlight Search, Time Machine, Mac Aliases, and Bonjour Services.

Disadvantages :

• It is not compatible with storage devices formatted using the Apple File System (APFS).
• Its sequential read and write speed is less than the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.