ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Log-structured file system

Imagine you have a bunch of toys in your room and you want to keep track of them. You could write down a list of your toys and where they are in your room, right? That's kind of what a file system does for a computer.

Now imagine you keep getting new toys all the time, and you keep playing with the ones you already have so some of them move around your room. If you just keep writing down your whole list every time something changes, your list is going to get really messy and confusing!

A log-structured file system is like a new way to organize your toy list. Instead of just writing everything down every time something changes, you keep a "log" of all the changes that happen over time. Each time you add a toy or move one around, you write a little note in your log with the details.

Then, when someone asks you where a toy is or where something was moved to, you can look in your log and see exactly what happened and where things are now. This makes it easier to find and keep track of your toys, and it also helps your list stay organized.

In a computer, this kind of file system can help make things faster and more efficient too, because it can read and write data in small chunks instead of constantly going back and forth and looking through a big messy list of files. So even though it sounds complicated, a log-structured file system is actually a simple and helpful way to organize information!