Does NT/2K/XP have anything like a VFS interface?
The Virtual File System (VFS) interface is a UNIX abstraction originally developed in order to simplify the porting of the Network File System (NFS) to various UNIX platforms. It provides a model where there is a “standard” set of operations that are supported by a file system. The operating system then, in turn, works with the file system to maintain a “vnode” cache (where a “vnode” is a virtual file system information element) and to provide core OS management services for working with the OS. The Windows NT/2000/XP platform also has a “standard” set of operations that it expects to be supported by file systems. The operating system then invokes the relevant file system services by calling upon those standard services. However, the details of the implementation of the UNIX VFS interface are quite different than the IRP Major dispatch entry points a Windows NT file system. Because of this, a UNIX VFS-based file system does not “port” in any trivial fashion to Windows NT/2000/XP.
