Summary: OriginPrivateFileSystem API (WHATWG File System Standard)
Bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=opfs
Standard Draft: https://whatpr.org/fs/21.html
Standards Positions:
https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/562#issuecomment-1036459446
Platform Coverage: all
Preference: dom.fs.enabled
Other Browsers:
-Chrome: Shipping (without a flag in 102+)
-Safari: Shipping
(https://webkit.org/blog/12257/the-file-system-access-api-with-origin-private-file-system/
-- MacOS 12.2 and above, iOS 15.2 and above )
Note: This only includes support for the OriginPrivateFileSystem, not
for the general File System Access API
(https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/File_System_Access_API)
Context:
The Origin Private File System (OPFS) allows origins to store data
consistent with the https://storage.spec.whatwg.org/ Storage Living
Standard in browser-managed storage that is explicitly separate from the
rest of the user’s filesystem or data stored by other origins. The
stored “site data” is reported and cleared by existing privacy and data
management UI as covered by
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/clear-cookies-and-site-data-firefox.
There are other proposed APIs that relate to allowing origins access to
the user’s file system through explicit semi-durable grants, but we are
not implementing or considering implementing those APIs at this time due
to concerns about how to safely provide users with informed consent
about providing origins with ongoing access to their file system.
OPFS is an important step forward in exposing storage primitives to the
web that can be reasonably standardized while allowing the web platform
to do powerful things more efficiently to reduce resource usage by the
browser. For example, https://github.com/simonw/datasette-lite is a
tool built on top of SQLite running in the browser using WebAssembly.
SQLite compiled to WASM already works in the browser today, but is
limited in efficiency by IndexedDB and the Cache API only providing
immutable Blob/File/Response abstractions.
By providing primitives that allow efficient use of SQLite in the
browser, we’re fulfilling the dream of Web SQL Database
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_SQL_Database) which was impossible to
standardize because it was just exposing the SQLite implementation to
the web. (It was also not a great idea from a security perspective, and
indeed resulted in a number of security bugs, as SQLite was never meant
to be exposed to adversarial code.)
OPFS will also enable other resource intensive web applications such as
image editors, video editors, etc.
--
Randell Jesup, Mozilla
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