1. Backend
  2. FileSystem

FileSystem — The Virtual Storage Layer

Pytigon's schfs (SCH File System) abstracts file storage behind a uniform interface. Whether your files live on disk, in the database, in memory, or on a remote server, your application code treats them the same way.

Why a Virtual Filesystem?

In a multi-deployment system where the same application may run as a desktop app (with files on disk), a web server (with files in cloud storage), or a hybrid (with files split between local and remote), hard-coding file paths is a recipe for deployment pain. schfs solves this by:

  • Abstracting storage backends — Disk, database, memory, remote, or hybrid
  • Providing a consistent API — Open, read, write, delete, list — always the same calls
  • Supporting path-based addressing — Files are referenced by paths regardless of where they actually live
  • Enabling transparent caching — Frequently accessed files can be cached automatically

Storage Backends

Disk Backend (vfstools.VfsDisk)

Files stored on the local filesystem. Used by desktop applications and development servers.

from pytigon_lib.schfs.vfstools import VfsDisk

vfs = VfsDisk("/path/to/storage/root")
vfs.open("documents/report.pdf", "rb")

Database Backend (vfstools.VfsDatabase)

Files stored as BLOB fields in a database table. Used when files need to be included in database backups or when multiple servers share a database.

Memory Backend (vfstools.VfsMemory)

Files stored in RAM. Used for temporary files and testing.

Remote Backend (vfstools.VfsRemote)

Files stored on a remote server accessed via HTTP.

Common Operations

All backends support the same operations:

# Open a file
with vfs.open("path/to/file.txt", "r") as f:
    content = f.read()

# Write a file
with vfs.open("path/to/new_file.txt", "w") as f:
    f.write("Hello, virtual world!")

# List directory contents
files = vfs.listdir("path/to/directory/")

# Check if file exists
if vfs.exists("path/to/file.txt"):
    ...

# Get file metadata
info = vfs.stat("path/to/file.txt")
# info.size, info.modified_time, info.is_directory

# Delete a file
vfs.delete("path/to/file.txt")

# Create a directory
vfs.mkdir("path/to/new_directory/")

Path Conventions

Virtual filesystem paths look like regular filesystem paths but use forward slashes:

/documents/reports/2025/summary.pdf
/images/logos/company.png
/templates/custom/header.ihtml

The root path depends on the backend configuration. Multi-tenant deployments can use different storage roots per tenant.

Configuration

Configure the virtual filesystem in settings_app.py:

VFS_BACKEND = 'disk'  # or 'database', 'memory', 'remote'
VFS_ROOT = '/var/data/pytigon'
VFS_CACHE_ENABLED = True
VFS_CACHE_SIZE_MB = 256

Background Tasks for File Operations

schfs includes task support for file operations that should happen asynchronously — large file imports, batch processing, remote synchronization.

?: FileSystem ?: FileSystem