Bridefs

Bridefs is a distributed, versioned filesystem designed for collaborative workflows with large data sets such as media production and scientific research. It emphasizes low-latency access, strong data integrity, and flexible deployment across local networks and cloud backends.

The architecture uses a content-addressable storage model in which files are broken into cryptographic hash-identified blocks, enabling deduplication and efficient synchronization across peers. A metadata service tracks file trees, permissions, and snapshots, while data blocks are stored in pluggable backends such as local disks, object storage, or networked storage.

Conflict resolution combines CRDT-based metadata with explicit user-approved merges, allowing concurrent edits with eventual consistency. Bridefs supports subvolumes, immutable snapshots, and space-efficient versioning.

Interfaces include a command-line tool and a FUSE-compatible client, plus a REST API for programmatic access. Features include encryption at rest, selective replication, and pluggable compression and deduplication.

Origins and status: Bridefs emerged in the open-source community in the mid-2020s to address collaborative needs in media and research. It remains active but early in development, with ongoing work on performance, security auditing, and ecosystem tooling.

Adoption is currently limited to early adopters and niche projects due to its stage and evolving ecosystem. See also: IPFS, CephFS, git-annex, Btrfs.