This Oxford Common File Layout (OCFL) specification describes an application-independent approach to the storage of digital information in a structured, transparent, and predictable manner. It is designed to promote long-term object management best practices within digital repositories.
Specifically, the benefits of the OCFL include:
- Completeness, so that a repository can be rebuilt from the files it stores
- Parsability, both by humans and machines, to ensure content can be understood in the absence of original software
- Robustness against errors, corruption, and migration between storage technologies
- Versioning, so repositories can make changes to objects allowing their history to persist
- Storage diversity, to ensure content can be stored on diverse storage infrastructures including conventional filesystems and cloud object stores