The API reduces the need to write additional code to parse FCL entries.

Most of the on-disk FCL records are of a fixed size and contain only the default information such as the inode number or time-stamp. However, some records can be of variable sizes, such as a file remove or rename record. These records contain additional information, such as the name of a file that is removed or renamed.

To ensure that the first few bytes at the start of any file system block is always a valid FCL record (if the filename crosses a block boundary), the file system block may be split across multiple on-disk records. Previously, you were required to write additional code to assemble these records to get the filename. The API in the VxFS 5.0 and later releases provides a mechanism to directly read a single assembled logical record. This makes it easier for applications using the API. The API also lets the application specify a filter to indicate a subset of the events of interest and return only required records.