Meaning – The term journal, refers to the chronological record of changes made in a set of data; the record may be used to reconstruct a previous version of the set.
When referring to a file system, a journaling file system is a method of keeping track of how data is manipulated on the hard drive. Each time a request is made to the hard drive, an entry is first made in the journal. The JFS allows the computer to check the last few journal entries for errors instead of having to check all the files on the drive.
Example of usage – “A journal is a location of stored activities or events occurring on a computer or network. A journal helps to determine what may have caused an issue or a device to go down without having to monitor a device yourself.”
