A recording apparatus, a reproduction apparatus, and a file management method are disclosed wherein the operability in management of a large number of files recorded on a recording medium using an index file can be improved significantly further than ever. An index file is formed from a series of entries of extract information from a large number of files. Information indicative of a relationship between the files is set to the index file. The index file is used to manage a large number of files and so forth recorded on a recording medium.