Re: Linux filesystems was [Re: Debian cd supporting ext4.]
On Tue, 27 Jul 2010, Stan Hoeppner <stan@hardwarefreak.com> writes:
> 1. Best overall performance for most systems, large and small, and the FS
> creation and mounting parameters are super configurable to match the system
> hardware for best performance. One recent set of recent benchmarks
> demonstrating so:
> http://btrfs.boxacle.net/repository/raid/2010-04-14_2004/2.6.34-rc3/2.6.34-rc3.html
>
> man mkfs.xfs
> man mount
>
> Older benchmarks:
> http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/388
> http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1479435
>
> In regard to this last benchmark, some(many?) of the default XFS filesystem
> creation parameters and mounting parameters have changed. Note the testing
> was performed in 2005. A lot changes in 5 years. Read all you can and ask
> questions on the XFS mailing list before tweaking parameters based on what you
> find in old forum posts and benchmarks such as this.
>
> Guaranteed Rate I/O for streaming and other critical applications--unique to
> XFS amongst all filesytems, ever, not just on Linux--this feature was born on
> IRIX XFS for the broadcasting industry where video stutter was basically death
> to a TV station or network such as CNN, CBS, etc. This single feature from
> SGI allowed broadcast media to wholesale convert from tape to disk (this and
> SGI FC storage arrays)
>
> 2. Commercial origin and backing. SGI is a fantastic technology compay:
> http://oss.sgi.com/projects/xfs/
>
> 3. Maturity/history/longevity, IRIX birth in 1993, Linux birth 2001, included
> in mainline in late 2003:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XFS
> http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=107088371607817&w=2
>
> 4. Equal/superior user space toolset:
> xfsprogs - includes online defragmentation tool xfs_fsr and online growth tool
> xfs_growfs. No other stable Linux FS has an online defragmenter. Ext4 has
> e4defrag but AFAIK it's not complete nor close to maturity or stability.
> xfs_fsr has been both for a decade.
>
> 5. Very active developer community and thorough documentation:
> http://xfs.org/index.php/Main_Page
You are missing a very important point: Durability to power failures.
(Excuse me, but a majority of GNU/Linux users are not switched to a UPS
or something.) And that's where XFS totally fails[1][2]. And considering
my personal experiences, reiserfs is the fastest fs (among ext3 and xfs)
in terms of boot recovery phase times.
Regards.
[1] http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/Debian/2008-11/msg00097.html
[2] http://xfs.org/index.php/XFS_FAQ#Q:_Why_do_I_see_binary_NULLS_in_some_files_after_recovery_when_I_unplugged_the_power.3F
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