Re: XFS, EXT3 or some other?

[Goswin von Brederlow <brederlo@informatik.uni-tuebingen.de>]

"Hemlock" <michael@etalon.net> writes:

> Hello,
> Seeking some advice on which filesystem to use.
> I've been primarlity an ext3 user, because thats all I've really
> ever known of, but would consider trying something else.
> Plus, never used anything other than 32bit Debian since slink.
>
> I've read some articles googling for xfs, ext3 and jfs and such.
> Leaning towards xfs maybe?
>
> This will be for a AMD64 sarge box used as a file, web, email and proxy 
> server. Also running software raid.
>
> Thanks for your advice.

- XFS can't be shrunk (that is the kill argument for me so I never
  use it).

+ ext3 can do data journaling so all written data will be saved even if
  the system crashes (slow).

+ ext3 can do ordered mode (default) ensuring that any data written is
  correct and consistent. With xfs or even reiserfs (*shiver*) you can
  end up with random data in recently written parts of the file on
  crash.

- ext3 must be prepared for resize before mounting to allow online
  resize. It is easy to forget to do that and then one has to umount
  the fs to change size.

+ ext3 has a long history (starting with ext2). There aren't a lot of
  bugs left and good recovery tools exist in case something does go
  astray.

No experience with jfs either way.

MfG
        Goswin