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Re: Correction: ext2 vs ext3 vs xfs vs reiserfs



On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 10:18:28AM +1100, Cameron Hutchison wrote:
> There is another tool called xfs_repair that is used to repair XFS
> filesystems.

The problem with xfs_repair is that it can't be used on a mounted
filesystem (even mounted read-only).  This means, of course, that if
your root filesystem is XFS and gets screwed up, you're in trouble.
You'll have to boot to an alternate root and use xfs_repair from there.

I also wish that XFS (and others, really) could give some indication
about when data corruption occurred.  I used to run a Debian mirror on
an XFS filesystem, and started getting reports of bad checksums on .debs
pulled from it.  It turns out that the machine went down due to a power
outtage in the middle of a mirror update, which caused all sorts of
filesystem corruption.  When the machine was brought back up, there was
no sign of trouble so I didn't think any more about it.  It turns out
that I should have.

FWIW, that mirror is now running ext3, and I have nothing bad to say
about it.

While on this topic, I was at a presentation on Linux filesystems at the
USENIX Annual Tech.  Conference in California in June.  A lot of
comparisons were done between XFS, ext2, ext3, reiserfs, and JFS.  The
conclusions they presented were that reiserfs is really good with lots
of little files, XFS is really good with multi-gigabyte files, and
ext2/3 are good for all-around stuff.  For the average Linux user (and
that includes the average Linux server), the other filesystems really
aren't going to give you anything that ext2/3 doesn't give you.

noah

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