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Re: which to use: ext3, JFS, XFS, ReiserFS? [Was: new user question: debian on a Thinkpad T61]

Jimmy Wu wrote:

Hello,

I am trying to decide on which file systems to use for a Debian
install on a personal laptop.  It's a Thinkpad T61 with one 160 GB HD.
 I've looked around on Google, and come up with a lot of frustratingly
conflicting advice.  For example, an article from
debian-administration touts XFS as the best in performance.  But other
sites mention that XFS may be more vulnerable to corruption on a
crash/power outage than the other file systems.  Then, people disagree
on the performance of ext3 vs ReiserFS.

In an attempt to get some definitive answers, I threw together some of
the statements I've seen, and all I am asking for is verification (a
simple true/false is enough for most of them).
So, here goes:

(1) ext3 mounts and unmounts slowly, resulting in increased boot times.

(2) Neither JFS nor XFS can be made smaller, although they can be
extended if needed.

(3) JFS performance degrades on larger filesystems, but is least CPU
intensive for smaller file systems.

(4) ReiserFS can be flaky on a system crash.

(5) ReiserFS is the best choice for /var.

(6) On a continuum, XFS offers the best performance, ext3 offers the
most data integrity / chances of recovering from a crash, and JFS is
in the middle.

(7) Mixing too many file systems in one system will degrade performance

(8) Is there any advantage to using ext2 for /boot rather than ext3?

That's all I have for now.

Thanks in advance for your help
Jimmy
--
Registered Linux User #454138
This question is very close to "what is the best religion for me?" However, I will try to answer it and avoid going into religion. Use ext3 and be done with it. Tried, true good rescue tools if you need them (I never have). IF you need the other fs, you would know it. Your "killer app" would tell you to use fs $X. For a home user, ext3 just works. If any other is a "better" performer and that bothers you, perhaps you might want to run Gentoo so you can "optimize" your kernel to save time. I am not trying to be a smart alec, just saying with all the time you might save, over the course of a year, you MIGHT be able to drink a beer. As far as I know, all major distros default to ext3. the rest are mostly for special purpose, ie, you run the data base Foo and they say to set up a raid 1 with a fs of JFS. 

I am not aware of any advantage over ext2 vs ext3 on /boot.
as for ReiserFS, I would not put anything into it in light of Mr. Reiser's troubles. I do not know the future of it. 

Now I will read the rebuttals and learn!

HTH!
P.S If you want to know the best religion contact me off list (joking!, please don't!) 

--
Damon L. Chesser
damon@damtek.com
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