Re: VFAT vs. umask.
On Sat 30 Jul 2022 at 09:13:55 (-0700), peter@easthope.ca wrote:
> From: David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk>
> Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2022 00:00:29 -0500
> > When you copy files that have varied permissions onto the FAT, you may
> > get warnings about permissions that can't be honoured. (IIRC, copying
> > ug=r,o= would not complain, whereas u=r,go= would.)
>
> Primary store is an SD card. Rsync is used for backup. Therefore
> this dilema.
I'm not sure what you mean by the term "primary store". If you're
just storing data on the card, then you'd need to be specific about
which features you miss in FAT.
> * In Linux, an ext file system avoids those complications. To my
> knowledge, all SD cards are preformatted with a FAT. Therefore ext
> requires reformatting.
>
> * Most advice about flash storage is to avoid reformatting.
> Unfortunately most or all of this advice is written by software
> people; none, that I recall, from a flash storage manufacturer.
My use for SD cards is device storage, in phones, cameras and
players. I therefore let each device format its card in the first
instance, though I might modify, say, the LABEL afterwards. (The
Serial Number can be tricky to discover, because the slot and the
adapter can hide it.) AFAICT, if a device doesn't like what it finds,
it will happily reformat the card without necessarily asking.
Some of my USB sticks are frequently reformatted, for use as
installers, live systems, data files for TV, or whatever.
I've not observed any correlation with their failure.
BTW I don't know where you read this advice and, as so often,
no reference. Who are these "software people"?
One good reason for giving this advice /in the right context/
is that naive users could easily reformat the wrong device
and lose all their data. That doesn't apply here.
> My own experience, is one SD card about a decade old, reformatted to
> ext2 when new and still working. A second SD purchased recently with
> factory format unchanged seems very slow in mounting. As if running
> fsck before every mount. -8~/
How are you determining the time it takes to mount it? Is it just
mounting it or also reading the top-level directory?
I assume this new card is big, and probably therefore formatted as
exFAT. Which method are using to mount it, the new kernel driver,
or the older FUSE? That might make a difference. (I don't use exFAT
myself, as currently it buys me nothing.)
> Certainly tempted to reformat the new card to ext2. Information
> always welcome. Knowledge even better.
Why ext2 rather than 3 or 4?
Sorry, I don't have particular knowledge, particularly when having
to guess what you have and how you're using it. (The Subject line
seemed to be a false direction.)
Cheers,
David.
Reply to: