Ext2 or Ext3
 

I read in another topic that ext3 is basically ext2 with journalling. Therefore would i be better if i make a partition with ext3? I just needed that answer but it wasnt there. I want to use this partition for slackware so is it compatible etc? :newbie:

Hello there,

Yes, it is correct ext3 is just ext2 + journaling. (You can actually mount an ext3 partition as ext2 if you like - even though there shouldn't be much reason to do that ;)) Ext3 is better to use than ext2; consider these long boring harddisk scans that are necessary for an ext2 file system if you've had to make a hard reset or have had a power outage. If you use ext3 (or any other journaling system, e.g. ReiserFS), then the journal would be read in and the system would start as if nothing had happened.

When you install Slackware it will ask you if you want to use ext3 or ReiserFS. If you are dual-booting with Windows, and want to be able to copy files directly from your Linux partition(s) to your Windows system with a program such as explore2fs, then ext2/3 is necessary since explore2fs doesn't support anything else. If you don't dual boot, then you can choose either. It is said that ext2/3 is (a bit, maybe marginally) slower than the newer (journaling) file systems. ReiserFS is optimized for small files and XFS (or was it JFS?) for larger files. Maybe this article is helpful.

HTH

what would be best ofr a server?

I'd say it depends on the compatibilty you need. As the the previous post states, if you're gonna communicate directly with windows (without samba), then ext3 . I'd use ReiserFS.

And what exactly is ReiserFS

Read that article
http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtm...gory=databases

Okay but heres a problem.. ReiserFS isnt on the partition options.. how would i make my partition ReiserFS?
:scratch: :newbie:

In the slackware installation, you'll be asked for what filesystem you want to use.

Thanks.. ill have a look now.. wish me luck (i always need it :))

You can use any LINUX filesystem but it have to be either compiled in the kernel or be in the ramdisk file. Also your computer have to have more memory to use certain kinds of filesystems. XFS is uses more memory because it caches a little more than LINUX does. 512 megabytes of RAM should be good enough to get a good use of different filesystems.

I wouldn't use JFS unless the partition is small enough to deal with and you don't write a lot of files to it. This is because it becomes fragmented. You need to copy files to a medium and then put the files back on to the drive to defrag. The other LINUX filesytems do not need to defrag because it does it automatically.

I use a combination of ext3, reiserfs, and xfs. Most of my partitions are using xfs. My /boot is ext3, / is xfs, and /home is reiserfs using the notail option. My second hard drive is using xfs because I usually put video files, iso, vmware data, and other files that I make or download.

Knoppix can read just about any filesystem. Who cares about compatibility. Just make sure you backup your files every once in a while.

I use ext2 for storage, and ext3 for root file system. If you use ext3, you'll not be able to get back your files if you accidentally deleted them with 'rm' command.

I disagree with your post. There is no undelete feature in LINUX filesystems. Unless you move a file or directory to your trash directory, you will not be able to undelete any file or directory after you use the rm or mv command.

Be careful when using the rm or mv commands.

Electro,
There are some undelete utilities for ext2. However, IMO in linux it is best to consider any file deleted unrecoverable.

BTW a ext3 can be mounted as an ext2 filesystem. You can then use all of the ext2 undelete utilities.

Well, having attended your conversation i ended up that ext3 is a stable fs.

I had problems with forced reset in the past (SusE 9)
fschk failed checking the filesystems and i had to reinstall the whole OS :(

by the way what can i do to avoid such cases and loose my critical datas?

Thanks in advance.

Just for the record: EXT3 is NOT just ext2 + journal. There was also a lot of internal work done. I don't know the specifics, but I remember a long article on the differences, and they wanted to stress that lots of work went into ext3, not just a journal.

I use ReiserFS, because I've never had issues with it, and its fast enough for me. I'll probably try ReiserFS4 when it comes out. Honestly, if you pick any of the modern FSs, it won't make much of a difference. But hey, customizing is the fun of linux,right? :)