How many bytes per inode?
 

Hi there!

When I am installing and formatting a disc as ext3 I get the question how big the inodes should be made... I choose 4096 (?) ...the default ... it works,... but

What kind of effect would it have to choose another? What do I configure with this?

Thanks, Sascha

Basically, if you are going to have a lot of small files on your filesystem, choose a small number of bytes per inode. Otherwise the default will work fine.

Basically, each file requires 1 inode (this holds the metadata such as permissions and the list of physical disk blocks the file is stored on) + whatever data blocks the file uses. So if you have a bunch of small files, you risk exhausting the inodes before the filesystem is actually full space-wise, which is bad, since no free inodes means no new files can be created. The larger your inodes, the fewer there will be, but the more data about the file (i.e. bigger block lists) can be held in each inode.

Thanks ...

So it will not make any feelable changes to the performance?

Sascha.