Which Is Your Preferred Linux File System?

273 · 11-21-2014, 07:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skikir

Since we know Linux is for Geeks, and there's probably a reason but for us real worlders what's the difference and why should we care. Is this a coresponding issue for Apple users?

As I understand it this is a forum for Linux users discussing Linux file systems on Linux systems that Linux users use on Linux systems. If your post does not concern Linux on a forum discussing Linux file systems on Linux systems then, may I ask, why you are posting on a thread concerning Linux file systems on Linux systems on a Linux forum in the first place?
How about asking a question about Apple file systems on Apple OSs on an Apple forum for Apple users using Apple file systems on Apple OSs?
If you wanted to troll you could have given some interesting information about Apple file systems rather than just posting "I'M NOT INTERESTED!!!!!".

replica9000 · 11-21-2014, 09:01 PM

I've been playing with BTRFS for a couple months, but not as my primary FS. My only real issue with it is free space and also how it's reported. It would be nice if the standard tools understood BTRFS. I've done some tests with random different size HDDs, and spanning multiple HDDs. In some cases, I could use all of the free space that was reported by btrfs fi df, and other times, I seemed to be out of space even though several gigabytes were reported as free.

BTRFS does seem to manage free space better though. My storage HDD is 3TB with EXT4. My backup drive is 3TB, and using BTRFS. Even with no compression and on top of luks encryption, I have about the same useable free space with BTRFS over EXT4.

Code:

# df -BG | egrep -i "filesystem|mapper"
Filesystem           1G-blocks  Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/mapper/userdata     2751G 2465G      286G  90% /home/replica/user-data  ( LVM2 / EXT4 )
/dev/mapper/backup       2795G 2464G      330G  89% /mnt/sdc1                ( LUKS / BTRFS )

# btrfs fi df -g /mnt/sdc1
Data, single: total=2658.48GiB, used=2459.87GiB
System, single: total=0.03GiB, used=0.00GiB
Metadata, single: total=5.00GiB, used=3.24GiB
GlobalReserve, single: total=0.50GiB, used=0.00GiB

rrdonovan · 11-21-2014, 09:42 PM

Ext4 has worked well for me. Not gonna buck the system. Ext is good for me.

whois · 11-21-2014, 09:55 PM

My vote is for ZFS even though it is only native to solaris and the BSDs. I am currently using ext4 on all my partitions. I have no complains...

frankbell · 11-21-2014, 10:13 PM

ext4, but that's not because I'm an expert in file systems. It seems to be the default in most distros I use and it has always performed quite well.

I do very much like the journaling feature. It has saved my bacon a couple of times after power failures. Yeah, I know I need a new battery for my UPS, but it's way down there where I have to get on my hands and knee--oh, never mind.

indigo7333 · 11-21-2014, 10:36 PM

Based on my experience of running a hosting company, ext4 is the most stable, relatively fast file system with a decent journal that allow fast recover if something went wrong.

With ReiserFS and XFS sometimes you can get faster access times, but if you need a stable filesystem with ability to auto-repair choose ext4.

dijetlo · 11-21-2014, 11:19 PM

ZFS.
Is it stable?
I know ten guys on the storage team betting their jobs on it.

DaneM · 11-21-2014, 11:39 PM

I use Ext4 for my Linux filesystem, but only because it's the default, and I don't need to write to it from Windows, which I need to run certain applications. Sadly, only Ext2 seems reliable to write to from Windows (using the ext2FSD driver). I use that for my data drives. (Ext3 works, but the journal always gets messed-up, requiring frequent fsck checks, and sometimes resulting in data corruption.) If Ext4, BTRFS, or something else modern were to become compatible with Windows, in some reliable way, I would switch.

hamdan · 11-22-2014, 12:04 AM

Well i am using FAT32 in my linuxmint.i think its preety good.what opinion you guys have on this?

shaspen · 11-22-2014, 12:43 AM

I prefer ext4

gtkm · 11-22-2014, 12:46 AM

I like BTRFS.
I use it for my /home partition.

dloghis · 11-22-2014, 02:27 AM

ZFS file system has all of these benefits plus many more!
Data integrity, Software RAID, Storage pools, fsck on a mounted file system, Copy-on-write, Snapshots and clones, Dynamic striping....
You Name it and its there!!

JeremyBoden · 11-22-2014, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hamdan

Well i am using FAT32 in my linuxmint.i think its preety good.what opinion you guys have on this?

If you are using FAT32 exclusively, I'm surprised it works at all.
An occasional FAT32 (data only) file system is OK though.

273 · 11-22-2014, 04:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hamdan

Well i am using FAT32 in my linuxmint.i think its preety good.what opinion you guys have on this?

Wow, I missed this.
As with the above poster I am surprised the system works at all.
The lack of support for files over something like 2.5GB alone would stop me usong FAT32. Then you only need take a few minutes ro find out that, as file systems go, it is antiquated and was never much good when it was released.
If it works for you then I can't argue with that but I know that, personally, I had to give up using FAT32 altogether some years ago as it simply does not work with modern storage needs.

riwi · 11-22-2014, 05:07 AM

I boot using ext4, but the larger storage space is based on ZFS-on-Linux.
I have a router PC with just ext4, a desktop PC with ext4 and ZFS and a fileserver PC with ext4 to boot and 30 disks running ZFS.
So I choose ZFS in the poll