Ext4 - it's KISS, stable and mainstream.

I run ext4 on all of my Slackware boxen.

Most of my PCs are all-XFS in a dual-boot Linux/Linux configuration. My lone single-boot PC is all-JFS, and it has its advantages, too. I used JFS for USB sticks until F2FS arrived in the Linux kernel, and I've been trying that. The performance of F2FS is very good, but because it has no fsck tool yet, it may or may not be a potential one-and-done file system like NILFS2. NILFS2 recovers well from most things, but a media error in the right place sent me running for backups nonetheless..

Hey...welcome to our forum!

Thanks! I've been reading this forum for a while, but I haven't had an appropriate opportunity to post until now.

1 members found this post helpful.

Well, I'm glad my file systems thread brought you out of the woodwork. Welcome!

Before Slackware 14.0 I used ReiserFS. Since Slackware 14.0 I use ext4 but I still own some external hard drives using ReiserFS.

For a long time ReiserFS was the file system mentioned in the /boot/README.initrd file. Now it is replaced there with ext3 and ext4. I decided to use the latter one.

I use ext4, slightly tuned with the '-m 0' to get rid of the reserved superblocks, leaving those only on /. ext4 has never failed me and has good performance - i think it's the Linuxland default for a reason.

I had XFS on an external backup drive. It ran fast and well, but the disk adopted the crunching sound very quickly, without much data overwrite. Now with ext4 it runs well and quiet. Still my #2 choice.

I used JFS in the past, on Arch, Debian and Slackware. CPU usage was very low and it's read performance is very good, maybe the best, but from what i heard it's nobarrier, so maybe not as safe. Personally though, i have never had any problems with it.

ext3 looks to me like ext4 without all the upgrades, so IMHO (very IMHO) pretty much obsolete. Not much experience with it.

ext2, i use it on /boot if i have one (because there's no need for a journal), but i could use ext4 without journal as well.

ReiserFS, Reiser4, BtrFS, NILFS or anything else i have never used, so i can't comment.

Plus note that i don't have any SSD, nor practise any serious server business, my observation is pure desktop.

Hi Captain Pinkeye,

Welcome on the board!

I just use JFS. Getting a new computer finally after so many long years, and the primary drive will be a 128GB SSD. I decided to go with Samsung for the SSD, and a 2 TB Western Digital conventional for my /home. I may actually choose to use XFS on that one, but I might just stick with JFS.


I guess I will have to look into TRIM if I do use JFS on my SSD. Nothing wrong with JFS I love it, but I think eventually when SSD based FS mature and is included in Slackware I will eventually go with that, only because JFS is mostly written when there was conventional HDs in mind. Not to say that JFS won't adapt well, but I look forward to see how the FS develop that are solely written for SSDs in mind develop, but not to fear as long as I have a conventional drive, which I always will, JFS will always be my primary choice for that.

I prefer ext4 and XFS. JFS is fast and stable but it fragments kinda bad, not as much as ReiserFS but it can get noticeable. My picks for an FS is it must have a online defrag tool, well ext4 did not when I chose it but I knew it was just a few months away so I committed to it.

ReiserFS is the only FS I have used since FAT16/32 that has ate my files, and it has the often mentioned habit of slowing down boot times to tens of minutes.

XFS would of been my preferred choice for my current Linux Partition, however for some strange reason on the few distros I test drove before I settled for Slack , and even with Slack XFS would thrash my hard drive and was slower than dirt.

EXT4 does not have alot of buzzwords and fancy features of the other filesystems available for Linux, but it gets the job done for me and is worry free.

JFS has TRIM support for kernel 3.7 and up:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...tem&px=MTE5ODY

I don't use a SSD, and I don't plan to in the near future. It is still experimental technology IMO.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/1...flash-ssd-data

What for?

I have written a script to defrag files on any filesystem supported by 'filefrag', and it works just fine on JFS. It's true that it does tend to fragment even tho it supports extents. From my tests it works very well, you can find it here:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...7/#post4841091
I've been using versions of it for a few years now.

My Thinkpad is running Slackware64-current with the 3.8.3 Kernel and an encrypted BTRFS root.

My server is on kernel 3.9 RC3 with BTRFS in RAID5 mode.
The root hdd uses ext4 just for a more easy install.

Snapshots are awesome and subvolumes are working perfect for me.