[mdlug] File systems

[Aaron Kulkis]

Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
> On Sun, 2013-12-29 at 23:09 -0500, Aaron Kulkis wrote:
>> Bob wrote:
>>> OK related to the copy question
>>> I'm running a 3.12 kernel on Debian Sid (AptoSid). The drive I'm replacing is a 2tb drive using the ext4 file system that contains my photos. I'm replacing it with a 4tb drive. Files are jpg, png, tiff, nef (Nikon Raw), and Gimp xcf. Sizes range from
>>> 300k to 200mb+ xcf files
>>> Work flow could be working on 1 large Gimp file or batch processing 50-100 nef to jpg files.
>>> Any suggestions comments on what file system might work best?
>> My preferred filesystem type is xfs except for partitions (/, /boot) which require ex3 or ext4 filesystems.
>> The larger the filesystem, the beeter the performance advantage of XFS, and I have *NEVER* lost a single
>> file due to filesystem corruption on an XFXFS partition.
>
> I have never lost a file in ext3, ext4, XFS, or Butter due to
> file-system issues [I have lost data in, I believe, every single one of
> the aforementioned due to crap hardware and vendor firmware].
>
> It has been a l-o-n-g time since I have seen a data bite due to
> file-system issues;  a couple performance things here and there, but no
> data loss.

I got burned by file-loss when we lost power in 2004 or so -- all on
ReiserFS filesystems.

When I bought a laptop to take to Iraq with me, I put everything on XFS
that I could (/ and /boot on ext3, /usr, /opt, /var, /home, /tmp, /usr/local
all on xfs).  Over the course of that year, my laptop went down hard
dozens of times due to loss of power (frequent maintenance of the
500kw generator sets, each time lasting about 2x my battery life).
Never lost a file.

And unlike ext2/ext3/ext4, fsck.xfs is a symbolic link to /bin/false.
No huge delay on boot-up every N boot-ups while the entire system
gets painstakingly fsck'ed due to "N-boot-ups without an fsck"