What filesystem to use?

Hi!
when you install OS you have to set up partitions and filesystem. I’ve been using both Raiser and ext3, but what is most recommanded? What is the different between Raiser and ext3? Is there some situation that can cause problem on some filesys?

i suggest u use ext3 for root partition.
If u have ups or laptop use xfs for /home.
Most users will find advantages and disadvantages in all fs.These two i use.
Its up to u tbh

I’m using reiserfs for the / (root) and ext3 for my /home.
Reiserfs is known to be a tad unstable (have not had any big issues myself) and can lead to lost data (after a hard poweroff / disk or system problems… etc) where etx3 is known to be robust/solid, but slower than the first.

Started experimenting with XFS on one of my servers. This is also becoming a more popular choice, but do note that not all partition tools out there work fully with it and are usually more focused on reiserfs and extx. That might change as more choose for xfs (or maybe ext4 when that is officially released).

With openSUSE 11.0 there where some issues reported with system ‘freezing up’ using the reiserfs filesystem. The new kernel 2.6.25.9 (you will get it when updating the system) seems to have resolved this.

There are also other fs choices possible but the two you mention are still most popular AFAIK.

Cheers,
Wj

So it seems from reading the comments of magix31 and gdelta9, that ext3 is the way to go for new users.

That’s interesting, why is that?

While us old pharts stay with reiserfs for everything. :smiley:

Hallo,

to use ext3-filesystem for all partitions is recommendable.
In cases of multi-systems (linux and windows98 etc.) one fat32-partition will be necessary.
crossover works well.

Regards
Violetta

I wonder how many fat32 partitions are still around? I was walking through a casino the other day and saw a screen for putting money in a parking machine. It was on the fritz and instead of the “Pay here” logo, there was the win98 flag waving on the screen. I was really surprised – and they’re still with us.

PS what’s crossover?

Cause with reiserfs and especially xfs u are most likely to have data corruption after a power failure.There are some utilities to recover data on xfs partitions,but still a bit risky.So a ups or laptop( with working battery) is recomened.
For an FS benchmark see here
On this and on amny others ive read xfs beats all others…

Magic31 wrote:
> I’m using reiserfs for the / (root) and ext3 for my /home.
> Reiserfs is known to be a tad unstable (have not had any big issues
> myself) and can lead to lost data (after a hard poweroff / disk or
> system problems… etc) where etx3 is known to be robust/solid, but
> slower than the first.

I think I can safely say that 99.99999% of the reiserfs issues
apply to bad implementation of reiserfs (e.g. Red Hat) or
reiserfs of about 3+ years ago.

About the only issue I know of in the DESIGN of reiserfs
that can be a problem is with regards to hash collision in
the namespace. Doesn’t happen often, but can happen.

>
> Started experimenting with XFS on one of my servers. This is also
> becoming a more popular choice, but do note that not all partition
> tools out there work fully with it and are usually more focused on
> reiserfs and extx. That might change as more choose for xfs (or maybe
> ext4 when that is officially released).

Does XFS do more than metadata journaling? Didn’t use to. What this
means is that a “crash” (hard down) will cause data loss. Granted,
most don’t enable full journaling on ext3 or reiserfs… but they
do support ordered journaling… not sure if XFS even does that (?).

>
> With openSUSE 11.0 there where some issues reported with system
> ‘freezing up’ using the reiserfs filesystem. The new kernel 2.6.25.9
> (you will get it when updating the system) seems to have resolved this.
>
> There are also other fs choices possible but the two you mention are
> still most popular AFAIK.
>
> Cheers,
> Wj
>
>

That’s nonsense. Since I am a kernel developer—and errare humanum est—you could say I have plenty of opportunities to bring the operating system to a state which is equivalent to power failure, in other words, I just often turn it off (VMware, but that’s the very same thing as a real system as far as filesystems are concerned). End result I observed over the years is that all filesystems generally act the same and none has more loss than another even though some filesystems have features that are claimed to keep data longer in memory.
Oh and yes, xfs here, everywhere, including inside virtual machines which I just power off when things have gone wrong.

Well i write things from waht i read,dont make them from my mind…
Check here and read the FAQ carefully

One note that I didn’t see posted is . . . is ReiserFS still actually supported? Wasn’t vsn 4 development stopped? (Hans is on his way to a long prison stay.) Also just fwiw, if I’m not mistaken ext4 is not far off.

Yes, ReiserFS is still supported. We don’t provide support for reiser4 beyond adding the exports and a small core patch to allow users to build the module externally without having to rebuild the entire kernel. We use ext3 as the default file system, but users are still welcome to use reiser3 just as they always have.

Contrary to what a lot of ill-researched media reports have said, Hans has had very little to do with maintaining reiserfs for about 5 years. At times he even tried to block development of new features as a way get users to jump on the reiser4 bandwagon. While Hans’s legal predicament causes problems for reiser4 development, it has absolutely zero impact on reiser3 maintenance.

Thanks very much Jeff, for the clarification.

I’ve had negative experiences with Xfs and sudden power loss. Granted, this was a while back, but not something that made me eager to try again.