Reiserfs

[Keith Lofstrom]

Michael Marsh writes:
> I have heard that reiserfs is better than ext3 for data integrity and
> for speed.  Should i consider this for my new installation?


Alexander Dalloz writes:
> We had this topic already some months ago here on the list.


Alexander is referring to a discussion which you can find at:
   http://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-list/2004-April/msg04733.html


I am also curious about *recent* experiences with reiserfs ;  my
main concern is data loss, and the circumstances in which it occurs.
Bad experiences using experimental kernels do not necessarily
indicate poor behavior with stable kernels.

I am starting to use reiserfs for storing rsync-style backups ( see
www.dirvish.org ) and note that reiserfs uses diskspace much more
efficiently.  rsync uses hardlinks to merge images;  the resulting
partition contains huge numbers of small directory files, which
store much more efficiently using reiserfs .  This means I may be
able to store 2 or 3 times as many backup images on a partition. 

There is also the advantage of dynamic inode creation, rather than the
fixed amount created by ext2/3 .  One of my 250GB backup hard drives
got built with 8KB/inode, rather than 4KB/inode; as a result, all the
inodes got used up with only 173GB of data space used.  Reiser makes
up inodes as it goes along, so I should be able to pour data into a
reiserfs file system until the whole partition is used up.


I am also curious about XFS and JFS and other alternatives.  I get the
impression that all of these next-generation journalling file systems
are somewhat experimental.  I would be glad to trade off 20% image
capacity and 50% of the speed for something that is rock solid for
error tolerance and recovery.   ext3 is stable, but I trade off far
too much image capacity for that (possibly small) extra stability. 
I need something that efficiently stores small files; reiserfs, with
redundant drives if necessary, may still be the best choice.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs