C++ CSS HTML Java JavaScript MySQL Oracle PERL PHP SQL Unix VBScript XHTML XML Сети
The ext3 File System
 

Chapter 1. The ext3 File System

Beginning with the release of Red Hat Linux 7.2, the default file system changed from the venerable ext2 format to the journaling ext3 file system.

1.1. Features of ext3

The ext3 file system is essentially an enhanced version of the ext2 file system. These improvements provide the following advantages:

Availability

After an unexpected power failure or system crash (also called an unclean system shutdown), each mounted ext2 file system on the machine must be checked for consistency by the e2fsck data on the volumes is unreachable.

using ext3 is in certain rare hardware failure cases, such as hard drive failures. The time to recover an ext3 file system after an unclean system shutdown does not depend on the size of the file system or the number of files; rather, it depends on the size of the journal used to maintain consistency. The default journal size takes about a second to recover, depending on the speed of the hardware.

Data Integrity

your data receives. By default, Red Hat Linux 9 configures ext3 volumes to keep a high level of data consistency with regard to the state of the file system.

Speed

Despite writing some data more than once, ext3 has a higher throughput in most cases than ext2 because ext3's journaling optimizes hard drive head motion. You can choose from three journaling modes to optimize speed, but doing so means trade offs in regards to data integrity.

Easy Transition

It is easy to change from ext2 to ext3 and gain the benefits of a robust journaling file system without reformatting. See Section 1.3 Converting to an ext3 File System for more on how to perform this task.

If you perform a fresh installation of Red Hat Linux 9, the default file system assigned to the system's Linux partitions is ext3. If you upgrade from a version of Red Hat Linux that uses ext2 partitions, the installation program allows you to convert these partitions to ext3 partitions without losing data. See the appendix titled Upgrading Your Current System in the Red Hat Linux Installation Guide for details.

The following sections will walk you through the steps for creating and tuning ext3 partitions. If you have ext2 partitions and are running Red Hat Linux 9, you can skip the partitioning and formating sections below and go directly to Section 1.3 Converting to an ext3 File System.

Главная