Arch Linux

Zarcjap

Member

Registered: 2011-06-28

Posts: 29

File systems and fragmentation

I'm a converted ubuntu user, and I love arch to death now... but here's my question.
When I was using ubuntu I read a post on lifehacker.com that said

Defrag – Nope. Linux file systems do not have a need to be defragmented.

Original link: http://lifehacker.com/5817282/what-kind … y-linux-pc

Since I've always used ext4 and I still can't find anything on needing to defrag an ext3 or ext4 filesystem I assume it still holds true. However, I was reacently read this article on the wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ma … filesystem
and decided to try out XFS on my /home partition. So i checked out the XFS page. all it has is a small section of fragmentation and how to defrag it and check how fragmented it is.
I also remember seeing somewhere on the wiki (although I can't remember where) that JFS also needed it as well (might not have been JFS not entirely sure).

So is this something I should worry about as I used to on windows? Are ext3 and ext4 really immune as they seem to be? And what are your recommendations on file systems to use?

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: File systems and fragmentation

And what are your recommendations on file systems to use?

If you're asking which FS you should use, there are already a few threads about this e.g. https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=135330
It depends on what are you going to use it for.