[SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

dragonn · 2013-09-11 17:29:54

The performance of F2FS looks really good against ext4, but F2FS still don't have working fsck . So the question is - any one have corrupted his f2fs file system? Sometime ago I have used btrfs and I was a small step from loosing my data .

Last edited by dragonn (2013-09-11 21:20:01)

karol · 2013-09-11 17:55:54

Backups?

dragonn · 2013-09-11 18:08:28

Backups are good , but I don't do it everyday (I only have a 500GB USB drive for backups). After the issue with btrfs I do as often as possible backups , but this isn't an answer for my question.

R00KIE · 2013-09-11 18:30:43

I've been using f2fs in a usb flash drive and so far so good, I haven't been forced to do any unclean shutdowns yet though (that I an remember). I do make (when I remember) weekly backups of the full flash drive so I'm not very worried about filesystem corruption.

One things I've noticed is that f2fs doesn't yet support capabilities, this makes some stuff not work as intended, one example that I remember is wireshark, it will complain when installing that it cant set the proper capabilities and aftereard it will only work as root, so take that in consideration before making the jump.

karol · 2013-09-11 18:34:04

The answers you may get here are not meaningful, because the number of people is too small. AFAIK corruption may occur, so if you're worried, stay with ext4. It's a risk-reward play until they create f2fs fsck that can fix stuff.
Are you using f2fs for an HDD? How big is the drive you plan to use f2fs for?

andy123 · 2013-09-11 20:01:15

I used it for the root partition on a arch install to a usb stick and did lots of unclean shutdowns. This managed to corrupt the filesystem, but it was probably over a mont ago and is most likely fixed now.

R00KIE wrote:

One things I've noticed is that f2fs doesn't yet support capabilities, this makes some stuff not work as intended, one example that I remember is wireshark, it will complain when installing that it cant set the proper capabilities and aftereard it will only work as root, so take that in consideration before making the jump.

Wasn't that introduced in 3.11?

Plus, there is a fsck tool. The easiest way to install it is from aur/f2fs-tools-git.

dragonn · 2013-09-11 20:15:55

The fsck tool for now only shows errors in the file system but it can not repair a broken file system (as I know for the last commit in the git). andy123 how did you fix the corrupt filesystem?

andy123 · 2013-09-11 20:49:18

dragonn wrote:

The fsck tool for now only shows errors in the file system but it can not repair a broken file system (as I know for the last commit in the git). andy123 how did you fix the corrupt filesystem?

I though it did some repair stuff, but I checked and it seems like you are right.
I didn't fix the currupt fs, because it wasn't important/I had other things to do. I didn't find the time to report it, but I assume the errors causing it are fixed now anyways.
As other said, keep backups and if it's critical don't use it, because you'll be a tester.

dragonn · 2013-09-11 20:51:23

Ok, thanks all for the answers . I think I will move to f2fs only on / and left /home on ext4.

R00KIE · 2013-09-12 10:07:15

andy123 wrote:

R00KIE wrote:
One things I've noticed is that f2fs doesn't yet support capabilities, this makes some stuff not work as intended, one example that I remember is wireshark, it will complain when installing that it cant set the proper capabilities and aftereard it will only work as root, so take that in consideration before making the jump.
Wasn't that introduced in 3.11?

I'm not sure, if the correct name for capabilities is xattr security labels then yes [1]. I'm still using the 3.10 kernel and I haven't tested 3.11 yet but once the stable 3.11 comes down the interpipes I'll try and see if it works.

[1] http://lkml.indiana.edu/hypermail/linux … 00630.html

Edit:
Having now tested linux 3.11 I can confirm that xattr security labels do indeed work, (re)installing wireshark or any other package that makes use of setcap does not throw any errors.

Last edited by R00KIE (2013-09-17 14:17:15)

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#1 2013-09-11 17:29:54

[SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

#2 2013-09-11 17:55:54

Re: [SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

#3 2013-09-11 18:08:28

Re: [SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

#4 2013-09-11 18:30:43

Re: [SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

#5 2013-09-11 18:34:04

Re: [SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

#6 2013-09-11 20:01:15

Re: [SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

#7 2013-09-11 20:15:55

Re: [SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

#8 2013-09-11 20:49:18

Re: [SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

#9 2013-09-11 20:51:23

Re: [SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

#10 2013-09-12 10:07:15

Re: [SOLVED][F2FS] Safe to use or not?

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