Arch Linux

zapyourit

Member

Registered: 2008-05-12

Posts: 46

Switching from ext3 possibly

Hello all,

I'm thinking about switching from ext3 in certain situations. My current plan is as follows:

/etc, /var: individual partitions under ReiserFS
everything else in /: ext3
/home: JFS or something else, possibly XFS

I've heard that Reiser is good with many small files (such as those in etc and var) so that made some sense to me. I don't think that ext3 is slow with anything else in the filesystem (as far as I've heard). JFS or XFS for home (mish-mash of small files and larger files) to hopefully speed up access to programs and minimize CPU/Mem usage for everyday read/write functions.

I guess my question is if any of the Arch guru's out there could enlighten me on whether this makes any logical sense or not, and hopefully give any suggestions other than the above filesystem setup. Also, I currently only have a /, swap, and /home partition, so logical partition sizes for these partitions would be extremely helpful. I'm thinking of switching because my 6 gig / partition is full up, so I will be taking some space from a backup partition and allocating it to my / partition.

Secondary question: If I have a current ext3 filesystem and I copy it from one partition to another with a different FS (as described above), will the files from one FS be compatible if they are simply copied?

Third question: when installing under Arch, is the ReiserFS option version 3 or 4?

Fourth question: Should I just wait for ext4 to be a plausible answer and then switch to that?

I'm running a Toshibal Satellite M65-S8092. Key features that make a difference: Intel M (Centrino) proc @ 1.73 GHz, 1.5G pc2-4200 533 MHz ram, proprietary graphics card. Running Fluxbox as the DE/WM.
Full Specs: http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/toshiba … 52364.html

Thanks for the help,
Matt

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Switching from ext3 possibly

Second question: yes.
Third question: ReiserFS denotes version 3, version 4 is referred to as Reiser4.

I really like XFS for its features, but generally it truly shows its advantages if you plan on doing some torrent leeching or heavy file copying (ext4 might get close when it gets fully featured). XFS is splendid with big files, but if you fancy kernel sources unpacking, I'd look elsewhere.

I've used all possible Linux FSes on / and finally settled with JFS on my desktop. There are no very big differences between ext3, JFS and ReiserFS on /, I'd say. JFS might be best suited for a notebook because of its low CPU utilization.

Last edited by lucke (2008-05-28 22:26:46)

Misfit138

Misfit Emeritus

From: USA

Registered: 2006-11-27

Posts: 4,189

Re: Switching from ext3 possibly

ReiserFS is v3. Version 4 is called Reiser4.
Disclaimer: I am no FS guru.
While your ideas do make sense, I strongly believe that any performance gains will be negligible/placebo. Having said that, there is no real harm in "ricing", and it can be fun.
You are right in choosing Reiser for /var, since it will contain many small files.
ext3 is a good choice for /
Perhaps the best thing you can do is keep /var on the fast edge of the harddisk, on the first partition.
I like JFS for its balanced performance, and it's what I use for everything nowadays.
The biggest differences I see in performance between filesystems are the fscks and mount times.
JFS is very quick at both. I don't like XFS, but it does have online defrag, which is 15 years overdue on these other GNU/Linux filesystems.

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peart

Member

From: Kanuckistan

Registered: 2003-07-28

Posts: 510

Re: Switching from ext3 possibly

Hello zapyourit,

I agree with just about everything Misfit138 said, especially the part about using Reiser for /var.  I'd like to add 2 things:
1) I believe that creating a separate partition for /etc is overkill.  That directory is just too small to deserve it's own partition, imho.
2) If you are in a hurry to get your file systems up, don't wait for ext4.  They haven't even finished adding features to it yet.

zapyourit

Member

Registered: 2008-05-12

Posts: 46

Re: Switching from ext3 possibly

Thank you all for your input.

Final layout as follows (in order):
/var       ReiserFS
/            JFS
/home   JFS

formating as I write. Thanks again,
Matt

Zerathidune

Member

Registered: 2007-02-25

Posts: 102

Re: Switching from ext3 possibly

For future reference, I *believe* putting /etc on a separate partition from / will make the system unbootable because some of the configuration files there are needed before all the filesystems are mounted. for example, /etc/fstab, the initscripts, and possibly some others. theoretically you could get around this by copying the necessary files from your separate /etc to /etc on your / partition, but you'd need to make sure you had everything, and even then, you'd need to make sure things like the initscripts got copied back over when there's an update. It's probably not worth it.