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#1 2009-02-12 10:53:02

Surgat_
Member
Registered: 2007-08-08
Posts: 317

/var partition: ext4 or ReiserFS?

Hello there,

I'm waiting for the new ISO release to reinstall my whole system and I've been thinking about partitioning. I'm going to make a separate /boot partition and another one for multimedia files, with ext4 on the multimedia one and /, and ext2 for /boot. The thing comes when I remember a lot of people recommending a separate partition for /var on ReiserFS (or even Reiser4), but have never seen it again since ext4 came stable. So, has anyone tested /var under ext4 and can compare pacman's performance against Reiser?

Thank you all.
Cheers!

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#2 2009-02-12 15:26:47

kgas
Member
From: Qatar
Registered: 2008-11-08
Posts: 718

Re: /var partition: ext4 or ReiserFS?

IMO if you want to keep your log files growing you can switch to ext4. I am using resierfs for /var and flushing out the log files using logrotate. It is proven that resierfs is faster with smaller size files. For benchmarking of fs this link may help  http://www.linuxinsight.com/first_bench … ystem.html

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#3 2009-02-12 16:33:43

DonVla
Member
From: Bonn, Germany
Registered: 2007-06-07
Posts: 997

Re: /var partition: ext4 or ReiserFS?

kgas wrote:

It is proven that resierfs is faster with smaller size files.

"they" say it is faster, but i used reiserfs for /var and now i'm using ext3. i see/feel no remarkable difference.
so i would recommend ext4.
reiserfs is dying anyway.

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#4 2009-02-13 12:30:49

Surgat_
Member
Registered: 2007-08-08
Posts: 317

Re: /var partition: ext4 or ReiserFS?

kgas wrote:

IMO if you want to keep your log files growing you can switch to ext4. I am using resierfs for /var and flushing out the log files using logrotate. It is proven that resierfs is faster with smaller size files. For benchmarking of fs this link may help  http://www.linuxinsight.com/first_bench … ystem.html

I also use logrotate, but, according to that link, ext4 is better than reiser when creating a lot of small files, which is what pacman does when syncing the database. It also reads a lot of small files when consulting the database, but that hasn't been benchmarked yet, I've searched through the web a bit and haven't found any.

Anyone else has tried ext4 on /var and compared it to reiser?

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#5 2009-02-13 17:18:03

Isengrin
Member
Registered: 2008-08-07
Posts: 166

Re: /var partition: ext4 or ReiserFS?

A few days ago I started using reiserfs on /var, and at least in my system the difference is remarkable. But haven't used ext4 either, I'll try it on my little sister's lap.


The Wheel weaves as the Wheel wills, and we are only the thread of the Pattern."
—Moiraine Damodred

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#6 2009-02-13 17:41:57

fwojciec
Member
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,411

Re: /var partition: ext4 or ReiserFS?

I wouldn't bother with reiserfs at this stage -- ext4 is at least as fast if not faster.  I'd also advise against using a separate /var partition, since you'll be always either wasting unused hd space or running out of space on it.

@kgas: that benchmark compares ext4 and reiser4 not reiserfs.

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#7 2009-02-15 20:32:53

Mogger
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2008-12-07
Posts: 153
Website

Re: /var partition: ext4 or ReiserFS?

I'm interested in this as well - currently I use reiserfs for /var, since I've read that it handles smaller files better. Ext3 for everything else except /boot, which is Ext2.

If there isn't much difference between ext4 and reiserfs on /var, I think I'll follow fwojciec's suggestion and skip a separate /var partition. Would this have any disadvantages?

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#8 2009-02-26 17:32:25

TheGrudge
Member
Registered: 2006-06-15
Posts: 206
Website

Re: /var partition: ext4 or ReiserFS?

I have used ext4 for /var 2 days now, but I will go back to reiserfs. ext4 with barriers is much too slow, see the other thread about this: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=65341

Especially when used with sqlite, ext4 is the slowest FS I've ever seen. For my media drive where my digiKam DB is living, I need to either disable barriers or switch back to reiserfs or ext3. Problem is, the media drive is 300 GB big and I have no space left to move those files too big_smile


digiKam developer - www.digikam.org

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#9 2009-06-13 11:14:02

kgas
Member
From: Qatar
Registered: 2008-11-08
Posts: 718

Re: /var partition: ext4 or ReiserFS?

In one of the fresh install /var was put on xfs file system(default options). pacman takes long time to get synchronised where us /var with resierfs is fast in another install.
xfs was converted to resierfs and pacman -Sy is much faster. This is the recent experience with xfs.

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