Ubuntu and ext4 file system

[John Richard Moser]

Chris Jones wrote:
> When is Ubuntu going to support ext4 file system?
> 
> Will it make it into Feisty Fawn final build?
> 
> Chris Jones
> 
> 

A better question:  What features of ext4 make it so much better than ext3?

 * Allocate on Flush (faster, less fragmentation)
 * Extents (faster, less fragmentation)
 * Larger file systems (32TiB vs 1024PiB)

It seems that you can activate ext4 and mount an ext3 file system
WITHOUT '-o extents' and utilize the Allocate-on-Flush algorithm without
actually changing the on-disk format grammar.

You can add extents by using 'mount -o extents', but you can no longer
mount the file system as ext3 after this.  As a side effect, if (as Matt
said) the on-disk format changes, you need to backup/restore to upgrade
your kernel.

You can utilize the >32TiB size only by reformatting.  Same concern as
Matt said.

When ext4 comes along, it may be safe for you to activate it and take
advantage of its ext3-compatible operation; then again, you may want to
hold until it's official.  This is a decision only you can make; you are
playing with your data, MAKE BACKUPS.

-- 
    We will enslave their women, eat their children and rape their
    cattle!
             -- Bosc, Evil alien overlord from the fifth dimension
Anti-Spam:  https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=229686