Ext3 documentation

Vincent Hanquez (tab@tuxfamily.org)
Wed, 2 Oct 2002 10:57:13 +0200


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Hi Mailing List,

Here a (small) documentation for ext3 filesystem.
it seem now correct/accurate. report me any problem/bugs

It can be merge in 2.4/2.5 kernel I think. feedback appreciated.

-- 
Vincent Hanquez

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Ext3 Filesystem ===============

ext3 was originally released in September 1999. Written by Stephen Tweedie for 2.2 branch, and ported to 2.4 kernels by Peter Braam, Andreas Dilger, Andrew Morton, Alexander Viro, Ted Ts'o and Stephen Tweedie.

ext3 is ext2 filesystem enhanced with journalling capabilities.

Options =======

When mounting an ext3 filesystem, the following option are accepted: (*) == default

jounal=update Update the ext3 file system's journal to the current format.

journal=inum When a journal already exists, this option is ignored. Otherwise, it specifies the number of the inode which will represent the ext3 file system's journal file.

bsddf (*) Make 'df' act like BSD. minixdf Make 'df' act like Minix.

check=none Don't do extra checking of bitmaps on mount. nocheck

debug Extra debugging information is sent to syslog.

noload Don't load the journal on mounting.

errors=remount-ro(*) Remount the filesystem read-only on an error. errors=continue Keep going on a filesystem error. errors=panic Panic and halt the machine if an error occurs.

grpid Give objects the same group ID as their creator. bsdgroups

nogrpid (*) New objects have the group ID of their creator. sysvgroups

resgid=n The group ID which may use the reserved blocks.

resuid=n The user ID which may use the reserved blocks.

sb=n Use alternate superblock at this location.

data=journal All data are commited into the journal prior to being written into the main file system. data=ordered (*) All data are forced directly out to the main file system prior to its metadata being commited to the journal. data=writeback Data ordering is not preserved, data may be written into the main file system after its metadata has been committed to the journal.

quota Quota options are currently silently ignored. noquota (see fs/ext3/super.c, line 594) grpquota usrquota

Specification ============= ext3 shares all disk implementation with ext2 filesystem, and add transactions capabilities to ext2. Journaling is done by the Journaling block device layer.

Journaling Block Device layer ----------------------------- The Journaling Block Device layer (JBD) isn't ext3 specific. It was design to add journaling capabilities on a block device. The ext3 filesystem code will inform the JBD of modifications it is performing (Call a transaction). the journal support the transactions start and stop, and in case of crash, the journal can replayed the transactions to put the partition on a consistant state fastly.

handles represent a single atomic update to a filesystem. JBD can handle external journal on a block device.

Data Mode --------- There's 3 different data modes:

* writeback mode In data=writeback mode, ext3 doesn't do any form of data journaling at all (as XFS, JFS, and ReiserFS). Despite the fact it could corrupt recently modified file, this mode should give you in general the best ext3 performance.

* ordered mode In data=ordered mode, ext3 only officially journals metadata, but it logically groups metadata and data blocks into a single unit called a transaction. When it's time to write the new metadata out to disk, the associated data blocks are written first. In general, this mode perform slightly slower than writeback but significantly faster than journal mode.

* journal mode data=journal mode provides full data and metadata journaling. All new data is written to the journal first, and then to its final location. In the event of a crash, the journal can be replayed, bringing both data and metadata into a consistent state. This mode is the slowest except when data needs to be read from and written to disk at the same time where it outperform all others mode.

Compatibility ------------- Ext2 partition can be easily convert to ext3, with `tune2fs -j <dev>`. Ext3 is fully compatible with Ext2. Ext3 partition can easily be mounted as Ext2.

Quota ===== Quota implementation for ext3 is available in -ac tree for 2.4. There is no implementation for 2.5 yet.

External Tools ============== see manual pages to know more.

tune2fs: create a ext3 journal on a ext2 partition with the -j flags mke2fs: create a ext3 partition with the -j flags debugfs: ext2 and ext3 file system debugger

References ==========

kernel source: file:/usr/src/linux/fs/ext3 file:/usr/src/linux/fs/jbd

programs: http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net

useful link: http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/ext3/ext3-usage.html http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fs7/ http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fs8/

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