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Linux Filesystems Benchmarked
smatt-man writes "Over at Linux Gazette they ran some tests on popular Linux filesystems (ext2, ext3, jfs, reiserfs, xfs) and the results may surprise you."
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The original article
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EXT2 has better throughput
EXT3 has better file handling capablities
Reiser has better search ablity
XFS has better delete capablities
JFS may be a better choice in regards to file manipulation Subject to debate of course...
Maybe slashdot needs a filesystem update to one with more powerful meta-data support like something that can detect when the same URL has been used in more than one post within a certain time. Sheesh.
here is the winner. FAT 16
>Use gif for images such as this.
No, use PNG.
If you're going to do it, do it right. Using GIFs is half-assed.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Obviously (as you point out) a journallying filesystem is what you need. I went for Ext3 on my Debian servers. I/O throughput wasn't so important. The good thing about Ext3 is its backwards-compatibility with Ext2. If there's a problem and you don't have all the kernel modules or tools then you're still pretty much guarranteed access to the file system by mounting it as Ext2 as support for that system is almost universal under Linux.
It's slashdot's mob tactics again. Now Taco will call their ISP and ask them "Are you SURE you don't want our protection? Certainly protecting the servers you love is worth some...compensation." If they say no, another posting of this story as soon as the admins "forget" this one.
No, in fact ext3 is one of the few that actually will journal data as well as metadata.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
>Web site accessibility (use image type supported by all major browsers)
All the "good features" of GIF is supported by PNG in all current browsers. You'd have to go back in time fem years to find a browser that can't display a basic PNG. If you think otherwise, give me a link to one that matters that doesn't, and explain to me why, if it wasn't released/updated this year, using it isn't a security issue.
Since GIF doesn't support per-pixel-alpha to begin with, you lose nothing by using PNG for everything. After all, with GIF you didn't have the choice at all so there is no issue with simply "converting to PNG".
Score: PNG
>Bandwidth conservation
PNGs are always smaller where it matters (anything more complex than 1x1x1-images). In some not atypical cases a PNG can be 25% smaller than the corresponding GIF.
Score: PNG
PS. GIF-via-LZW is still encumbered in many countries.
More features, better standard, solid software, no licensing issues, smaller output == Winner: PNG
Belief is the currency of delusion.
There are options, or settings, that you can do for ext3, the default is slower, but it saves your data. Ext3 not only journals metadata, like XFS, etc... but it also journals data, which is the only filesystem that does that, if I understand this correctly.
/etc/fstab and reboot, no big deal.
"data=writeback" mode does no data journaling, only metadata journaling, and you would probably see better performance here. Although, you could lose data in the event of a power outage (no fun). Same thing applies to XFS, JFS - you could lose data because only metadata is being journaled, not real data.
"data=ordered" mode - inbetween, still no data journalling, but there are provisions that make it less likely to lose data in the case of a power problem. It has something to do with the way it journals the metadata and the way the filesystem interacts with the disk that makes is a little slower than data=writeback but also a little more secure than data=writeback if you get a power outage.
"data=journal" mode - this journals data and metadata, and with the exception of a few situations, is the slowest. The least likely to lose your data, but also much slower.
I am assuming, or at least it looks like, these tests were run with the default data=journal - so to be fair, they should have been run in data=writeback, or maybe even all three modes. Again, all you have to is specify in
It would probably be better to compare the ext3 in data=writeback mode.
Lynx.
It doesn't support GIF either though.
Why is it that every benchmarking article contains the words "The results may surprise you?"
Have any of you ever been surprised?
Well, the simplest answer is that Stephen Tweedie is their filesystem guru, so why not use his baby in their OS. However, that's not the real answer. SCT is a clever guy, and mature enough to not let pride get in the way of the best possible system. (a similar question: Why does sun still use UFS?) For Redhat, EXT3 is probably the best general purpose filesystem, particularly for the root drive. Redhat is interested in selling on servers, where the root filesystem is not the bottleneck. You install the OS onto EXT3, which has decent performance and is very mature. Then you install your database / exported directories / mail spool / whatever onto the filesystem that is best for that job.
Ext3 is a very close cousin to Ext2, which has been around for a very long time, and changes very slowly. Reiser has grown and changed a LOT in the last three years, including some metadata changes that effect on-disk structures. Though it has stabalized lately, Redhat is correct to be cautious. XFS and JFS, though very mature filesystems on other OSes, have only recently become tightly integrated with the Linux kernel. Though technically controlled by the linux kernel community, all three of these other filesystems are really controlled by little cabals of people within IBM/SGI/ and then Hans Reiser. While these groups try to be transparent in their development process, Ext3 is very transparent in its development and direction.
One other tremendous advantage that Ext3 inherits from Ext2 is a fast, versatile, and effective fsck program. Journals are great in the event of power failures. However, they do not protect against Windows, or a faulty fibre channel driver, or uninformed sysadmin who accidently writes over the first 1 MB of the disk. Fsck.Ext2 is one of the best around.
IE is still too stupid to properly do an alpha channeled PNG. But it does do 1-bit, GIF-style transparency and displays generic, non-transparent PNGs just fine. And so the only place left to use GIF for is crummy animations.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
You can see benchmarks of it at www.namesys.com/benchmarks.html