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diff --git a/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/ext3.txt b/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/ext3.txt new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7ed0d17d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/ext3.txt @@ -0,0 +1,215 @@ + +Ext3 Filesystem +=============== + +Ext3 was originally released in September 1999. Written by Stephen Tweedie +for the 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 the ext2 filesystem enhanced with journalling capabilities. + +Options +======= + +When mounting an ext3 filesystem, the following option are accepted: +(*) == default + +ro Mount filesystem read only. Note that ext3 will replay + the journal (and thus write to the partition) even when + mounted "read only". Mount options "ro,noload" can be + used to prevent writes to the filesystem. + +journal=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. + +journal_path=path +journal_dev=devnum When the external journal device's major/minor numbers + have changed, these options allow the user to specify + the new journal location. The journal device is + identified through either its new major/minor numbers + encoded in devnum, or via a path to the device. + +norecovery Don't load the journal on mounting. Note that this forces +noload mount of inconsistent filesystem, which can lead to + various problems. + +data=journal All data are committed 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 committed 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. + +commit=nrsec (*) Ext3 can be told to sync all its data and metadata + every 'nrsec' seconds. The default value is 5 seconds. + This means that if you lose your power, you will lose + as much as the latest 5 seconds of work (your + filesystem will not be damaged though, thanks to the + journaling). This default value (or any low value) + will hurt performance, but it's good for data-safety. + Setting it to 0 will have the same effect as leaving + it at the default (5 seconds). + Setting it to very large values will improve + performance. + +barrier=<0|1(*)> This enables/disables the use of write barriers in +barrier (*) the jbd code. barrier=0 disables, barrier=1 enables. +nobarrier This also requires an IO stack which can support + barriers, and if jbd gets an error on a barrier + write, it will disable again with a warning. + Write barriers enforce proper on-disk ordering + of journal commits, making volatile disk write caches + safe to use, at some performance penalty. If + your disks are battery-backed in one way or another, + disabling barriers may safely improve performance. + The mount options "barrier" and "nobarrier" can + also be used to enable or disable barriers, for + consistency with other ext3 mount options. + +user_xattr Enables Extended User Attributes. Additionally, you + need to have extended attribute support enabled in the + kernel configuration (CONFIG_EXT3_FS_XATTR). See the + attr(5) manual page and http://acl.bestbits.at/ to + learn more about extended attributes. + +nouser_xattr Disables Extended User Attributes. + +acl Enables POSIX Access Control Lists support. + Additionally, you need to have ACL support enabled in + the kernel configuration (CONFIG_EXT3_FS_POSIX_ACL). + See the acl(5) manual page and http://acl.bestbits.at/ + for more information. + +noacl This option disables POSIX Access Control List + support. + +reservation + +noreservation + +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. + +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. + (These mount options override the errors behavior + specified in the superblock, which can be + configured using tune2fs.) + +data_err=ignore(*) Just print an error message if an error occurs + in a file data buffer in ordered mode. +data_err=abort Abort the journal if an error occurs in a file + data buffer in ordered mode. + +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. + +quota These options are ignored by the filesystem. They +noquota are used only by quota tools to recognize volumes +grpquota where quota should be turned on. See documentation +usrquota in the quota-tools package for more details + (http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota). + +jqfmt=<quota type> These options tell filesystem details about quota +usrjquota=<file> so that quota information can be properly updated +grpjquota=<file> during journal replay. They replace the above + quota options. See documentation in the quota-tools + package for more details + (http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota). + +Specification +============= +Ext3 shares all disk implementation with the ext2 filesystem, and adds +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 designed +to add journaling capabilities to a block device. The ext3 filesystem code +will inform the JBD of modifications it is performing (called a transaction). +The journal supports the transactions start and stop, and in case of a crash, +the journal can replay the transactions to quickly put the partition back into +a consistent state. + +Handles represent a single atomic update to a filesystem. JBD can handle an +external journal on a block device. + +Data Mode +--------- +There are 3 different data modes: + +* writeback mode +In data=writeback mode, ext3 does not journal data at all. This mode provides +a similar level of journaling as that of XFS, JFS, and ReiserFS in its default +mode - metadata journaling. A crash+recovery can cause incorrect data to +appear in files which were written shortly before the crash. This mode will +typically provide 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 performs 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 +outperforms all other modes. + +Compatibility +------------- + +Ext2 partitions can be easily convert to ext3, with `tune2fs -j <dev>`. +Ext3 is fully compatible with Ext2. Ext3 partitions can easily be mounted as +Ext2. + + +External Tools +============== +See manual pages to learn more. + +tune2fs: create a ext3 journal on a ext2 partition with the -j flag. +mke2fs: create a ext3 partition with the -j flag. +debugfs: ext2 and ext3 file system debugger. +ext2online: online (mounted) ext2 and ext3 filesystem resizer + + +References +========== + +kernel source: <file:fs/ext3/> + <file:fs/jbd/> + +programs: http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/ + http://ext2resize.sourceforge.net + +useful links: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-fs7/index.html + http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-fs8/index.html |