Advantages and disadvantages of Ext3 and Reiserfs file systems in Linux (1)

A file system is a directory structure that includes storage devices or partitions. Generally, an application storage device can contain one or more file systems. Generally speaking, a file system stores files or data in an organized manner, with the aim of making it easy for the operating system to query and access data. Common file systems include FAT3, NTFS, Ext3, and Reiserfs. However, different operating systems support different file systems. Taking Linux as an example, it mainly supports file systems such as Ext2, Ext3, and Reiserfs.

As a Linux system engineer, you must understand the characteristics of each file system. Then, select an appropriate file system based on the actual application scenario. Different file systems have different features, which often determine the attributes of files and directories in the file system. Each file system has a series of tools, including creation, repair, and backup. It is worth noting that most file systems have self-repair tools. In case of accidental damage to your file system, use the built-in repair function of the file system to fix the problem. In this article, I will briefly introduce the features of Ext3 and Reiserfs file systems and analyze their advantages and disadvantages. We hope this will help you eliminate the confusion in choosing a file system.

1. Ext3 file system.

Ext2 is an authentic Linux File System, and ext2 was used in earlier Linux versions. However, with the development of technology, most Linux distributions do not currently use this file system, and most of them are recommended to use ext3 file systems. The Ext3 file system is developed by ext2. In the Ext3 File System Used in Linux, files are stored in blocks. By default, the size of each block is 1 K. Different blocks are distinguished by block numbers. Each file has a node. The node contains useful information such as the file owner, read/write permission, and file type. For a file smaller than 12 blocks, the block number of the file data block is directly stored in the node. If the file contains more than 12 blocks, the node stores an indirect block number after 12 blocks. In the block corresponding to this indirect block number, it stores the block number of 256 file data blocks. If a larger file exists, the second-level indirect block and third-level indirect block appear in the node. Therefore, the Ext3 file system supports large files. However, anti-deletion is not supported.

Ii. Reiserfs file system.

The Reiserfs file system is an excellent file system that supports large files and reverse deletion. He is also an old file system. But he is not discarded like the Ext2 file system. This file system is still widely used and has great vitality. This is mainly because the file system has excellent performance.

For example, this file system has a relatively advanced log management mechanism. Its log management mechanism ensures that the corresponding logs have been written to the hard disk before each actual data modification. In this case, the security of files and data is greatly improved. For example, in such a file system, the disk utilization is very high. The Reiserfs file system does not allocate inode to some small files. Instead, these files are packaged and stored in the same disk block. Other file systems place each small file in one disk block. That is to say, if there are 20000 small files, it will occupy 20000 parts. This is a waste of disk space. This is better than NTFS file system design. In addition, it supports a large number of hard disks. The ReiserFS file system allows you to easily manage files of up to GB and supports a maximum file system size of 16 TB. Therefore, in some large Linux servers, this file system is the first choice.

In addition, the Reiserfs file system also has outstanding performance. For example, file location is fast. The Reiserfs file system is based on the quick balancing tree search. The Balance Tree has excellent performance. It is a very efficient search algorithm. When the Reiserfs File System Searches for files in a large number of files, the search speed is much faster than that of other file systems. The Reiserfs file system uses B * Tree to store files, while other file systems use B + Tree. B * Tree query is much faster than B + Tree. Therefore, the Reiserfs file system is very fast in file location. Its superior performance is also manifested in its storage. Reiserfs file system, which provides efficient and fast data, and even input and output of small file hard disks. Computers that use the Reiserfs file system spend much less time starting the X Window System than using other file systems on the same machine.