Re: [tlug] Linux Filesystems Comparison Article

["Patrick Niessen" <tlug.niessen@example.com>]

On 4/27/06, Shawn <javajunkie@example.com> wrote:

> <from gentoo.org>
>
> We only recommend using this filesystem [XFS] on Linux systems with ...
> an uninterruptible power supply. Because XFS aggressively caches in-
> transit data in RAM, improperly designed programs (those that don't take
> proper precautions when writing files to disk and there are quite a few
> of them) can lose a good deal of data if the system goes down
> unexpectedly.
>
> </from gentoo.org>

To be honest I am not sure why they made this recommendation.  From my
experience of hosting 15 Users Data with Samba on XFS I never had a
problem with such data loss.  One thing to note though is that many
gentoo guys are hackers, and use all sort of out of the way hardware,
mess around with unstable kernel settings, aggressive compiler
optimisations and run unusual system configurations.  Maybe one
developer had a bad experience once, wrote this text, and it stayed on
gentoo.org ever since... who knows.

If XFS was so risky by default then that would mean that all SGI
workstations are unstable.

Of course you can also change the settings to change the caching
behaviour of xfs. ONe more thing is that you may be at risk if you use
a RAID controller.  Unless you invest into buffer battery, a power
outage may also cost you the data cached in the controller's ram.



--
Patrick Niessen