|  |  | 
|  | 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 | 
|  |  | 
|  | 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_dev=devnum	When the external journal device's major/minor numbers | 
|  | have changed, this option allows the user to specify | 
|  | the new journal location.  The journal device is | 
|  | identified through its new major/minor numbers encoded | 
|  | in devnum. | 
|  |  | 
|  | noload			Don't load the journal on mounting. | 
|  |  | 
|  | 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=1		This enables/disables barriers.  barrier=0 disables | 
|  | it, barrier=1 enables it. | 
|  |  | 
|  | orlov		(*)	This enables the new Orlov block allocator. It is | 
|  | enabled by default. | 
|  |  | 
|  | oldalloc		This disables the Orlov block allocator and enables | 
|  | the old block allocator.  Orlov should have better | 
|  | performance - we'd like to get some feedback if it's | 
|  | the contrary for you. | 
|  |  | 
|  | 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. | 
|  |  | 
|  | 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 | 
|  | noquota | 
|  | grpquota | 
|  | usrquota | 
|  |  | 
|  | bh		(*)	ext3 associates buffer heads to data pages to | 
|  | nobh			(a) cache disk block mapping information | 
|  | (b) link pages into transaction to provide | 
|  | ordering guarantees. | 
|  | "bh" option forces use of buffer heads. | 
|  | "nobh" option tries to avoid associating buffer | 
|  | heads (supported only for "writeback" mode). | 
|  |  | 
|  |  | 
|  | 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.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/ |