ext3 or ext4 for squeeze

[AnimeHendrix]

I've heard that ext4 has better performance, but that it will also eat my hard drive. Has this problem been fixed? What would be a safer bet on a squeeze box? Is there even anything to worry about?

[4D696B65]

I have been using ext4 for over a year and have had no issues.

[Mr James]

Go with ext4 and don't look back. Except if you got a separate /boot partition - make that ext2 (no journaling).

[meho_r]

I remember an issue regarding data loss (I had that on Ubuntu, and some guys from Gentoo camp say they witnessed it too), but never experienced that with Mandriva and Debian, so, I think you'll be OK with ext4. And squeeze IS stable, so...

[chance2105]

News of ext4's faults have been greatly exaggerated.

[rivenathos]

When I upgraded from Lenny to Squeeze, I did a clean install with ext4 partitions. I have had no problems.

[Propofol]

I would also recommend ext4 -- someone remind me of the exact date but when ext4 initially came out I put it on my eeepc and never, ever had any issues with it.

[bugsbunny]

Go with ext4 and don't look back. Except if you got a separate /boot partition - make that ext2 (no journaling).

+1 on the ext4, but I wouldn't go ext2 on a boot partition. ext3 yes. ext3 is actually faster than ext2 nowadays. Even if it wasn't if you do have a problem the journal is a good feature. I'd actually recommend that you use ext3 with data journaling. Yes writes are slower, but how often are you writing to the boot partition?

Actually when I initially installed ext4 wasn't supported for boot partitions, which is why I used ext3. Now, with grub2, I'm pretty sure that ext4 is supported so there's no reason not to use ext4 for /boot. If you really want to run with no journal then you can run ext4 with no journal. I'd still run full data journaling myself on /boot.

[meho_r]

News of ext4's faults have been greatly exaggerated.

When you have a power cut in the middle of your work or any other case of "improper" turning off your computer, and, after restart, you notice that all files on which you were working are lost—and not lost in the sense "Damn, I've just lost last couple of minutes/hours of work", but in sense "What, the whole files are gone?! Replaced with empty, null, zero-byte files?!"—then you'd know that no word is exaggeration enough for this fiasko.
However, as I said, I never witnessed that with Debian, but have seen it on Ubuntu (though this failure wasn't Ubuntu's fault).

[chance2105]

When you have a power cut in the middle of your work or any other case of "improper" turning off your computer, and, after restart, you notice that all files on which you were working are lost—and not lost in the sense "Damn, I've just lost last couple of minutes/hours of work", but in sense "What, the whole files are gone?! Replaced with empty, null, zero-byte files?!"—then you'd know that no word is exaggeration enough for this fiasko.

*shrug* I can't help someone who appeals to the lowest common denominator. Kinda like watching the news. Are you afraid to go outside because it might be.. below 72 degrees? <evil pinky>

Ubuntu has this kind of history with important changes in its desktop flavor.

[cc]

BTW I don't have any problems on squeeze with EXT4, if the squeeze was installed using EXT4.

[Bulkley]

Is there any way to upgrade from 3 to 4 without reinstalling?

[cc]

Is there any way to upgrade from 3 to 4 without reinstalling?

Yep, it is possible:

http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/643

but be really careful!
After converting from ext3 to ext4 I've got problems with Acronis backups, the image compression didn't work and Acronis Support couldn't help me.

BTW ext3 is a safer choice than ext4 for squeeze, and unless you are growing huge volumes, you're not losing much.
If you plan to do a new, fresh squeeze installation, then you can try ext4.
Another advantage of the ext4, file system check is much quicker.

[milomak]

been running ext4 since it became official. have had no issues.

[Soapm]

News of ext4's faults have been greatly exaggerated.

When you have a power cut in the middle of your work or any other case of "improper" turning off your computer, .

That's what UPS is for. And a proper UPS will control the shutdown to make sure it's done right.