Reiser vs Ext3

**Gnu Penguin** · 10-17-2003, 06:19 PM

I normally use ext3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Reiser file sytem vs. ext3?

For that matter, what are the advantages and disadvantages of having a journalized ext file system (ext3) over using ext2? I'm using ext3 without really knowing why.

Which file system should I use and why?

**rickenbacherus** · 10-17-2003, 06:36 PM

A journaled file system is vastly superior to a non-journaled fs in that it keeps a 'journal'. That is- if the machine crashes or shuts down uncleanly (rare w/ Linux but still possible) the file system is much less likely to be corrupted as the data is correctly rewritten from the journal.

Reiser has some advantages over ext3 but are probably negligable unless using multiprocessor machines. ext3 doesn't scale well at all on machines w/ more that 2 processors. Supposedly reiser4 has 7.6 times the write performance of ext3! Personally I still use ext3 as it is tried and true and I've had some 'oddities' while using Reiser.

You may find this interesting.

**Gnu Penguin** · 10-17-2003, 08:58 PM

Thanks, rickenbacherus!! That was just the sort of comparison I was interested in. Perhaps others will also find this useful.

I think that I, too will continuie to use ext3 for now. Quite a difference in read/write speeds with reiser4, though.

Thanks again,
Gnu Penguin.