[lug] question about ext 2/3 fs

[Sean Reifschneider]

On Fri, Oct 20, 2006 at 06:03:56AM +0000, D. Stimits wrote:
>Yet another guess...the file system caches via a buffer layer in ram (if 
>not for this, you wouldn't need journaling).

Sure you would...  Journaling also prevents issues with write-ordering.
For a while they were expecting journaling to improve the performance of
ext2 quite a bit, because they could then write the blocks in a way that
was optimal for disc performance, not for safety.

I wish that with the journal they could safely be fast and loose with
sticking stuff in RAM, but file-system write performance can still be
pretty nasty.  For example, writing 100,000 1KB files is way, way slower
than writing a single 100MB file.  And in my old age, I'm cranky about
that.

Thanks,
Sean
-- 
 Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it.
                 -- Andre Gide
Sean Reifschneider, Member of Technical Staff <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com, ltd. - Linux Consulting since 1995: Ask me about High Availability