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What file systems are you using on your devices and why?

I want to learn more about file systems from the practical point of view so I know what to expect, how to approach them and what experience positive or negative you had / have.

I found this wikipedia’s comparison but I want your hands-on views.

For now my mental list is

  • NTFS - for some reason TVs on USB love these and also Windows + Linux can read and write this
  • Ext4 - solid fs with journaling but Linux specific
  • Btrfs - some modern fs with snapshot capability, Linux specific
  • xfs - servers really like these as they are performant, Linux specific
  • FAT32 - limited but recognizable everywhere
  • exFAT - like FAT32 but less recognizable and less limited
TimeSquirrel ,
@TimeSquirrel@kbin.melroy.org avatar

NTFS - for some reason TVs on USB love these and also Windows + Linux can read and write this

Yeah, Linux CAN write to it, but I wouldn't be using it for my core system partition anytime soon.

Ext4 here because I'm old and stuck in my ways. It's familiar and I know what to expect. Also why I use Debian. I don't like surprises.

HarriPotero ,
@HarriPotero@lemmy.world avatar

Been running BTRFS since 2010. Ext2/3/4 before that.

Using it for CoW, de-duplication, compression. My home file server has had a long-lived array of mis-matched devices. Started at 4x2TB, through 6x4TB and now 2x18+4TB. I just move up a size whenever a disk fails.

kittenroar ,

Just ext4 on my Linux things; I got scared away from btrfs because of some file loss horror stories

MoogleMaestro ,

I use BTRFS for the snapshot and subvolume tools.

It is pretty good but usability is a mixed bag. Always getting better by the month though, it feels like.

ssm ,
@ssm@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

OpenBSD laptop: ffs2, vfat for efi system partition

OpenBSD server: ffs2

Linux phone running PmOS: ext2 boot partition, ext4 root partition

Void Linux VM: ext2

Alpine Linux VM: ext4

Steam Deck: ??? (too lazy to check, 9/10 chance it’s ext4)

loutr ,
@loutr@sh.itjust.works avatar

Yes the Steam deck FS is ext4.

Why ext2 on Void?

n2burns ,

It’s all Ext4, but I run SnapRAID on top of that on my data drives. I’m sure lots of people would tell me I should use ZFS/BTRFS instead, but I’m used to SnapRAID, and I like the idea if something goes wrong, I won’t lose all my data.

ulkesh ,
@ulkesh@beehaw.org avatar

Btrfs, because I’ve heard good things.

savvywolf ,
@savvywolf@pawb.social avatar

I’ve been basically using btrfs on a lot of my disks because of the features it has.

Before I switched to a borg based system, my backups partition used btrfs for compression.

My main OS disk is btrfs so I can use timeshift snapshots, which are really worth checking out if you tinker with your system a lot.

I have two more btrfs partitions software raid0’d together for my steam library, nix store and other big but loosable things.

And my main home folder uses btrfs because I think the checksumming thing it does is more reliable for error detection, and cow is more fault tollerant on power failure?

… And I now fell like I’m one of those people with an over engineered storage solution. I just never get rid of old ssds or hard disks!

seaQueue , (edited )
@seaQueue@lemmy.world avatar

Btrfs, ZFS and ext4. My servers use ZFS, my client machines mostly use btrfs and I have a sprinkling of ext4 partitions for specific workloads. I’m all in on CoW filesystems for snapshots, send receive, transparent compression and reflinks. I like btrfs on client machines and SBCs because it’s easily available (baked into the kernel) and doesn’t require maintaining dkms or holding kernel versions until ZFS supports them and because snapshot handling and other filesystem admin tasks are simple and straightforward. I run ZFS wherever data integrity is important, eg: storage servers and backup targets, but largely prefer working with btrfs.

soundconjurer ,
@soundconjurer@mstdn.social avatar

@Psyhackological
Work stations all run Ext4.
Main server: Ext4 on main partition, ZFS RAIDZ2 on the data.
Secondary server: BTRFS on main, BTRFS RAID1 on data.

If BTRFS could natively encrypt and had stable RAID6, I'd be using it probably on everything.

eager_eagle ,
@eager_eagle@lemmy.world avatar

F2FS, because solid state and speed

ryannathans ,

ZFS where possible for maximum reliability

It also has self healing, no “partitions”, high performance, compression, smart drive redundancy without RAID holes, encryption, deduplication and an extremery intelligent cache called ARC

Ooops ,
@Ooops@feddit.org avatar

BTRFS raid on LUKS-encrypted devices (no LVM, all unlocked with one password via SystemD encrypt hooks).

mat ,
@mat@linux.community avatar

Honestly I saw btrfs in the arch install guide and read about it because I thought the name sounded funny. I used it until I distro hopped to NixOS couldn’t figure out how to install it with btrfs, so I’m back on ext4.

Maybe I’ll give it another try next hop, which is likely soon since Qt theming seems impossible on Nix. :/

ChickenPasaran ,
@ChickenPasaran@piefed.social avatar

Ext4 with LVM.

I like BTRFS and it's features but sadly Debian doesn't have a preset for it in it's installer so the only way to use it is to manually partition and I absolutely suck at that.

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