How can I make ReiserFS more safe?
I have an old Linux partition which still uses ReiserFS (it used to be the default with SuSE Linux, ext3 is the default for newer OpenSUSE distributions). I read that ReiserFS is faster for dealing with many small files, and that ext3, on the other hand, is much more safe, i.e. data is less likely to be lost when the system crashes. When my system crashes (which it did after upgrading OpenSUSE from 10.3 to 11.1) ReiserFS needs to replay as many as 185 transactions. I believe this is because it did not sync the FS often enough.
I would like to make my ReiserFS as safe as ext3, and I do not care about the performance (I do not run a database server on my laptop). On the other hand, it would be too complicated to change the FS. Are there mount options to ReiserFS that make it more safe?
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Jan.
Thanks
Thanks, I added the mount option and hope it helps. I will still look into the ext3 option, though (when I have a lot of time and nothing to do...)
data=ordered journalling parameter
Dear Jan,
ReiserFS defaults to writing metadata before the actual data. This can cause data inconsistencies when the system crashes. The ext3-like behaviour can be forced, instead, by using the mount parameter "data=ordered" in /etc/fstab .
The ReiserFS mount options are described at http://web.archive.org/web/20070809124305/http://www.namesys.com/mount-o...
I am not sure whether they have introduced an option to sync the file system more often than the default (30 seconds for ReiserFS, while it is 5 seconds for ext3).
Maybe it is better to tar the whole disk, then re-format with ext3 and tar it back (exclude /sys and /proc directories during tar, and use the tar command while the disk is not mounted (e.g. boot from a live CD or Rescue System)).
Best wishes, Peter