Future Linux File System NILFS?

[Turk]

NILFS is a log-structured file system developed for the Linux kernel 2.6. NILFS is an abbreviation of the New Implementation of a Log-structured File System. A log-structured file system has the characteristic that all file system data including metadata is written in a log-like format. Data is never overwritten, only appended in this file system. This greatly improves performance because there is little overhead regarding disk seeks. NILFS also has the following specific features:

* Slick snapshots.
* B-tree based file and inode management.
* Immediate recovery after system crash.
* 64-bit data structures; support many files, large files and disks.
* Loadable kernel module; no recompilation of the kernel is required.
http://nilfs.sourceforge.net/

What do you think about this fs? It's in BETA, will it be used for Ubuntu 6.1 maybe?

[Wolki]

What do you think about this fs? It's in BETA, will it be used for Ubuntu 6.1 maybe?

There is no 6.1 (probably), since ubuntu versions are named after their release date, and they are released in April and October. But I doubt it will be in Dapper (6.04), unless it makes it into the stable kernel by then. Usually filesystems are added slowly and tested very well, since a malfunctioning file system has all sorts of negative effects (like losing all your data).

[nocturn]

I don't know, but it looks a lot like reiserfs and that has been arround for a while and has proven very stable.

[ewr2san]

Anyone re-thingking about this? The Nov Builds of NILFS seem much improved. Very fast!

[mips]

Pity we can't have ZFS though.

[Dimitriid]

* Loadable kernel module; no recompilation of the kernel is required.

Thats impressive.

[ewr2san]

Well, IMHO where ZFS shines is when you have many Hard Drives in a strorage pool. It's in the server space where it's best.

NILFS has continious snapshots, so you can do things very much like apple's "Time Machine" and revert files, etc... Very slick on a single Hard disk (or more). NILFS could be very nice in ubuntu desktop.

[foxmulder881]

I'd like to see both ZFS and NILFS implemented into Ubuntu eventually.
But only when both have been fully tested and finalized and claimed as 'safe' to use by the Ubuntu development team.

One of the main reasons I like using Linux is because of the vast choice of file systems you have to choose from.
Currently, I use ReiserFS.
It's all about "choice".

[SunnyRabbiera]

I don't know, but it looks a lot like reiserfs and that has been arround for a while and has proven very stable.

Yeh its a KILLER filesystem :p

[hanzomon4]

Can you boot from ReiserFS? And is it safe for sudden power outages? I screwed my self by using xfs for both / and /home, now I have to much data to move to another hard drive.

[maniacmusician]

Yeh its a KILLER filesystem :p

:rolleyes:

[foxmulder881]

Can you boot from ReiserFS? And is it safe for sudden power outages? I screwed my self by using xfs for both / and /home, now I have to much data to move to another hard drive.

Well, I boot from it with no probs.
And you have to ask yourself, "Is any filesystem safe when you get a sudden power outage?". Really?!?

[herbster]

Damn, I thought the filesystem was called MILFs for a second.

[yatt]

Well, I boot from it with no probs.
And you have to ask yourself, "Is any filesystem safe when you get a sudden power outage?". Really?!?
XFS is actually really bad with power outages. IME, you will usually only lose your firefox config files during a power outage (whether FF is open or not). With XFS, you'll lose others like xorg.conf, fstab, mtab, etc.

XFS can't be used for /boot with the old style Grub(the one Ubuntu uses).

Anyways, I use JFS as it is almost as fast as XFS (not quite as good with huge files, but comparable elsewhere. I'd give NILFS a shot if I had a kernel with support for it, and the time to do a Gentoo....

[hanzomon4]

Yeah I use jfs on root and xfs for home.

[ewr2san]

Reiser is a very good and fairly solid filesystem.. However there are some rather neat performance benefits to NILFS, as well as the contunious data protection features which allow you to roll back to any point in time.

Im told that Mac has a feature called "Time machine" which is similar.

[spockrock]

:rolleyes:

LOL, I think you are :rolleyes: for the same reason I am when reading that post.

[foxmulder881]

LOL, I think you are :rolleyes: for the same reason I am when reading that post.


For the readers who have no idea what these guys are referring to. Read here...

http://tinyurl.com/zkv3n