ext3.txt

Ext3 Filesystem
===============

Ext3 was originally released in September 1999. Written by Stephen Tweedie
for the 2.2 branch, and ported to 2.4 kernels by Peter Braam, Andreas Dilger,
Andrew Morton, Alexander Viro, Ted Ts'o and Stephen Tweedie.

Ext3 is the ext2 filesystem enhanced with journalling capabilities.

Options
=======

When mounting an ext3 filesystem, the following option are accepted:
(*) == default

journal=update		Update the ext3 file system's journal to the current
			format.

journal=inum		When a journal already exists, this option is ignored.
			Otherwise, it specifies the number of the inode which
			will represent the ext3 file system's journal file.

journal_dev=devnum	When the external journal device's major/minor numbers
			have changed, this option allows the user to specify
			the new journal location.  The journal device is
			identified through its new major/minor numbers encoded
			in devnum.

noload			Don't load the journal on mounting.

data=journal		All data are committed into the journal prior to being
			written into the main file system.

data=ordered	(*)	All data are forced directly out to the main file
			system prior to its metadata being committed to the
			journal.

data=writeback		Data ordering is not preserved, data may be written
			into the main file system after its metadata has been
			committed to the journal.

commit=nrsec	(*)	Ext3 can be told to sync all its data and metadata
			every 'nrsec' seconds. The default value is 5 seconds.
			This means that if you lose your power, you will lose
			as much as the latest 5 seconds of work (your
			filesystem will not be damaged though, thanks to the
			journaling).  This default value (or any low value)
			will hurt performance, but it's good for data-safety.
			Setting it to 0 will have the same effect as leaving
			it at the default (5 seconds).
			Setting it to very large values will improve
			performance.

barrier=1		This enables/disables barriers.  barrier=0 disables
			it, barrier=1 enables it.

orlov		(*)	This enables the new Orlov block allocator. It is
			enabled by default.

oldalloc		This disables the Orlov block allocator and enables
			the old block allocator.  Orlov should have better
			performance - we'd like to get some feedback if it's
			the contrary for you.

user_xattr		Enables Extended User Attributes.  Additionally, you
			need to have extended attribute support enabled in the
			kernel configuration (CONFIG_EXT3_FS_XATTR).  See the
			attr(5) manual page and http://acl.bestbits.at/ to
			learn more about extended attributes.

nouser_xattr		Disables Extended User Attributes.

acl			Enables POSIX Access Control Lists support.
			Additionally, you need to have ACL support enabled in
			the kernel configuration (CONFIG_EXT3_FS_POSIX_ACL).
			See the acl(5) manual page and http://acl.bestbits.at/
			for more information.

noacl			This option disables POSIX Access Control List
			support.

reservation

noreservation

bsddf 		(*)	Make 'df' act like BSD.
minixdf			Make 'df' act like Minix.

check=none		Don't do extra checking of bitmaps on mount.
nocheck

debug			Extra debugging information is sent to syslog.

errors=remount-ro(*)	Remount the filesystem read-only on an error.
errors=continue		Keep going on a filesystem error.
errors=panic		Panic and halt the machine if an error occurs.

grpid			Give objects the same group ID as their creator.
bsdgroups

nogrpid		(*)	New objects have the group ID of their creator.
sysvgroups

resgid=n		The group ID which may use the reserved blocks.

resuid=n		The user ID which may use the reserved blocks.

sb=n			Use alternate superblock at this location.

quota
noquota
grpquota
usrquota

bh		(*)	ext3 associates buffer heads to data pages to
nobh			(a) cache disk block mapping information
			(b) link pages into transaction to provide
			    ordering guarantees.
			"bh" option forces use of buffer heads.
			"nobh" option tries to avoid associating buffer
			heads (supported only for "writeback" mode).


Specification
=============
Ext3 shares all disk implementation with the ext2 filesystem, and adds
transactions capabilities to ext2.  Journaling is done by the Journaling Block
Device layer.

Journaling Block Device layer
-----------------------------
The Journaling Block Device layer (JBD) isn't ext3 specific.  It was design to
add journaling capabilities on a block device.  The ext3 filesystem code will
inform the JBD of modifications it is performing (called a transaction).  The
journal supports the transactions start and stop, and in case of crash, the
journal can replayed the transactions to put the partition back in a
consistent state fast.

Handles represent a single atomic update to a filesystem.  JBD can handle an
external journal on a block device.

Data Mode
---------
There are 3 different data modes:

* writeback mode
In data=writeback mode, ext3 does not journal data at all.  This mode provides
a similar level of journaling as that of XFS, JFS, and ReiserFS in its default
mode - metadata journaling.  A crash+recovery can cause incorrect data to
appear in files which were written shortly before the crash.  This mode will
typically provide the best ext3 performance.

* ordered mode
In data=ordered mode, ext3 only officially journals metadata, but it logically
groups metadata and data blocks into a single unit called a transaction.  When
it's time to write the new metadata out to disk, the associated data blocks
are written first.  In general, this mode performs slightly slower than
writeback but significantly faster than journal mode.

* journal mode
data=journal mode provides full data and metadata journaling.  All new data is
written to the journal first, and then to its final location.
In the event of a crash, the journal can be replayed, bringing both data and
metadata into a consistent state.  This mode is the slowest except when data
needs to be read from and written to disk at the same time where it
outperforms all others modes.

Compatibility
-------------

Ext2 partitions can be easily convert to ext3, with `tune2fs -j <dev>`.
Ext3 is fully compatible with Ext2.  Ext3 partitions can easily be mounted as
Ext2.


External Tools
==============
See manual pages to learn more.

tune2fs: 	create a ext3 journal on a ext2 partition with the -j flag.
mke2fs: 	create a ext3 partition with the -j flag.
debugfs: 	ext2 and ext3 file system debugger.
ext2online:	online (mounted) ext2 and ext3 filesystem resizer


References
==========

kernel source:	<file:fs/ext3/>
		<file:fs/jbd/>

programs: 	http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/
		http://ext2resize.sourceforge.net

useful links:	http://www.zip.com.au/~akpm/linux/ext3/ext3-usage.html
		http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fs7/
		http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-fs8/