[Gllug] Reiserfs gotchas?

[Stephen Harker]

On Thu, 2002-05-09 at 11:55, Rev Simon Rumble wrote:
> > reiserfs module from as its too big to build into the kernel statically
> 
> Why is it too big?  I've compiled it in statically right now and it
> seems to have worked fine.  I compiled it statically since I plan to
> use it on my root fs so it didn't make any real difference if it was a
> module as it would never be unloaded.

Well depending on how much stuff you have in the kernel, it might not
fit. The size issue is not how big the kernel is when running and fully
loaded with modules but how big the actual base kernel image
(/boot/vmlinuz) is because there is an upper limit (I've forgotten how
big) above which it won't boot (or lilo cant boot it I can't remember
which). Thats why you do a make bzImage because the kernel is bzip2
compressed in order to keep the file size down.

> > (which kernel by the way 2.2 or 2.4)
> 
> 2.4.18

Oh. Just wondering. :-) 

> > Try ext3 as well.
> 
> What are the relative merits?  ext3 is marked "EXPERIMENTAL" in my
> kernel config, while reiserfs is not.  Since my main aim is stability,
> I think I'll stick with the one the kernel says isn't experimental.

The merits are that an ext2 partition can be made in to an ext3
partition non-destructively (Backups are recommended of course) and also
that an ext3 partition can (in emergencies) be mounted ext2 although
that stuffs up the journal which needs to be rebuilt next time it is
mounted ext3. I'm not sure how the benchmarks/performances compare
between reiser/ext3. Also, all of the standard ext2 file-system tools
(which are a lot older and more mature than the reiser ones) can be used
on ext3 partitions. I don't know why it is still marked as EXPERIMENTAL.
A few distros now use it (ext3) by default (RedHat and Mandrake at
least)
 
> Thanks for the tips.

NP 

Steve


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