[Wylug-help] XFS or EXT3 ?

[Chris Davies MBCS]

Nick R wrote:
> I have been running XFS on my Laptop and PC for 6 months or so.
> The only problem I have suffered was my when pc rendered unbootable by
> some corrupt ram causing mass data corruption.

Ouch. Sadly been there too. (New server. New memory. Bad memory. Bad server. Now 
I memcheck all new memory!)
> I have recently read that there is a problem with XFS on power
> failures (I have had a couple of power cuts which did'nt cause a
> problem).
> 
> The issue is highlighted on this page -
> http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Filesystems/reiserfs.html

> What I am wondering is this a serious issue (enough for me to abandon
> using XFS) ?

Well, power failures are a fact of life. (In my case, fortunately, a fairly 
uncommon fact. But I'd like a UPS.) If I had a choice between a power failure 
probably trashing my server's filesystem or a power failure probably not 
trashing my server's filesystem then I don't think I'd really struggle to choose.


> My favoured alternative is EXT3 - I have read conflicting information
> that says EXT3 is better in a powercut than XFS and vice-versa.

Over the past several years, I've had no problems with power failures and EXT3 
corruption. YMMV.

Chris