USB Flash Drive File-System Tests On Fedora 21

[Michael]

"Sadly missing from the mix is F2FS due to Fedora's decision (and wishing to keep this comparison to an out-of-the-box representation on F21) but that will hopefully change in the future. The exFAT file-system was also left out as it's not officially supported by Fedora. FAT32 was left out since some of the used benchmarks will not run on the file-system."

Sorry but that's a terrible decision. For most people in the world USB media uses FAT or exFAT. Mainly because it's cross platform. Linux filesystems are mainly only compatible with Linux systems or require installing unsupported 3rd party drivers which are often more or less broken (like ext support on Windows). Why would anyone use USB keys just for sharing files between Linux systems? If it's mainly your own computer, you could just store them internally in a laptop. SSD space is cheap these days. This test is completely useless.

If you're interested in Windows compatibility you're already basically know what FS you're going to use (FAT32 or exFAT) so the comparison wouldn't of have been much use anyways without EXT4/F2FS/Btrfs/XFS commonly being avalable for Windows.

I for one use USB flash drives frequently between Linux-only systems.

[duby229]

Honestly I don't trust my data on FAT, most especially on a device that can be suddenly removed. Even on windows, I don't use FAT.

EDIT: I don't know about you guys, but I still remember the 90s.... Lots of bad memories concerning FAT... I may just be scarred for life, but I'm sure I'm not the only one.

[caligula]

If you're interested in Windows compatibility you're already basically know what FS you're going to use (FAT32 or exFAT) so the comparison wouldn't of have been much use anyways without EXT4/F2FS/Btrfs/XFS commonly being avalable for Windows.

I for one use USB flash drives frequently between Linux-only systems.

I know I'd have to stick with FAT32/exFAT due to Windows/OS X compatibility, but I could also format other partitions for Linux systems only. In fact this is what I have on most USB keys, a FAT32 partition for sharing e.g. PPT/PDF presentations and Ext4 for my personal stuff like encrypted keys (keepassx). Would be really interesting to know 1) Is exFAT really better than FAT with no tradeoffs to be made 2) are the Linux specific file systems like Ext4/Btrfs faster than FATs and 3) are the Flash optimized file systems like F2FS truly superior to more common filesystems. Additionally 4) are the compressed read only filesystems like cramfs faster on Flash media for embedded use (OpenELEC).

Another thing is, I can remotely understand the need to compare Ext4 and Ext2 because Ext2 doesn't do journaling. Between Ext3 vs Ext4 -- who would seriously consider Ext3 these days? What's the point?

[duby229]

I know I'd have to stick with FAT32/exFAT due to Windows/OSX compatibility, but I could also format other partitions for Linux systems only. In fact this is what I have on most USB keys, a FAT32 partition for sharing e.g. PPT/PDF presentations and Ext4 for my personal stuff like encrypted keys (keepassx). Would be really interesting to know 1) Is exFAT really better than FAT with no tradeoffs to be made 2) are the Linux specific file systems like Ext4/Btrfs faster than FATs and 3) are the Flash optimized file systems like F2FS truly superior to more common filesystems. Additionally 4) are the compressed read only filesystems like cramfs faster on Flash media for embedded use (OpenELEC).

You know you don't have to deal with FAT right? Linux has a half decent fuse driver for ntfs.

[caligula]

You know you don't have to deal with FAT right? Linux has a half decent fuse driver for ntfs.

Yes but OS X doesn't support NTFS that well IIRC. I use OS X on my notebook.

[duby229]

Yes but OS X doesn't support NTFS that well IIRC. I use OS X on my notebook.

I'm not certain about this, but I think OSX can use fuse too.
EDIT: https://github.com/osxfuse/osxfuse/wiki/NTFS-3G

[zanny]

No one even mentions UDF. It supports Unix permissions and is supported by every OS. I would have liked to see benchmarks on that, especially since the metadata layout isn't that horrible like in fat32 (what do you expect? it will just rank the lowest on all benchmarks anyway).

I always format my flash drives UDF just because it means I can give them to muggles and they can still use them. I format personal disks in btrfs just for the transparent compression to get more space.

[duby229]

No one even mentions UDF. It supports Unix permissions and is supported by every OS. I would have liked to see benchmarks on that, especially since the metadata layout isn't that horrible like in fat32 (what do you expect? it will just rank the lowest on all benchmarks anyway).

I always format my flash drives UDF just because it means I can give them to muggles and they can still use them. I format personal disks in btrfs just for the transparent compression to get more space.

i always thought UDF was a disc filesystem, but now that you mention it it, I looked it up and it seems like good stuff.

[Cyber Killer]

I'm willing to pay money for a good implementation of ext4 or xfs for windoze :-P.

[nanonyme]

I'm willing to pay money for a good implementation of ext4 or xfs for windoze :-P.

I thought former existed for free if you don't mind the risk of obliterating your Ext4 permission setup