exFAT Driver Boasts Much Faster "dirsync" Performance With Linux 6.9

[phoronix]

Phoronix: exFAT Driver Boasts Much Faster "dirsync" Performance With Linux 6.9

The latest file-system driver with notable mentions for Linux 6.9 is that for Microsoft's exFAT file-system...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.9-Faster-exFAT-dirsync

[kurkosdr]

Good news is that exFAT will most likely be patent-free after the first half of 2027, which means everyone will be able to use it.

Currently, we are stuck in the following situation:

FAT32 -> Universally supported but has a 4GiB file limit (actually 4GiB minus 1 byte)
NTFS -> Supported by some devices, but it's completely undocumented so some manufacturers don't implement it
exFAT -> Supported by a small number of devices, but since it's patent-encumbered and requires royalty payments, most devices don't implement it

So, realistically your options are:

FAT32 -> Use for wide compatibility (but you have to split video files to 4GB and split big ISOs into split archives)
NTFS -> Use for standalone media players that you know support NTFS but not exFAT
exFAT -> Use on the few standalone media players that support it, also use for external USB drives on Windows (instead of NTFS) so you don't risk data loss from power cuts or from failing to "safely remove" (note: NTFS uses caching on Windows by default)

And mind you, this is for storing files! We have (mostly) standardized video files but not this! WTF?

And yes, I know Microsoft added the exFAT patents to the OIN portfolio, but OIN grants licenses only to its members, and not every manufacturer is part OIN.

But anyway, glad to see the Linux people are working on improving the implementation so it's perfect by then.

[stiiixy]

I'm still tempted to blast a spare Intel 1TB nVME on a Steam library test run of F2FS and exFAT.

I generally play 4X (that has a different connotation in Australia 🍺) games as I can smash a few turns, go to work, and come back occasionally, sporadically, and have a fresh field of vision AND the game hasn't moved.

But jees, they always have the shittiest load times. A corrupt file download is faster than their file read. Almost.