Fedora Workstation 34 Looking To Employ Btrfs Zstd Transparent Compression By Default

Fedora Workstation 33 successfully switched over from EXT4 to using Btrfs as its default file-system. Now with Fedora 34 due out in the spring we are seeing Fedora beginning to make use of more features offered by Btrfs.

We previously reported on Fedora 34 looking to make use of DNF/RPM copy-on-write functionality in conjunction with Btrfs. Now another Btrfs feature being eyed for use by default in this next release is transparent file-system compression.

For several months now Fedora developers have been evaluating Btrfs compression options for potentially coming up with a suitable default. A proposal has been prepared now for the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee where Btrfs Zstd compression would get flipped on as the default in Fedora Workstation 34.

Flipping on the Zstd compression for Btrfs should help save disk space and help with the longevity of modern flash-based storage devices. Depending upon the workload it can also help with enhanced performance. Zstd was chosen over the other compression algorithms for providing the best compression ratio and speed.

More details via the feature proposal for enabling Btrfs Zstd usage by default.