Mastering Linux Kernel Development

Ext3

Also called third extended filesystem, it extends the functionality of Ext2 with journaling. It retains the entire structure of Ext2 with block groups, which enables seamless conversion of an Ext2 partition into an Ext3 type. As discussed earlier, journaling causes the filesystem to log details of an update operation into specific regions of disk called journal blocks; these logs help expedite crash recovery and ensure consistency and reliability of the filesystem. However, on journaling filesystems, disk update operations can turn expensive due to slower or variable-time write operations (due to journal log) which would directly impact performance of regular file I/O. As a solution, Ext3 provides journal configuration options through ...