Journaling File Systems

[Robert G. Brown]

> what is a journaling file system, and why is it so
> sought after?

I case everybody hasn't realized it, my previous answer to this question
was wrong.  It isn't a filesystem with an audit trail/versioning system,
it is a filesystem that does writes in two steps in such a way that the
filesystem is never in an inconsistent state.  Consequently, fsck's are
basically unnecessary, which saves a lot of time.  As my correctors
instructed me, they write faster and it is pleasant to see the initial
filesystem check after a poweroff reboot take only 2 seconds (even with
cone-head quantities of disk).

    rgb

Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb@phy.duke.edu