Re: [patch] ext2/3: document conditions when reliable operation ispossible

[Pavel Machek]

On Tue 2009-08-25 23:32:47, Rik van Riel wrote:
> Pavel Machek wrote:
>
>>> So, would you be happy if ext3 fsck was always run on reboot (at 
>>> least  for flash devices)?
>>
>> For flash devices, MD Raid 5 and anything else that needs it; yes that
>> would make me happy ;-).
>
> Sorry, but that just shows your naivete.
>
> Metadata takes up such a small part of the disk that fscking
> it and finding it to be OK is absolutely no guarantee that
> the data on the filesystem has not been horribly mangled.
>
> Personally, what I care about is my data.
>
> The metadata is just a way to get to my data, while the data
> is actually important.

Personally, I care about metadata consistency, and ext3 documentation
suggests that journal protects its integrity. Except that it does not
on broken storage devices, and you still need to run fsck there.

How do you protect your data is another question, but ext3
documentation does not claim journal to protect them, so that's up to
the user I guess.
									Pavel
-- 
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html
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