From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261930AbVEPV7B (ORCPT ); Mon, 16 May 2005 17:59:01 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261902AbVEPV6y (ORCPT ); Mon, 16 May 2005 17:58:54 -0400 Received: from hermine.aitel.hist.no ([158.38.50.15]:3850 "HELO hermine.aitel.hist.no") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S261908AbVEPV4t (ORCPT ); Mon, 16 May 2005 17:56:49 -0400 Date: Tue, 17 May 2005 00:01:56 +0200 To: Linux-kernel Subject: Re: ext2 optimal partition size Message-ID: <20050516220156.GA8032@hh.idb.hist.no> References: <20050515160037.GE134@DervishD> <20050515164307.GB26197@hh.idb.hist.no> <20050515171437.GC248@DervishD> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit In-Reply-To: <20050515171437.GC248@DervishD> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.9i From: Helge Hafting Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sun, May 15, 2005 at 07:14:37PM +0200, DervishD wrote: > Hi Helge :) > > That's was just an example, and anyway I can create an ext2/3 > filesystem on a file. Sure. It won't be a "partition" though. > > > Just make sure your partition is a whole number of blocks, > > ext2/ext3 should then be able to utilize the partition fully to the > > last block. > > Do that means that metadata (disk structures, block groups > structs and the like) all fits in block-size chunks??? fs-blocksize chunks, yes. (i.e. 1K or 4K blocks, not the 512 byte disk blocks.) I don't know if aĝll metadata fits iarbitrary number of block-sized chunks, but that cannot matter. Any "extra" block can surely be utilized for file data. > > > Using a blocksize equal to the pagesize (i.e. 4096) is usually optimal. > > Thanks, I'll try it :) My main doubt was if the metadata was > managed in block-sized chunks, it seems so. Managing everything in block-sized chunks is a common design in unix filesystems. It avoids many problems and allows arbitrary filesystem sizes. Of course some structures will need quite a few blocks, but the number of blocks will depend on the size of the filesystem and will therefore always fit in the available space. (Well, unless you try creating something silly like a 1-block fs. :-) Helge Hafting