Re: ext2 on flash memory

Tomasz Chmielewski
2007-06-11T11:53:30Z

Eduard-Gabriel Munteanu wrote:

(...)

> Your USB pendrive will wear faster if you use an inappropriate
> filesystem. Such filesystems require frequent writes and change their
> internal state often.
>
> This could be alleviated by COWing the filesystem somehow and flushing
> writes when you're finished. But the modifications will be lost if
> crashes occur. The filesystem structures will still change a lot and
> require big writes to update it.
>
> Really, why don't you try a more suitable fs for your pendrive, one that
> changes itself less than usual fs's?

Hmm, are there any fs (read+write) alternatives for pendrives?

jffs2 only works on mtd devices, and that excludes pendrives, which are
block devices. I know LogFS will work with block devices one day, but
currently, it doesn't (and is not in the kernel yet as well).

Also, ext2 provides a nice feature other filesystems lack: xip.
Especially, if a pendrive is used as a rootfs for a small device.

--
Tomasz Chmielewski