linux/docs/file-systems.md

File Systems

• zfs
• ext4
• ext3
• exFat
• ntfs

zfs

ZFS (Zettabyte File System) is a high-performance, open-source file system and volume manager known for its advanced features like data integrity, snapshots, compression, and pooled storage. It was originally developed by Sun Microsystems in 2001 and introduced in 2005 for Solaris, later evolving into OpenZFS for broader platform support.

🧠 Key Features of ZFS:

• Pooled Storage Architecture: Instead of managing individual volumes, ZFS uses storage pools (zpools) that aggregate multiple physical devices. This allows dynamic allocation of space to datasets without manual partitioning.
• Copy-on-Write (CoW): ZFS never overwrites data in place. When data is modified, it writes the new version to a new location and updates metadata, ensuring consistent snapshots and preventing corruption.
• End-to-End Data Integrity: ZFS checksums all data and metadata, automatically detecting and correcting silent data corruption using redundant copies.
• Snapshots and Clones: You can create instant, space-efficient snapshots of the file system. Clones allow writable copies of snapshots, useful for testing or backups.
• Built-in RAID Support: ZFS includes native support for various RAID levels (RAID-Z, RAID-Z2, RAID-Z3), eliminating the need for separate volume managers.
• Compression and Deduplication: ZFS supports transparent compression (e.g., LZ4, gzip) and optional deduplication to save space.
• Scalability: It supports massive storage capacities — up to 256 trillion yobibytes for volume size and 16 exbibytes for individual files

Check for more information.

ext4

Ext4 (Fourth Extended File System) is a modern journaling file system used by most Linux distributions. It offers high performance, reliability, and support for large volumes and files.

mkfs.ext4 filesys

Example

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

fstab mount example:

#add line
PARTUUID=<PARTUUID GIVEN blksid>  <FOLDER WHERE TO MOUNT> ext4 defaults,nofail 0 02

mount -a

ext3

mkfs.ext3 filesys

Example

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1
#exFat
mkfs.exfat /dev/sdc1

exFat

mkfs.exfat filesys

mkfs.exfat /dev/sdc1

ntfs

apt-get install ntfs-3g
mkntfs --fast --label Backups /dev/sdc1

gvfs-mount 'ftp://user@www.your-server.com/folder' source