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			614 lines
		
	
	
		
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			ReStructuredText
		
	
	
	
	
	
| .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
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| 
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| ========================
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| General Information
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| ========================
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| 
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| Ext4 is an advanced level of the ext3 filesystem which incorporates
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| scalability and reliability enhancements for supporting large filesystems
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| (64 bit) in keeping with increasing disk capacities and state-of-the-art
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| feature requirements.
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| 
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| Mailing list:	linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org
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| Web site:	http://ext4.wiki.kernel.org
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| 
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| 
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| Quick usage instructions
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| ========================
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| 
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| Note: More extensive information for getting started with ext4 can be
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| found at the ext4 wiki site at the URL:
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| http://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Ext4_Howto
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| 
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|   - The latest version of e2fsprogs can be found at:
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| 
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|     https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/tytso/e2fsprogs/
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| 
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| 	or
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| 
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|     http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=2406
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| 
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| 	or grab the latest git repository from:
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| 
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|    https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/fs/ext2/e2fsprogs.git
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| 
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|   - Create a new filesystem using the ext4 filesystem type:
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| 
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|         # mke2fs -t ext4 /dev/hda1
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| 
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|     Or to configure an existing ext3 filesystem to support extents:
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| 
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| 	# tune2fs -O extents /dev/hda1
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| 
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|     If the filesystem was created with 128 byte inodes, it can be
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|     converted to use 256 byte for greater efficiency via:
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| 
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|         # tune2fs -I 256 /dev/hda1
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| 
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|   - Mounting:
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| 
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| 	# mount -t ext4 /dev/hda1 /wherever
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| 
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|   - When comparing performance with other filesystems, it's always
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|     important to try multiple workloads; very often a subtle change in a
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|     workload parameter can completely change the ranking of which
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|     filesystems do well compared to others.  When comparing versus ext3,
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|     note that ext4 enables write barriers by default, while ext3 does
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|     not enable write barriers by default.  So it is useful to use
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|     explicitly specify whether barriers are enabled or not when via the
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|     '-o barriers=[0|1]' mount option for both ext3 and ext4 filesystems
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|     for a fair comparison.  When tuning ext3 for best benchmark numbers,
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|     it is often worthwhile to try changing the data journaling mode; '-o
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|     data=writeback' can be faster for some workloads.  (Note however that
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|     running mounted with data=writeback can potentially leave stale data
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|     exposed in recently written files in case of an unclean shutdown,
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|     which could be a security exposure in some situations.)  Configuring
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|     the filesystem with a large journal can also be helpful for
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|     metadata-intensive workloads.
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| 
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| Features
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| ========
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| 
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| Currently Available
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| -------------------
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| 
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| * ability to use filesystems > 16TB (e2fsprogs support not available yet)
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| * extent format reduces metadata overhead (RAM, IO for access, transactions)
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| * extent format more robust in face of on-disk corruption due to magics,
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| * internal redundancy in tree
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| * improved file allocation (multi-block alloc)
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| * lift 32000 subdirectory limit imposed by i_links_count[1]
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| * nsec timestamps for mtime, atime, ctime, create time
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| * inode version field on disk (NFSv4, Lustre)
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| * reduced e2fsck time via uninit_bg feature
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| * journal checksumming for robustness, performance
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| * persistent file preallocation (e.g for streaming media, databases)
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| * ability to pack bitmaps and inode tables into larger virtual groups via the
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|   flex_bg feature
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| * large file support
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| * inode allocation using large virtual block groups via flex_bg
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| * delayed allocation
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| * large block (up to pagesize) support
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| * efficient new ordered mode in JBD2 and ext4 (avoid using buffer head to force
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|   the ordering)
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| 
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| [1] Filesystems with a block size of 1k may see a limit imposed by the
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| directory hash tree having a maximum depth of two.
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| 
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| Options
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| =======
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| 
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| When mounting an ext4 filesystem, the following option are accepted:
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| (*) == default
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| 
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| ======================= =======================================================
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| Mount Option            Description
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| ======================= =======================================================
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| ro                   	Mount filesystem read only. Note that ext4 will
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|                      	replay the journal (and thus write to the
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|                      	partition) even when mounted "read only". The
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|                      	mount options "ro,noload" can be used to prevent
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| 		     	writes to the filesystem.
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| 
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| journal_checksum	Enable checksumming of the journal transactions.
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| 			This will allow the recovery code in e2fsck and the
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| 			kernel to detect corruption in the kernel.  It is a
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| 			compatible change and will be ignored by older kernels.
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| 
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| journal_async_commit	Commit block can be written to disk without waiting
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| 			for descriptor blocks. If enabled older kernels cannot
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| 			mount the device. This will enable 'journal_checksum'
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| 			internally.
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| 
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| journal_path=path
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| journal_dev=devnum	When the external journal device's major/minor numbers
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| 			have changed, these options allow the user to specify
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| 			the new journal location.  The journal device is
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| 			identified through either its new major/minor numbers
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| 			encoded in devnum, or via a path to the device.
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| 
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| norecovery		Don't load the journal on mounting.  Note that
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| noload			if the filesystem was not unmounted cleanly,
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|                      	skipping the journal replay will lead to the
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|                      	filesystem containing inconsistencies that can
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|                      	lead to any number of problems.
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| 
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| data=journal		All data are committed into the journal prior to being
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| 			written into the main file system.  Enabling
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| 			this mode will disable delayed allocation and
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| 			O_DIRECT support.
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| 
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| data=ordered	(*)	All data are forced directly out to the main file
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| 			system prior to its metadata being committed to the
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| 			journal.
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| 
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| data=writeback		Data ordering is not preserved, data may be written
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| 			into the main file system after its metadata has been
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| 			committed to the journal.
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| 
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| commit=nrsec	(*)	Ext4 can be told to sync all its data and metadata
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| 			every 'nrsec' seconds. The default value is 5 seconds.
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| 			This means that if you lose your power, you will lose
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| 			as much as the latest 5 seconds of work (your
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| 			filesystem will not be damaged though, thanks to the
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| 			journaling).  This default value (or any low value)
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| 			will hurt performance, but it's good for data-safety.
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| 			Setting it to 0 will have the same effect as leaving
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| 			it at the default (5 seconds).
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| 			Setting it to very large values will improve
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| 			performance.
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| 
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| barrier=<0|1(*)>	This enables/disables the use of write barriers in
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| barrier(*)		the jbd code.  barrier=0 disables, barrier=1 enables.
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| nobarrier		This also requires an IO stack which can support
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| 			barriers, and if jbd gets an error on a barrier
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| 			write, it will disable again with a warning.
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| 			Write barriers enforce proper on-disk ordering
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| 			of journal commits, making volatile disk write caches
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| 			safe to use, at some performance penalty.  If
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| 			your disks are battery-backed in one way or another,
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| 			disabling barriers may safely improve performance.
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| 			The mount options "barrier" and "nobarrier" can
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| 			also be used to enable or disable barriers, for
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| 			consistency with other ext4 mount options.
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| 
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| inode_readahead_blks=n	This tuning parameter controls the maximum
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| 			number of inode table blocks that ext4's inode
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| 			table readahead algorithm will pre-read into
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| 			the buffer cache.  The default value is 32 blocks.
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| 
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| nouser_xattr		Disables Extended User Attributes.  See the
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| 			attr(5) manual page for more information about
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| 			extended attributes.
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| 
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| noacl			This option disables POSIX Access Control List
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| 			support. If ACL support is enabled in the kernel
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| 			configuration (CONFIG_EXT4_FS_POSIX_ACL), ACL is
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| 			enabled by default on mount. See the acl(5) manual
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| 			page for more information about acl.
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| 
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| bsddf		(*)	Make 'df' act like BSD.
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| minixdf			Make 'df' act like Minix.
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| 
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| debug			Extra debugging information is sent to syslog.
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| 
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| abort			Simulate the effects of calling ext4_abort() for
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| 			debugging purposes.  This is normally used while
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| 			remounting a filesystem which is already mounted.
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| 
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| errors=remount-ro	Remount the filesystem read-only on an error.
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| errors=continue		Keep going on a filesystem error.
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| errors=panic		Panic and halt the machine if an error occurs.
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|                         (These mount options override the errors behavior
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|                         specified in the superblock, which can be configured
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|                         using tune2fs)
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| 
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| data_err=ignore(*)	Just print an error message if an error occurs
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| 			in a file data buffer in ordered mode.
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| data_err=abort		Abort the journal if an error occurs in a file
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| 			data buffer in ordered mode.
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| 
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| grpid			New objects have the group ID of their parent.
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| bsdgroups
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| 
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| nogrpid		(*)	New objects have the group ID of their creator.
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| sysvgroups
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| 
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| resgid=n		The group ID which may use the reserved blocks.
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| 
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| resuid=n		The user ID which may use the reserved blocks.
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| 
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| sb=n			Use alternate superblock at this location.
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| 
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| quota			These options are ignored by the filesystem. They
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| noquota			are used only by quota tools to recognize volumes
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| grpquota		where quota should be turned on. See documentation
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| usrquota		in the quota-tools package for more details
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| 			(http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota).
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| 
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| jqfmt=<quota type>	These options tell filesystem details about quota
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| usrjquota=<file>	so that quota information can be properly updated
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| grpjquota=<file>	during journal replay. They replace the above
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| 			quota options. See documentation in the quota-tools
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| 			package for more details
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| 			(http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxquota).
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| 
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| stripe=n		Number of filesystem blocks that mballoc will try
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| 			to use for allocation size and alignment. For RAID5/6
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| 			systems this should be the number of data
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| 			disks *  RAID chunk size in file system blocks.
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| 
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| delalloc	(*)	Defer block allocation until just before ext4
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| 			writes out the block(s) in question.  This
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| 			allows ext4 to better allocation decisions
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| 			more efficiently.
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| nodelalloc		Disable delayed allocation.  Blocks are allocated
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| 			when the data is copied from userspace to the
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| 			page cache, either via the write(2) system call
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| 			or when an mmap'ed page which was previously
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| 			unallocated is written for the first time.
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| 
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| max_batch_time=usec	Maximum amount of time ext4 should wait for
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| 			additional filesystem operations to be batch
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| 			together with a synchronous write operation.
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| 			Since a synchronous write operation is going to
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| 			force a commit and then a wait for the I/O
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| 			complete, it doesn't cost much, and can be a
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| 			huge throughput win, we wait for a small amount
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| 			of time to see if any other transactions can
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| 			piggyback on the synchronous write.   The
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| 			algorithm used is designed to automatically tune
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| 			for the speed of the disk, by measuring the
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| 			amount of time (on average) that it takes to
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| 			finish committing a transaction.  Call this time
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| 			the "commit time".  If the time that the
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| 			transaction has been running is less than the
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| 			commit time, ext4 will try sleeping for the
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| 			commit time to see if other operations will join
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| 			the transaction.   The commit time is capped by
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| 			the max_batch_time, which defaults to 15000us
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| 			(15ms).   This optimization can be turned off
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| 			entirely by setting max_batch_time to 0.
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| 
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| min_batch_time=usec	This parameter sets the commit time (as
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| 			described above) to be at least min_batch_time.
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| 			It defaults to zero microseconds.  Increasing
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| 			this parameter may improve the throughput of
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| 			multi-threaded, synchronous workloads on very
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| 			fast disks, at the cost of increasing latency.
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| 
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| journal_ioprio=prio	The I/O priority (from 0 to 7, where 0 is the
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| 			highest priority) which should be used for I/O
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| 			operations submitted by kjournald2 during a
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| 			commit operation.  This defaults to 3, which is
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| 			a slightly higher priority than the default I/O
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| 			priority.
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| 
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| auto_da_alloc(*)	Many broken applications don't use fsync() when 
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| noauto_da_alloc		replacing existing files via patterns such as
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| 			fd = open("foo.new")/write(fd,..)/close(fd)/
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| 			rename("foo.new", "foo"), or worse yet,
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| 			fd = open("foo", O_TRUNC)/write(fd,..)/close(fd).
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| 			If auto_da_alloc is enabled, ext4 will detect
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| 			the replace-via-rename and replace-via-truncate
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| 			patterns and force that any delayed allocation
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| 			blocks are allocated such that at the next
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| 			journal commit, in the default data=ordered
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| 			mode, the data blocks of the new file are forced
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| 			to disk before the rename() operation is
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| 			committed.  This provides roughly the same level
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| 			of guarantees as ext3, and avoids the
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| 			"zero-length" problem that can happen when a
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| 			system crashes before the delayed allocation
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| 			blocks are forced to disk.
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| 
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| noinit_itable		Do not initialize any uninitialized inode table
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| 			blocks in the background.  This feature may be
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| 			used by installation CD's so that the install
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| 			process can complete as quickly as possible; the
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| 			inode table initialization process would then be
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| 			deferred until the next time the  file system
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| 			is unmounted.
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| 
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| init_itable=n		The lazy itable init code will wait n times the
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| 			number of milliseconds it took to zero out the
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| 			previous block group's inode table.  This
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| 			minimizes the impact on the system performance
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| 			while file system's inode table is being initialized.
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| 
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| discard			Controls whether ext4 should issue discard/TRIM
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| nodiscard(*)		commands to the underlying block device when
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| 			blocks are freed.  This is useful for SSD devices
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| 			and sparse/thinly-provisioned LUNs, but it is off
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| 			by default until sufficient testing has been done.
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| 
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| nouid32			Disables 32-bit UIDs and GIDs.  This is for
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| 			interoperability  with  older kernels which only
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| 			store and expect 16-bit values.
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| 
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| block_validity(*)	These options enable or disable the in-kernel
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| noblock_validity	facility for tracking filesystem metadata blocks
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| 			within internal data structures.  This allows multi-
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| 			block allocator and other routines to notice
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| 			bugs or corrupted allocation bitmaps which cause
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| 			blocks to be allocated which overlap with
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| 			filesystem metadata blocks.
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| 
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| dioread_lock		Controls whether or not ext4 should use the DIO read
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| dioread_nolock		locking. If the dioread_nolock option is specified
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| 			ext4 will allocate uninitialized extent before buffer
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| 			write and convert the extent to initialized after IO
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| 			completes. This approach allows ext4 code to avoid
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| 			using inode mutex, which improves scalability on high
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| 			speed storages. However this does not work with
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| 			data journaling and dioread_nolock option will be
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| 			ignored with kernel warning. Note that dioread_nolock
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| 			code path is only used for extent-based files.
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| 			Because of the restrictions this options comprises
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| 			it is off by default (e.g. dioread_lock).
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| 
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| max_dir_size_kb=n	This limits the size of directories so that any
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| 			attempt to expand them beyond the specified
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| 			limit in kilobytes will cause an ENOSPC error.
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| 			This is useful in memory constrained
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| 			environments, where a very large directory can
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| 			cause severe performance problems or even
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| 			provoke the Out Of Memory killer.  (For example,
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| 			if there is only 512mb memory available, a 176mb
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| 			directory may seriously cramp the system's style.)
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| 
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| i_version		Enable 64-bit inode version support. This option is
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| 			off by default.
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| 
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| dax			Use direct access (no page cache).  See
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| 			Documentation/filesystems/dax.txt.  Note that
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| 			this option is incompatible with data=journal.
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| ======================= =======================================================
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| 
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| Data Mode
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| =========
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| There are 3 different data modes:
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| 
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| * writeback mode
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| 
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|   In data=writeback mode, ext4 does not journal data at all.  This mode provides
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|   a similar level of journaling as that of XFS, JFS, and ReiserFS in its default
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|   mode - metadata journaling.  A crash+recovery can cause incorrect data to
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|   appear in files which were written shortly before the crash.  This mode will
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|   typically provide the best ext4 performance.
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| 
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| * ordered mode
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| 
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|   In data=ordered mode, ext4 only officially journals metadata, but it logically
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|   groups metadata information related to data changes with the data blocks into
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|   a single unit called a transaction.  When it's time to write the new metadata
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|   out to disk, the associated data blocks are written first.  In general, this
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|   mode performs slightly slower than writeback but significantly faster than
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|   journal mode.
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| 
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| * journal mode
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| 
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|   data=journal mode provides full data and metadata journaling.  All new data is
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|   written to the journal first, and then to its final location.  In the event of
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|   a crash, the journal can be replayed, bringing both data and metadata into a
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|   consistent state.  This mode is the slowest except when data needs to be read
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|   from and written to disk at the same time where it outperforms all others
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|   modes.  Enabling this mode will disable delayed allocation and O_DIRECT
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|   support.
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| 
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| /proc entries
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| =============
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| 
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| Information about mounted ext4 file systems can be found in
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| /proc/fs/ext4.  Each mounted filesystem will have a directory in
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| /proc/fs/ext4 based on its device name (i.e., /proc/fs/ext4/hdc or
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| /proc/fs/ext4/dm-0).   The files in each per-device directory are shown
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| in table below.
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| 
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| Files in /proc/fs/ext4/<devname>
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| 
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| ================ =======
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|  File            Content
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| ================ =======
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|  mb_groups       details of multiblock allocator buddy cache of free blocks
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| ================ =======
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| 
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| /sys entries
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| ============
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| 
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| Information about mounted ext4 file systems can be found in
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| /sys/fs/ext4.  Each mounted filesystem will have a directory in
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| /sys/fs/ext4 based on its device name (i.e., /sys/fs/ext4/hdc or
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| /sys/fs/ext4/dm-0).   The files in each per-device directory are shown
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| in table below.
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| 
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| Files in /sys/fs/ext4/<devname>:
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| 
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| (see also Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-fs-ext4)
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| 
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| ============================= =================================================
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| File                          Content
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| ============================= =================================================
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|  delayed_allocation_blocks    This file is read-only and shows the number of
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|                               blocks that are dirty in the page cache, but
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|                               which do not have their location in the
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|                               filesystem allocated yet.
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| 
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| inode_goal                    Tuning parameter which (if non-zero) controls
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|                               the goal inode used by the inode allocator in
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|                               preference to all other allocation heuristics.
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|                               This is intended for debugging use only, and
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|                               should be 0 on production systems.
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| 
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| inode_readahead_blks          Tuning parameter which controls the maximum
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|                               number of inode table blocks that ext4's inode
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|                               table readahead algorithm will pre-read into
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|                               the buffer cache
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| 
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| lifetime_write_kbytes         This file is read-only and shows the number of
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|                               kilobytes of data that have been written to this
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|                               filesystem since it was created.
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| 
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|  max_writeback_mb_bump        The maximum number of megabytes the writeback
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|                               code will try to write out before move on to
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|                               another inode.
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| 
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|  mb_group_prealloc            The multiblock allocator will round up allocation
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|                               requests to a multiple of this tuning parameter if
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|                               the stripe size is not set in the ext4 superblock
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| 
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|  mb_max_to_scan               The maximum number of extents the multiblock
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|                               allocator will search to find the best extent
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| 
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|  mb_min_to_scan               The minimum number of extents the multiblock
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|                               allocator will search to find the best extent
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| 
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|  mb_order2_req                Tuning parameter which controls the minimum size
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|                               for requests (as a power of 2) where the buddy
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|                               cache is used
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| 
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|  mb_stats                     Controls whether the multiblock allocator should
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|                               collect statistics, which are shown during the
 | |
|                               unmount. 1 means to collect statistics, 0 means
 | |
|                               not to collect statistics
 | |
| 
 | |
|  mb_stream_req                Files which have fewer blocks than this tunable
 | |
|                               parameter will have their blocks allocated out
 | |
|                               of a block group specific preallocation pool, so
 | |
|                               that small files are packed closely together.
 | |
|                               Each large file will have its blocks allocated
 | |
|                               out of its own unique preallocation pool.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  session_write_kbytes         This file is read-only and shows the number of
 | |
|                               kilobytes of data that have been written to this
 | |
|                               filesystem since it was mounted.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  reserved_clusters            This is RW file and contains number of reserved
 | |
|                               clusters in the file system which will be used
 | |
|                               in the specific situations to avoid costly
 | |
|                               zeroout, unexpected ENOSPC, or possible data
 | |
|                               loss. The default is 2% or 4096 clusters,
 | |
|                               whichever is smaller and this can be changed
 | |
|                               however it can never exceed number of clusters
 | |
|                               in the file system. If there is not enough space
 | |
|                               for the reserved space when mounting the file
 | |
|                               mount will _not_ fail.
 | |
| ============================= =================================================
 | |
| 
 | |
| Ioctls
 | |
| ======
 | |
| 
 | |
| There is some Ext4 specific functionality which can be accessed by applications
 | |
| through the system call interfaces. The list of all Ext4 specific ioctls are
 | |
| shown in the table below.
 | |
| 
 | |
| Table of Ext4 specific ioctls
 | |
| 
 | |
| ============================= =================================================
 | |
| Ioctl			      Description
 | |
| ============================= =================================================
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_GETFLAGS	      Get additional attributes associated with inode.
 | |
| 			      The ioctl argument is an integer bitfield, with
 | |
| 			      bit values described in ext4.h. This ioctl is an
 | |
| 			      alias for FS_IOC_GETFLAGS.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_SETFLAGS	      Set additional attributes associated with inode.
 | |
| 			      The ioctl argument is an integer bitfield, with
 | |
| 			      bit values described in ext4.h. This ioctl is an
 | |
| 			      alias for FS_IOC_SETFLAGS.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_GETVERSION
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_GETVERSION_OLD
 | |
| 			      Get the inode i_generation number stored for
 | |
| 			      each inode. The i_generation number is normally
 | |
| 			      changed only when new inode is created and it is
 | |
| 			      particularly useful for network filesystems. The
 | |
| 			      '_OLD' version of this ioctl is an alias for
 | |
| 			      FS_IOC_GETVERSION.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_SETVERSION
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_SETVERSION_OLD
 | |
| 			      Set the inode i_generation number stored for
 | |
| 			      each inode. The '_OLD' version of this ioctl
 | |
| 			      is an alias for FS_IOC_SETVERSION.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_GROUP_EXTEND	      This ioctl has the same purpose as the resize
 | |
| 			      mount option. It allows to resize filesystem
 | |
| 			      to the end of the last existing block group,
 | |
| 			      further resize has to be done with resize2fs,
 | |
| 			      either online, or offline. The argument points
 | |
| 			      to the unsigned logn number representing the
 | |
| 			      filesystem new block count.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_MOVE_EXT	      Move the block extents from orig_fd (the one
 | |
| 			      this ioctl is pointing to) to the donor_fd (the
 | |
| 			      one specified in move_extent structure passed
 | |
| 			      as an argument to this ioctl). Then, exchange
 | |
| 			      inode metadata between orig_fd and donor_fd.
 | |
| 			      This is especially useful for online
 | |
| 			      defragmentation, because the allocator has the
 | |
| 			      opportunity to allocate moved blocks better,
 | |
| 			      ideally into one contiguous extent.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_GROUP_ADD	      Add a new group descriptor to an existing or
 | |
| 			      new group descriptor block. The new group
 | |
| 			      descriptor is described by ext4_new_group_input
 | |
| 			      structure, which is passed as an argument to
 | |
| 			      this ioctl. This is especially useful in
 | |
| 			      conjunction with EXT4_IOC_GROUP_EXTEND,
 | |
| 			      which allows online resize of the filesystem
 | |
| 			      to the end of the last existing block group.
 | |
| 			      Those two ioctls combined is used in userspace
 | |
| 			      online resize tool (e.g. resize2fs).
 | |
| 
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_MIGRATE	      This ioctl operates on the filesystem itself.
 | |
| 			      It converts (migrates) ext3 indirect block mapped
 | |
| 			      inode to ext4 extent mapped inode by walking
 | |
| 			      through indirect block mapping of the original
 | |
| 			      inode and converting contiguous block ranges
 | |
| 			      into ext4 extents of the temporary inode. Then,
 | |
| 			      inodes are swapped. This ioctl might help, when
 | |
| 			      migrating from ext3 to ext4 filesystem, however
 | |
| 			      suggestion is to create fresh ext4 filesystem
 | |
| 			      and copy data from the backup. Note, that
 | |
| 			      filesystem has to support extents for this ioctl
 | |
| 			      to work.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_ALLOC_DA_BLKS	      Force all of the delay allocated blocks to be
 | |
| 			      allocated to preserve application-expected ext3
 | |
| 			      behaviour. Note that this will also start
 | |
| 			      triggering a write of the data blocks, but this
 | |
| 			      behaviour may change in the future as it is
 | |
| 			      not necessary and has been done this way only
 | |
| 			      for sake of simplicity.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_RESIZE_FS	      Resize the filesystem to a new size.  The number
 | |
| 			      of blocks of resized filesystem is passed in via
 | |
| 			      64 bit integer argument.  The kernel allocates
 | |
| 			      bitmaps and inode table, the userspace tool thus
 | |
| 			      just passes the new number of blocks.
 | |
| 
 | |
|  EXT4_IOC_SWAP_BOOT	      Swap i_blocks and associated attributes
 | |
| 			      (like i_blocks, i_size, i_flags, ...) from
 | |
| 			      the specified inode with inode
 | |
| 			      EXT4_BOOT_LOADER_INO (#5). This is typically
 | |
| 			      used to store a boot loader in a secure part of
 | |
| 			      the filesystem, where it can't be changed by a
 | |
| 			      normal user by accident.
 | |
| 			      The data blocks of the previous boot loader
 | |
| 			      will be associated with the given inode.
 | |
| ============================= =================================================
 | |
| 
 | |
| References
 | |
| ==========
 | |
| 
 | |
| kernel source:	<file:fs/ext4/>
 | |
| 		<file:fs/jbd2/>
 | |
| 
 | |
| programs:	http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/
 | |
| 
 | |
| useful links:	http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/ext3-devel
 | |
| 		http://www.bullopensource.org/ext4/
 | |
| 		http://ext4.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page
 | |
| 		http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/Ext4
 | 
