Datasheet

“main” (Installation and Administration) — 2004/6/25 — 13:29 — page 388 — #414
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the time XFS decides where actually to save it. Thus XFS increases
write performance and reduces file system fragmentation. Because
delayed allocation results in less frequent write events than in other
file systems, it is likely that data loss after a crash during a write is
more severe.
Preallocation to Avoid File System Fragmentation
Before writing the data to the file system, XFS reserves (preallocates)
the free space needed for a file. Thus, file system fragmentation is
greatly reduced. Performance is increased as the contents of a file are
not distributed all over the file system.
18.3 Some Other Supported File
Systems
Table 18.1 summarizes some other file systems supported by Linux. They
are supported mainly to ensure compatibility and interchange of data with
different kinds of media or foreign operating systems.
Table 18.1: File System Types in Linux
cramfs Compressed ROM file system: A compressed read-only file
system for ROMs.
hpfs High Performance File System: the IBM OS/2 standard file
system — only supported in read-only mode.
iso9660 Standard file system on CD-ROMs.
minix This file system originated from academic projects on
operating systems and was the first file system used in
Linux. Today, it is used as a file system for floppy disks.
msdos fat, the file system originally used by DOS, is today used
by various operating systems.
ncpfs File system for mounting Novell volumes over
networks.
nfs Network File System: Here, data can be stored on any
machine in a network and access may be granted via a
network.
388 18.3. Some Other Supported File Systems