System information

The Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 version of ext3 features the following updates:
Def au lt Inod e Siz es Ch an g ed
The default size of the on-disk inode has increased for more efficient storage of extended attributes,
for example, ACLs or SELinux attributes. Along with this change, the default number of inodes created
on a file system of a given size has been decreased. The inode size may be selected with the mke2fs
-I option or specified in /etc/mke2fs. co nf to set system wide defaults for mke2fs.
Note
If you upgrade to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 with the intention of keeping any ext3 file systems
intact, there is no need to remake the file system.
New Mo u n t O p t io n : d ata_err
A new mount option has been added: d ata_err= abo rt. This option instructs ext3 to abort the
journal if an error occurs in a file data (as opposed to metadata) buffer in d ata= o rd ered mode.
This option is disabled by default (set as d ata_err= i g no re).
More Ef f icien t St o rag e Use
When creating a file system (that is, mkfs), mke2fs will attempt to "discard" or "trim" blocks not used
by the file system metadata. This helps to optimize SSD s or thinly-provisioned storage. To suppress
this behavior, use the mke2fs -K option.
The following sections cover creating and tuning ext3 partitions. For ext2 partitions, skip the
partitioning and formatting sections below and go directly to Section 5.2, “ Converting to an Ext3 File
System” .
5.1. Creat ing an Ext 3 File Syst em
After installation, it is sometimes necessary to create a new ext3 file system. For example, if a new disk
drive is added to the system, you may want to partition the drive and use the ext3 file system.
The steps for creating an ext3 file system are as follows:
Pro ced u re 5.1. Creat e an ext3 f ile syst em
1. Format the partition with the ext3 file system using mkfs.
2. Label the file system using e2l abel .
5.2. Convert ing t o an Ext 3 File Syst em
The tune2fs command converts an ext2 file system to ext3.
⁠Chapt er 5. T he Ext 3 File Syst em
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