I want to learn more about file systems from the practical point of view so I know what to expect, how to approach them and what experience positive or negative you had / have.

I found this wikipedia’s comparison but I want your hands-on views.

For now my mental list is

  • NTFS - for some reason TVs on USB love these and also Windows + Linux can read and write this
  • Ext4 - solid fs with journaling but Linux specific
  • Btrfs - some modern fs with snapshot capability, Linux specific
  • xfs - servers really like these as they are performant, Linux specific
  • FAT32 - limited but recognizable everywhere
  • exFAT - like FAT32 but less recognizable and less limited
  • youRFate
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    2 months ago
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    Well, encryption is very much not a strong point of zfs. I agree on all other points tho.

    • ScottE
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      2 months ago
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      Actually native encryption has been a feature of ZFS for a few years now. It’s nice not having to have an extra LUKS layer.

      • ghjones
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        2 months ago
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        Yeah, but it’s had some actual data corruption bugs related to sending encrypted snapshots (off the top of my head).

        • ryannathans
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          2 months ago
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          Not really bugs, the process for zfs send differs with encrypted snapshots. Make sure you consult the docs. Always test your backups to make sure you cloned properly