Why do some filesystems perform better at storing large files?

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I read about the XFS filesystem and found that it is good at storing large files. Why are some filesystems (XFS) good at storing large files and others (ext4/ext3) are not? Is it because of the physical architecture of XFS?










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    I read about the XFS filesystem and found that it is good at storing large files. Why are some filesystems (XFS) good at storing large files and others (ext4/ext3) are not? Is it because of the physical architecture of XFS?










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      I read about the XFS filesystem and found that it is good at storing large files. Why are some filesystems (XFS) good at storing large files and others (ext4/ext3) are not? Is it because of the physical architecture of XFS?










      share|improve this question
















      I read about the XFS filesystem and found that it is good at storing large files. Why are some filesystems (XFS) good at storing large files and others (ext4/ext3) are not? Is it because of the physical architecture of XFS?







      filesystems ext4 xfs






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      edited Jan 16 at 0:32









      K7AAY

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      asked Jan 14 at 15:21









      user3847894user3847894

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          The reason is the design of XFS. If you dig in to its history, you will see SGI was famous for workstations designed for audio and video editing. SGI created XFS to handle huge files (xxx MB or more) very well. They added the use of extents (with usual size of around 1MB) to improve good performance in handling big files.
          You can find more details here






          share|improve this answer

























          • can you tell me in more details with some links so that I could understand.

            – user3847894
            Jan 14 at 15:42











          • @user3847894, please check updated answer

            – Romeo Ninov
            Jan 14 at 15:44











          • ext4 is also using extents.

            – LustreOne
            Jan 17 at 17:09











          • One major difference between ext4 and XFS is how they manage free space used for allocation. Ext4 scans bitmaps to find free space, while XFS keeps two trees of free extents (one sorted by offset, one sorted by size). This can be faster in some cases, but adds ongoing overhead to manage. Either filesystem may be faster than the other depending on the workload, available CPU, disk speed, etc.

            – LustreOne
            Jan 17 at 17:11










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          The reason is the design of XFS. If you dig in to its history, you will see SGI was famous for workstations designed for audio and video editing. SGI created XFS to handle huge files (xxx MB or more) very well. They added the use of extents (with usual size of around 1MB) to improve good performance in handling big files.
          You can find more details here






          share|improve this answer

























          • can you tell me in more details with some links so that I could understand.

            – user3847894
            Jan 14 at 15:42











          • @user3847894, please check updated answer

            – Romeo Ninov
            Jan 14 at 15:44











          • ext4 is also using extents.

            – LustreOne
            Jan 17 at 17:09











          • One major difference between ext4 and XFS is how they manage free space used for allocation. Ext4 scans bitmaps to find free space, while XFS keeps two trees of free extents (one sorted by offset, one sorted by size). This can be faster in some cases, but adds ongoing overhead to manage. Either filesystem may be faster than the other depending on the workload, available CPU, disk speed, etc.

            – LustreOne
            Jan 17 at 17:11















          1














          The reason is the design of XFS. If you dig in to its history, you will see SGI was famous for workstations designed for audio and video editing. SGI created XFS to handle huge files (xxx MB or more) very well. They added the use of extents (with usual size of around 1MB) to improve good performance in handling big files.
          You can find more details here






          share|improve this answer

























          • can you tell me in more details with some links so that I could understand.

            – user3847894
            Jan 14 at 15:42











          • @user3847894, please check updated answer

            – Romeo Ninov
            Jan 14 at 15:44











          • ext4 is also using extents.

            – LustreOne
            Jan 17 at 17:09











          • One major difference between ext4 and XFS is how they manage free space used for allocation. Ext4 scans bitmaps to find free space, while XFS keeps two trees of free extents (one sorted by offset, one sorted by size). This can be faster in some cases, but adds ongoing overhead to manage. Either filesystem may be faster than the other depending on the workload, available CPU, disk speed, etc.

            – LustreOne
            Jan 17 at 17:11













          1












          1








          1







          The reason is the design of XFS. If you dig in to its history, you will see SGI was famous for workstations designed for audio and video editing. SGI created XFS to handle huge files (xxx MB or more) very well. They added the use of extents (with usual size of around 1MB) to improve good performance in handling big files.
          You can find more details here






          share|improve this answer















          The reason is the design of XFS. If you dig in to its history, you will see SGI was famous for workstations designed for audio and video editing. SGI created XFS to handle huge files (xxx MB or more) very well. They added the use of extents (with usual size of around 1MB) to improve good performance in handling big files.
          You can find more details here







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited Jan 16 at 0:32









          K7AAY

          490520




          490520










          answered Jan 14 at 15:32









          Romeo NinovRomeo Ninov

          5,92332028




          5,92332028












          • can you tell me in more details with some links so that I could understand.

            – user3847894
            Jan 14 at 15:42











          • @user3847894, please check updated answer

            – Romeo Ninov
            Jan 14 at 15:44











          • ext4 is also using extents.

            – LustreOne
            Jan 17 at 17:09











          • One major difference between ext4 and XFS is how they manage free space used for allocation. Ext4 scans bitmaps to find free space, while XFS keeps two trees of free extents (one sorted by offset, one sorted by size). This can be faster in some cases, but adds ongoing overhead to manage. Either filesystem may be faster than the other depending on the workload, available CPU, disk speed, etc.

            – LustreOne
            Jan 17 at 17:11

















          • can you tell me in more details with some links so that I could understand.

            – user3847894
            Jan 14 at 15:42











          • @user3847894, please check updated answer

            – Romeo Ninov
            Jan 14 at 15:44











          • ext4 is also using extents.

            – LustreOne
            Jan 17 at 17:09











          • One major difference between ext4 and XFS is how they manage free space used for allocation. Ext4 scans bitmaps to find free space, while XFS keeps two trees of free extents (one sorted by offset, one sorted by size). This can be faster in some cases, but adds ongoing overhead to manage. Either filesystem may be faster than the other depending on the workload, available CPU, disk speed, etc.

            – LustreOne
            Jan 17 at 17:11
















          can you tell me in more details with some links so that I could understand.

          – user3847894
          Jan 14 at 15:42





          can you tell me in more details with some links so that I could understand.

          – user3847894
          Jan 14 at 15:42













          @user3847894, please check updated answer

          – Romeo Ninov
          Jan 14 at 15:44





          @user3847894, please check updated answer

          – Romeo Ninov
          Jan 14 at 15:44













          ext4 is also using extents.

          – LustreOne
          Jan 17 at 17:09





          ext4 is also using extents.

          – LustreOne
          Jan 17 at 17:09













          One major difference between ext4 and XFS is how they manage free space used for allocation. Ext4 scans bitmaps to find free space, while XFS keeps two trees of free extents (one sorted by offset, one sorted by size). This can be faster in some cases, but adds ongoing overhead to manage. Either filesystem may be faster than the other depending on the workload, available CPU, disk speed, etc.

          – LustreOne
          Jan 17 at 17:11





          One major difference between ext4 and XFS is how they manage free space used for allocation. Ext4 scans bitmaps to find free space, while XFS keeps two trees of free extents (one sorted by offset, one sorted by size). This can be faster in some cases, but adds ongoing overhead to manage. Either filesystem may be faster than the other depending on the workload, available CPU, disk speed, etc.

          – LustreOne
          Jan 17 at 17:11

















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