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ext4 and data consistencyext4 and data consistencyPosted May 15, 2010 9:57 UTC (Sat) by anton (guest, #25547)In reply to: ext4 and data consistency by njs Parent article: The Next3 filesystem
No filesystem goes out and corrupts the dpkg database, but dpkg failing to properly ensure on-disk consistency might make it possible for an untimely power failure (or whatever) to trash its database.The file system does not have to go out to do it, because it was entrusted with that data; so it can just fail to keep it consistent while staying at home. A good file system will properly ensure on-disk consistency without extra help from applications (beyond applications keeping the files consistent from the view of other processes). How often do you pull the plug while dpkg is running?Never. And I doubt it happens in a significant number of cases for Ubuntu users, either. And the subset of cases where ext3 corrupts the database is even smaller. That's why I questioned the drag's claim. That's why robustness is so hard -- it's almost impossible to test.And that's why I find the attitude that not the file system, but applications should be responsible for data consistency in case of an OS crash or power outage absurd. Instead of testing one or a few file systems, thousands of applications would have to be tested.
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