On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 08:44:57PM -0400, Richard Michael wrote: > (I run rsync --link-dest backups onto ext3 and am anticipating running > out of inodes.) > > Is there a tool I can use to increase the number of inodes on an ext3 > filesystem? Not without backing up your data to tape/DVD/whatever, reformatting the filesystem, and restoring from backups, sorry. > Also, are there any other implications I should be aware of when using > rsync in this way on ext3? Specifically, what became of this discussion > related to e2fsck and memory use? > > https://www.redhat.com/archives/ext3-users/2007-April/msg00017.html This is still a problem, and it's pretty fundamental to how e2fsck works. Calculating the number of hard links so we can make sure that i_links_count is correct requires a large amount of memory; there's no getting around that. E2fsck has a short-cut optimization that works for the common case where i_links_count=1, but that's not true if you are using backup strategies such as rsync --link-dest. The solution described above is present in mainline e2fsprogs, as an emergency method of allowing e2fsck to fix broken filesystems, but if you have to resort to it, it's *S*L*O*W*. I haven't gotten enough feedback to know whether it would be faster to use a 64-bit system and then enable swap; obviously the best way would be to use a 64-bit system and then have gobs and gobs of memory installed on your system. If you have a 32-bit system, and e2fsck needs more than 3-GB of user address space, you can try using a statically linked e2fsck to try to use the 3GB of address space most efficiently, but in the long run you will probably have to use the workaround described in the above link, and resign yourself to a very long fsck process. Alternatively, you could try using a backup program which uses a real database to keep track of reused files, instead of trying to use directory inodes and hard links as a bad substitute for the same. - Ted _______________________________________________ Ext3-users mailing list Ext3-users@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/ext3-users
