Xfs_repair and journalling

[Stan Hoeppner]

On 3/16/2013 10:56 AM, Subranshu Patel wrote:

> This is not observed in EXT4, fsck successfully recovers without
> mounting the filesystem.

And this is the real problem.  You're *assuming* XFS should behave in
the same manner as EXT4.  Why would you assume a Ferrari should behave
like a Tata Nano?

XFS is far more sophisticated than EXT4 in many, many ways, including
recovery after unclean shutdown.  XFS kernel code performs journal
playback/recovery automatically when the filesystem is mounted.
xfs_repair is a tool for fixing filesystems that are broken, not simply
in need of journal playback.  Thus xfs_repair has no code to perform
journal recovery.

EXT4 (and EXT3) lacks this sophistication and must call a user space
tool, e2fsck, to perform journal playback/recovery.

XFS is the Ferrari of Linux filesystems and EXT is the Tata.  Keep that
in mind as you discover many of the other differences in the future.

-- 
Stan