NewsForge: Introduction to Linux Filesystems and Files

“Everything you do with Linux involves files in one way or
another. You launch programs from files, read program
configurations in files, store data in files, deliver files to
clients via servers, and so on. Therefore, the tools Linux provides
for manipulating files are extremely important to overall system
performance. At the core, these tools make up a filesystem–a set
of data structures that allow Linux to locate and manipulate files.
Several Linux native filesystems exist, the most important of these
being the Second Extended File System (ext2fs), the Third Extended
File System (ext3fs), the Reiser File System (ReiserFS), the
Journaled File System (JFS), and XFS. The filesystem you use will
affect your computer’s overall performance and suitability for
specific tasks.

“Beyond picking a filesystem, you should be familiar with
various filesystem tools. Filesystem creation options and
performance enhancing tools can improve disk throughput, and
partition resizers enable you to grow or shrink a partition to
better suit your storage needs. Filesystems sometimes become
corrupted, and fixing these problems is critical when they occur.
Finally, one very common problem is that of accidentally or
prematurely deleted files. Knowing how to recover such files can
save you or your users a lot of time and effort…”

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