1. Introduction

1.1. Introduction to XFS for Linux

This document describes how to build a Linux system that runs on top of the SGI XFS journaling filesystem. From the XFS FAQ: "XFS is a journalling filesystem developed by SGI and used in SGI's IRIX operating system. It is now also available under GPL for linux. It is extremely scalable, using btrees extensively to support large sparse files, and extremely large directories. The journalling capability means no more waiting for fsck's or worrying about meta-data corruption." Essentialy XFS is the filesystem SGI designed for its highend server systems, hence the subtitle of this document, "Linux on Steroids". :-)

1.2. Foreword, Feedback, & Credits

As a fairly new member of the Irix System Administrator community I have fallen in love with the robustness of the filesystem that has been developed to support Irix (XFS of course). So, needless to say I've been following the porting effort to Linux for quite some time and have dreamed of being able to run my Linux systems on top of an all XFS filesystem since the beginning. The project has come to a point (actually nearly a year ago at the time of this writing) that this could actually be a reallity. However, as is the case with a great deal of programming/porting projects, the documentation for such task is not always as readily available or easy to follow as one might hope. This document is an attempt to remedy that situation.

The information contained in this document is based on messages from Jason Walker and Russell Cattelan taken from the XFS development mailing list, information gathered from various places on the SGI Open Source Development web site, and from my own experiences setting up such a system.

Please feel free to email me at <ringram@gargoylecc.com> if you have any corrections or if any imformation/URLs/etc. is missing. The more feedback I get on this HOWTO the more helpful it will be for all.

The latest version of this document can be found at Gargoyle Computer Consulting .

1.3. Copyright & Disclaimer

This document is copyright(c) 2001 Russel Ingram and it is a FREE document. You may redistribute it under terms of the GNU General Public License.

The information contained in this document is, to the best of Russel's knowledge, correct. However, the XFS Linux port is written by humans and thus, there is the chance that mistakes, bugs, etc. might happen from time to time.

No person, group, or other body is responsible for any damage on your computer(s) and any other losses by using the information in this document. i.e.

THE AUTHOR IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGES INCURRED DUE TO ACTIONS TAKEN BASED ON THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.