[mythtv-users] Information/Recommendations on a new MythTV

[Brian Wood]

On Oct 11, 2006, at 9:26 AM, Timothy Chartier wrote:

>
>> EXT-2 is not a journaling system, which is generally considered not
>> good,
>
> Opps. I ment EXT3.
>
>> I've read about issues with Reiser but have no personal
>> experience.
>
> Any chance you remember what some of those issues were?

I think some of it was squabbling among kernel developers, and I  
didn't want t get involved in any filesystem that didn't have the  
enthusiastic support of the entire kernel group. Seems to have been a  
personal-type thing, don't know if it has been resolved yet. I don't  
really care what the issues are, or who is right or wrong, the mere  
fact that a dichotomy exists is enough to cause me to stay away.

>
>> One thing to be aware of with  EXT3 is that when you delete a large
>> file (as just about all Myth-recorded files are) the system blocks
>> all disk access until the delete is complete.
>
> This seems to be a bad idea and would really hamper system  
> performance on a servr with larges files and multiuser access.  
> Could just be my limited understanding though.

It certainly could be a problem, but it hasn't really been so for me.  
I have a single-user Myth box and almost never auto-expire things, so  
deletions are generally manual. I just pay attention to what's  
happening if I need to delete a long file, and the worst case is I  
get a second or two of lost data on a recording, not a major issue  
for me, no worse than a drop-out on an analog video tape.

As I said, adequate buffering should go a long way to eliminating  
this problem. Multi-Gigabyte video files were not really in vogue  
when EXT-2 was designed, and most applications do not have real-time  
requirements.

But if choosing another FS eliminates even that minor problem, with  
no downside, I'd do that if I had it to do over again.