How can I use ext4's inline_data feature to store empty directories? It seems like inline_data works only with small files, or the directories store a lot of data.
Add a comment |
1 Answer
You need e2fsprogs 1.43 or later, and you need to create a file system with the inline_data feature enabled, and inodes with at least 256 bytes:
mke2fs -t ext4 -O inline_data ... (if mke2fs complains about the inodes being too small, add -I 256).
Directories will then use inline data transparently, as long as the data they need to store fits inside their inode. debugfs’s stat command will show inode data which looks like
Inode: 12 Type: directory Mode: 0755 Flags: 0x10000000 Generation: 3089239889 Version: 0x00000000:00000002 User: 0 Group: 0 Size: 60 File ACL: 0 Directory ACL: 0 Links: 3 Blockcount: 0 Fragment: Address: 0 Number: 0 Size: 0 ctime: 0x5bcb759e:a9872534 -- Sat Oct 20 20:36:14 2018 atime: 0x5bcb759e:a9872534 -- Sat Oct 20 20:36:14 2018 mtime: 0x5bcb759e:a9872534 -- Sat Oct 20 20:36:14 2018 crtime: 0x5bcb759e:a9872534 -- Sat Oct 20 20:36:14 2018 Size of extra inode fields: 32 Extended attributes: system.data (0) Inode checksum: 0x68fa51fe Size of inline data: 60 This is for a directory containing one other directory; as you can see, it stores 60 bytes of inline data and has no extent.
answered Oct 20, 2018 at 18:39
- Note that ext4 does not shrink directories, so inline_data is only used for small files and dies until they grow larger than will fit into the inode.CommentedOct 21, 2018 at 22:23
