Is it save to mount / with noatime? - users - Fedora Mailing-Lists

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

2002

2001

2000

1999

1998

1997

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

1991

1990

1989

1988

1987

1986

1985

1984

1983

1982

1981

1980

Is it save to mount / with noatime?

probleme with awk arguments

Re: Ext3 file count limits

Clemens Eisserer

Wednesday, 19 October 2011 Wed, 19 Oct '11

3:55 a.m.

Hi, Is it save to mount "/" with the noatime flag, or are there still packages which depend on an accurate access time? My system is a desktop running xfce, so no weird mail-servers ;) Thank you in advance, Clemens

Reply

Show replies by date

Reindl Harald

Wednesday, 19 October Wed, 19 Oct

9:45 a.m.

i am using "data=writeback,noatime,nodiratime" since 2006 on all of my machines for all partitions on all servers and workstations with the following services and WITHOUT selinux * httpd * dbmail * postfix * dovecot * mysqld * ntpd * netatalk * samba * named * dhcpd * pure-ftpd Am 19.10.2011 10:55, schrieb Clemens Eisserer: Hi, Is it save to mount "/" with the noatime flag, or are there still packages which depend on an accurate access time? My system is a desktop running xfce, so no weird mail-servers ;) Thank you in advance, Clemens

Reply

Alan Cox

4:43 a.m.

On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:55:28 +0200 Clemens Eisserer <linuxhippy(a)gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, Is it save to mount "/" with the noatime flag, or are there still packages which depend on an accurate access time?

Current kernels support a much better algorithm anyway. Look up 'relatime'

Reply

Heinz Diehl

1:23 p.m.

On 19.10.2011, JB wrote:

Is breaking standards good ? :-)

I don't care in this case :-) My filesystems are mounted the same as my root fs: /dev/sda2 on / type xfs (rw,noatime,attr2,delaylog,nobarrier,logbufs=2,logbsize=256k,noquota) Btw: "noatime" does already include "nodiratime".

Reply

Clemens Eisserer

8:42 a.m.

Hi Alan,

> Is it save to mount "/" with the noatime flag, or are there still > packages which depend on an accurate access time? Current kernels support a much better algorithm anyway. Look up 'relatime'

Thanks for the hint, relatime seems to be what I was looking for. - Clemens

Reply

JB

12:16 p.m.

Heinz Diehl <htd <at> fritha.org> writes:

... Here's what Linus says on noatime: http://kerneltrap.org/node/14148

There is an interesting comment by Alan Cox: "...

/dev/md0 on / type ext3 (rw,noatime,nodiratime,user_xattr)

... Ext3 currently is a standards compliant file system. Turn off atime and its very non standards compliant, turn to relatime and its not standards compliant but nobody will break (which is good) ..." I assume he was talking POSIX ? Standards (file systems) test suites ? Btw, is that comment still valid, and also for ext4 ? Is braking standards good ? :-) JB

Reply

Heinz Diehl

10:40 a.m.

On 19.10.2011, JB wrote:

Unfortunately there are apps that may act incorrectly, either with noatime or relatime. Possible examples: procmail, mutt, mailx, perhaps few more known and unknown yet (incl. sysadmin commands).

I'm using "noatime" exclusively, and have been using it a long long time. I did only see one program misbehaving in all these years, that's mutt. It uses atime to determine when a mailfolder was last accessed. With noatime, the timestamp will simply not be updated. There are a lot of workarounds out there, so that isn't really a big deal. Here's what Linus says on noatime: http://kerneltrap.org/node/14148

Reply

JB

10:01 a.m.

Clemens Eisserer <linuxhippy <at> gmail.com> writes:

Hi, Is it save to mount "/" with the noatime flag, or are there still packages which depend on an accurate access time? My system is a desktop running xfce, so no weird mail-servers ;) Thank you in advance, Clemens

Unfortunately there are apps that may act incorrectly, either with noatime or relatime. Possible examples: procmail, mutt, mailx, perhaps few more known and unknown yet (incl. sysadmin commands). So, it is your call. JB

Reply

Misha Shnurapet

8:47 a.m.

19.10.2011, 18:43, "Alan Cox" <alan(a)lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>:

On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:55:28 +0200 Clemens Eisserer <linuxhippy(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > Is it save to mount "/" with the noatime flag, or are there still > packages which depend on an accurate access time? Current kernels support a much better algorithm anyway. Look up 'relatime'

And what about "nodiratime"? -- Best regards, Misha Shnurapet, Fedora Project Contributor Email: shnurapet AT fedoraproject.org, IRC: misha on freenode https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/shnurapet, GPG: 00217306

Reply

Stephen Gallagher

9:08 a.m.

On Wed, 2011-10-19 at 10:43 +0100, Alan Cox wrote:

On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 10:55:28 +0200 Clemens Eisserer <linuxhippy(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Hi, > > Is it save to mount "/" with the noatime flag, or are there still > packages which depend on an accurate access time? Current kernels support a much better algorithm anyway. Look up 'relatime'

relatime isn't much of a help though if you're looking to reduce writes on a solid-state disk. I'm not sure if that was the original intent of the question, but I think it's certainly worth answering. I've been using noatime for a while with no obvious ill effects, but your mileage may vary.

Reply

4599

days inactive

4599

days old

users@lists.fedoraproject.org

Manage subscription

9 comments

7 participants

tags (0)

participants (7)

Alan Cox
Clemens Eisserer
Heinz Diehl
JB
Misha Shnurapet
Reindl Harald
Stephen Gallagher