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Overview
Btrfs is a new copy on write (CoW) filesystem for Linux aimed at implementing advanced features while focusing on fault tolerance, repair and easy administration.
Btrfs is under heavy development, but every effort is being made to keep the filesystem stable and fast. Because of the speed of development, running the latest possible Linux kernel is highly recommended.
More Information on Btrfs is available at https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Btrfs.
Recent benchmarks are available here https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page#Benchmarking.
Features
- Extent based file storage
- 2^64 byte == 16 EiB maximum file size
- Space-efficient packing of small files
- Space-efficient indexed directories
- Dynamic inode allocation
- Writable snapshots, read-only snapshots
- Subvolumes (separate internal filesystem roots)
- Checksums on data and metadata
- Compression (gzip and LZO)
- Integrated multiple device support
- File Striping, File Mirroring, and File Striping+Mirroring implementations
- Efficient incremental backup
- Background scrub process for finding and fixing errors on files with redundant copies
- Online filesystem defragmentation
- Offline filesystem check
Ubuntu-specific subvolume layout in 11.04 and later
In Ubuntu 11.04 and later, the installer sets up btrfs with a specific layout:
The default subvolume to mount is always the top of the btrfs tree (subvolid=5).
Subvolumes are created below the top of the btrfs tree as needed, e.g. for / and /home, it creates subvolumes named @ and @home. This means that specific options are needed in order to mount the subvolumes, instead of the default btrfs tree top:
The @ subvolume is mounted to / using the kernel boot option rootflags=subvol=@
The @home subvolume (if it is used), is mounted via the mount option subvol=@home in fstab.
How to work with snaphots in Ubuntu's layout
In order to work with snapshots of / or /home in the Ubuntu layout it is very convenient to mount the btrfs filesystem at a separate location, and work from the top of the btrfs tree, rather than from the mounted subvolumes.
sudo mount /dev/sdX# /mnt
Create snapshots
To create a snapshot use
sudo btrfs subvolume snapshot /mnt/@ /mnt/@_snapshot
this will create a snapshot of the @ subvolume named @_snapshot located also in the top of the btrfs tree.
Rollback to a snapshot
To roll back to a snapshot, you simply need to change its name to the name that ubuntu mounts, using
sudo mv /mnt/@ /mnt/@_badroot sudo mv /mnt/@_snapshot /mnt/@
and reboot.
Delete a snapshot
To delete a snapshot use
sudo btrfs subvolume delete /mnt/@_badroot
btrfs snapshots are subvolumes in themselves, and self-contained, deleting the old @ subvolume like this is fine, provided we have a replacement.
The btrfs-tools command ''set-default'' will break Ubuntu's layout
Since Ubuntu is set up to always keep the top of the btrfs tree as the default mounting subvolume it will break when using the btrfs-tools command set-default, since this command is specifically designed to change the default mounting subvolume.
The mount options for / and /home described above relies on the fact that the corresponding subvolumes @ and @home can be located below the default mounting subvolume, and if set-default is used, this is no longer the case.
If you have accidentally used set-default and want to revert, you can do the following
sudo mount /dev/sdX# /mnt sudo btrfs subvolume set-default 5 /mnt
since the id 5 is a permanent alias for the top of the btrfs tree.
Fresh Install on 11.04 Natty
As of 11.04, it is possible to use only btrfs file systems with the caveat that grub 'MUST NOT' be installed to the boot sector of the btrfs volume containing /boot. See also Ubuntu Grub2 Bug 757446 and Ubuntu Grub2 Bug 759772. You must install it to either the parent (sda rather than sda1; MBR/Reserved Sectors) 'OR' use a dedicated /boot partition as described in the forum post below.
When installing Ubuntu in one large btrfs-Partition without an extra boot-partition, take care to keep about 1 Mib space free at the beginning of the disk. This is possible using the partition manager in the Ubuntu installer. When there is not this space, the installer fails at the end when trying to install Grub!
Install as Root on earlier Ubuntu versions
Converting Ubuntu 12.10 ext4 root filesystem
Boot a Live CD with a recent kernel.
Open a terminal and run these commands:
sudo su
Check the filesystem for errors.
fsck.ext4 /dev/sda1 btrfs-convert /dev/sda1
Mount the filesystem and prepare the chroot.
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt for i in dev dev/pts proc sys ; do mount --bind /$i /mnt/$i ; done chroot /mnt
This displays the filesystem UUID. Copy it to the clipboard, or a piece of paper.
blkid | grep sda1
gedit /etc/fstab
Prepend the root filesystem line with a hash (#), to comment out it:
#UUID=1fe54331-f99a-4ef5-9bd4-a4fff6223e87 / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
Add a new line for the btrfs root, like the following:
# The root was converted to btrfs. UUID=a74f5787-aee1-4981-b7e6-fbd3cb6ac919 / btrfs defaults 0 1
Remember to paste the UUID that was in the output of blkid. It is different from the previous one.
Be careful to remove the ext4 "errors=remount-ro" option, otherwise the boot will fail with error "Root filesystem check failed".
To prevent GRUB boot error "Sparse file not allowed", edit the file /etc/grub.d/00_header (see <http://askubuntu.com/a/105178/24432> for more info).
gedit /etc/grub.d/00_header
Prepend this line with a hash (#):
#if [ -n ${have_grubenv} ]; then save_env recordfail; fiNow, we update grub.
grub-install /dev/sda # This prevents GRUB boot error "Unknown filesystem". update-grub
Shutdown, remove the Live CD, reboot.
Instructional forum post link
Please see http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=8716089&postcount=1
Managing Btrfs
Snapshots & Subvolumes
Create a subvolume:
btrfs subvolume create test
This creates a subvolume in your home area called test. It appears to be a directory.
Do a snapshot copy of a subvolume:
btrfs subvolume snapshot test snap-copy-one
This creates a subvolume in your home area called snap-copy-one complete with all the data contained in test at the time of the snapshot.
List your subvolume:
sudo btrfs subvolume list test
This lists your subvolumes. Root privileges and the name of one of your subvolumes is required.
Sample Output:
ID 264 top level 5 path home/myhome/test ID 265 top level 5 path home/myhome/snap-copy-one
Delete your subvolume:
sudo btrfs subvolume delete test
Root privileges are required to delete subvolumes.
Adding Filesystem Compression
Edit /etc/fstab:
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass> proc /proc proc nodev,noexec,nosuid 0 0 # / was on /dev/sda2 during installation UUID=07e198ed-18a3-41ed-9e48-bde82ead65fc / btrfs defaults, compress 0 1 # /boot was on /dev/sda1 during installation UUID=90983817-83f8-464f-a50c-39cd02317447 /boot ext2 defaults 0 2 # swap was on /dev/sda5 during installation UUID=a3da3212-876f-4350-94b3-4b5b5040c871 none swap sw 0 0
The compress option was added. Remount the filesystem using "sudo mount -o remount /" or simply reboot.
Compression algorithm:
Since kernel 2.6.38 you can choose between zlib (default) and lzo as compression algorithms. zlib has a higher compression ratio while lzo is faster and takes less cpu load. To use lzo you edit your fstab and add "compress=lzo" to your mount options as described above. Specifying "compress" equals "compress=zlib".
See Phoronix for a benchmark between zlib and lzo.
NOTE: Grub2 in 11.04 can't read lzo compressed root so you'll need a /boot partition to use it.
Display Filesystem Information
Show a device:
sudo btrfs filesystem show /dev/sda2
Displays information about device /dev/sda2.
Sample Output:
failed to read /dev/sr0
Label: none uuid: 07e198ed-18a3-41ed-9e48-bde82ead65fc
Total devices 1 FS bytes used 26.80GB
devid 1 size 912.20GB used 28.27GB path /dev/sda2
Btrfs Btrfs v0.19Show Filesystem Information for a path:
btrfs filesystem df /home/myhome
Displays information about path /home/myhome.
Sample Output:
Metadata: total=640.00MB, used=265.57MB Data: total=27.00GB, used=26.54GB System: total=12.00MB, used=12.00KB
Validate Filesystem Integrity
Fsck a device:
sudo btrfsck /dev/sda2
Does offline filesystem check of device /dev/sda2. Will not give sensible results for a mounted filesystem.
Sample Output:
found 28752076800 bytes used err is 0 total csum bytes: 27806792 total tree bytes: 277921792 total fs tree bytes: 233484288 btree space waste bytes: 76057148 file data blocks allocated: 35377807360 referenced 28362235904 Btrfs Btrfs v0.19
Scrub a directory:
btrfs scrub Videos
Improve Filesystem Performance
Defragment a directory:
sudo btrfs filesystem defragment Videos
This only defragments the directory's index. The files within the directory are not affected. Files must be individually defragmented, e.g.:
sudo find Videos -exec btrfs filesystem defragment '{}' +
Spread data out evenly across the available devices
See https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/FAQ#What_does_.22balance.22_do.3F for what a balance actually does, and when it should be used.
btrfs filesystem balance /home/myhome
This operation could take some time.