this post was submitted on 25 Jan 2024
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I was wondering if anyone here has attempted the new "COW filesystem for Linux that won't eat your data".

It's supposedly has been stable since the start of 2023. I'm willing to give it a try on Arch, but before I do, I'd like to hear if anyone has faced any issues with it.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I want to try it, but I'm definitely gonna wait a while first.

[–] actual_patience 2 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] technom 3 points 10 months ago

Until you start seeing its reviews. Or else, you should try using it for data you can afford to lose (unimportant or backed up) - which is what reviewers would be doing anyway.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Probably somewhere between kernel 6.8 and Fedora making it default (that's broad I know). I'm guessing around kernel 7.

[–] bitcrafter 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I am unfamiliar with this filesystem, and am curious about it. Could someone explain to me its benefits over btrfs?

[–] actual_patience 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

From what I understand:

  • it has all btrfs features
  • it's as performant as ext4 (with COW enabled)
  • it's more stable than btrfs
  • it has built-in encryption, (no LUKS needed)

The page in Gentoo explains it's features well

[–] technom 9 points 10 months ago

It's still missing the send and receive features from btrfs. And while they say it's more stable than btrfs, it's yet to prove itself (through widespread use), and is marked as experimental in the kernel config.

[–] DeprecatedCompatV2 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

I recall snapshots not being quite as cheap as on ZFS.

[–] technom 1 points 10 months ago

Is there an article I can refer to? This isn't an easy topic to search for.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm looking forward to try it myself... and also wondering if I'll ever be able to read it as b-cache-fs rather than bca-chefs.

[–] actual_patience 5 points 10 months ago

Hmm... "baka-chefs". Rolls off the tongue. Thanks for sharing!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

I'm itching to try it, but haven't had a chance, yet. I wouldn't immediately jump a production load onto it, but on a homelab? Should be perfectly fine.

[–] CJJackson 1 points 8 months ago

I heard good things about bcachefs, it’s quite new I’d wait a few years before giving it a try; ideally until every major distro support it.

I’m currently using Btrfs and Luks, I didn’t have any issue so far.