I’m having trouble understanding all the benefits of BTRFS and how they’ll apply to me.

Copy on Write and auto-compression seem like they will free up a bit of space.

What other practical benefits will I see from using BTRFS? Are there any noticeable performance benefits?

I use my computer to dual-boot. I don’t need snapshots because I have a custom script for a fresh install. I use my PC for gaming and work. I’ve got an NVMe, two SSD’s and one HDD.

Thanks in advance!

  • BCsven@lemmy.ca
    0·
    2 years ago

    If you don’t think you want snapshotting then dont worry too much about it and use whatever fs you like. if you want a nice btrfs experience try tumbleweed or leap, it is already fully integrated with system and grub , and maintenance with cleanup etc. cobbling together btrfs on your own is fine too but if you miss sometging and mess things up it is usually user error not btrfs error. .

  • cmnybo@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Yes, snapshots nice to have and compression reduces the disk usage for the operating system and software quite a bit.

  • taaz@biglemmowski.winEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    As a (semi) power user I also use btrfs subvolumes to create “partitions” (single disk system, @root, @home, @docker), allows for making snapshots only for system or user data, etc.

    All around, I love btrfs and I am never going back to journaling fs like ext4

    • heftig@beehaw.orgEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      Healing won’t work without copies (RAID) available. However, scrubbing regularly can also allow your drive to detect and correct errors before they become irreparable.

  • studcavity@discuss.tchncs.de
    0·
    2 years ago

    Copy on write is likely to introduce significant performance decreases in cases where large or medium size files have a couple bytes changed. It’s usually recommended to turn CoW off on those files; I found it to be more hassle than it’s worth for a root filesystem. It is still a reasonable file system for file storage that looks more like archival - files land there and seldomly or never change. If you don’t have a specific need in mind though, I wouldn’t bother - in my opinion, it’s not great as a general purpose filesystem.

    • Zozano@aussie.zoneOP
      0·
      2 years ago

      Thanks for the advice!

      How do you define medium or large files? What examples of these exist on root?