Bug 204104

Summary:	mkfs.ext3 is really slow when /etc/mke2fs.conf is missing
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Nate Straz <nstraz>
Component:	e2fsprogs	Assignee:	Eric Sandeen <esandeen>
Status:	CLOSED RAWHIDE	QA Contact:	David Lawrence <dkl>
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	medium
Version:	rawhide	CC:	benl, bpeck, esandeen, jlaska, sct, twoerner
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:	1.40.2	Doc Type:	Bug Fix
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2007-09-20 18:16:58 UTC	Type:	---
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Nate Straz 2006-08-25 15:59:10 UTC

+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #201645 +++

Description of problem:

mkfs.ext3 runs about 10x slower during a RHEL5 install as it did when
doing a RHEL4 install.

-- Additional comment from pjones on 2006-08-21 10:55 EST --
This is mke2fs.conf not being in the installer root.  Fixed in rawhide.

-- Additional comment from nstraz on 2006-08-25 11:21 EST --
So a missing config file cripples mke2fs?

I tried a simple experiment on this volume:

  LV             VG            Attr   LSize   Origin Snap%  Move Log Copy% 
  morph-cluster0 morph-cluster -wi-a- 915.70G                              

[root@morph-01 etc]# /usr/bin/time mke2fs -q -j /dev/morph-cluster/morph-cluster0 
0.77user 62.97system 2:35.24elapsed 41%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (0major+11383minor)pagefaults 0swaps
[root@morph-01 etc]# mv /etc/mke2fs.conf /etc/should-be-mke2fs.conf
[root@morph-01 etc]# /usr/bin/time mke2fs -q -j /dev/morph-cluster/morph-cluster0 
3.42user 91.23system 56:22.95elapsed 2%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
0inputs+0outputs (0major+34200minor)pagefaults 0swaps

So on a nearly 1TB volume, mkfs time changed from 2:35.24 to 56:22.95. Ouch!

Comment 1 Nate Straz 2006-08-25 16:10:36 UTC

Here's the difference in the file system made, with and without a mke2fs.conf.

e2fsprogs-1.39-4

tune2fs w/o mke2fs.conf

Filesystem features:      has_journal filetype sparse_super
Block count:              960180224
First block:              1
Block size:               1024
Fragment size:            1024
Blocks per group:         8192
Fragments per group:      8192
Inodes per group:         1024
Inode blocks per group:   128

tune2fs w/ mke2fs.conf

Filesystem features:      has_journal resize_inode dir_index filetype
sparse_super large_file
Block count:              240045056
First block:              0
Block size:               4096
Fragment size:            4096
Reserved GDT blocks:      1024
Blocks per group:         32768
Fragments per group:      32768
Inodes per group:         16384
Inode blocks per group:   512

Comment 2 Eric Sandeen 2007-05-05 04:22:49 UTC

At a minimum should probably make the built-in defaults match the defaults in
the *stock* upstream mke2fs.conf file, if they don't already.

Comment 3 Eric Sandeen 2007-05-05 04:38:41 UTC

... and they don't match.

Stock upstream conf file says 4k blocks, while the code itself defaults to 1k.

Options differ too; conf says "sparse_super,filetype,resize_inode,dir_index"
while code says "filetype,sparse_super"

I'll try to get this fixed upstream.

-Eric

Comment 4 Eric Sandeen 2007-05-07 17:30:51 UTC

I sent a patch upstream to make the mke2fs.c defaults match the mke2fs.conf
defaults:

http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org/msg01683.html

Comment 5 Eric Sandeen 2007-05-08 15:01:21 UTC

The change has been committed upstream:

http://thunk.org/hg/e2fsprogs/?rev/ddab1d8d71d1

Comment 6 Eric Sandeen 2007-09-20 18:16:58 UTC

Nate has given me permission to just punt this to fedora, I don't think it's an
issue that's going to hit RHEL.  This fix should be in 1.40.2 in both F7 and F8.