MacOS vs UNIX file system on install?

**Gwailo** · April 3rd, 2002, 12:06 AM

Hi,

I do an even division between video work (FCP3) and web design/local hosting with OS X.

I'm getting a new iMac 700MHz, and am probably going to wipe the system clean and do a fresh install of OS X (I don't want Classic on my machine--I don't need it).

What are the advantages to choosing a UNIX file system (at X installation time) over a MacOS file system? Does the UFS option auto-defragment files? Will using a UNIX file system mess up my video editing? Or is the UFS/MFS division strictly for the file heirarchy (i.e., doesn't actually do anything different when it writes data, or format the HD)?

Thanks!

**scruffy** · April 3rd, 2002, 01:25 AM

UFS has no such thing as resource forks, so lots of Carbon apps are hosed on UFS.

If they were really designing the OS from scratch, it would probably be a UNIX file system all the way, I'd guess. Not necessarily UFS, there's lots of different ones. But they need Carbon and Classic apps to work, so it's pretty much got to be HFS+.

My understanding is, Unix file systems are designed to deal well with fragmentation. Not that defragging wouldn't necessarily improve things, but it's less critical than with HFS or (heaven help us) the DOS/Windows file systems.

**phatsharpie** · April 3rd, 2002, 01:29 AM

UFS is REALLY slow... When I first got my iBook with OS X, I decided to give UFS a try, and the installation process took about 300% more time than when using HFS+. Furthermore, OS X was running so slowly and sluggishly when using UFS. I don't have many Mac apps (mainly using my iBook for Java programming) so I didn't run into any application compatibilty issues, but I know there is suppose to be tons of problem running many apps using UFS.

-B

**simX** · April 3rd, 2002, 01:44 AM

Using UFS will cause you massive headaches.

I really suggest not doing it.

**edX** · April 3rd, 2002, 01:52 AM

i will only add that this site is ful of posts about problems that were caused by using UFS. 'nix people seem to think it is the only way to do things, but it doesn't seem to fully work with the mac os. Try doing a site search for UFS or Unix File System and you will get a taste of the difficulties involved.

despite the unix involved, this is still an apple product.

**rliebsch** · April 3rd, 2002, 05:02 PM

my personal machines mare Extended,
but I went with UFS on my corporate boxes.
Case Sensitivity and FTP/HTTP were
absolutely necessary.

So far, this is the biggest issue I have run into...

**rliebsch** · April 3rd, 2002, 08:30 PM

Honestly,
It is a production machine now. It serves my company's HTTP, FTP, and DNS.
It is intended as a bandaid while I rebuild the kernel and Firewall rules on
my linux boxes.

So, I don't play with it much. But, I did play with it BEFORE i put it into production. I put Illustrator10 on it. I updated the OS, and the bits and pieces. It seems to have run fine, I can't say there were performance issues to the detriment. It opend applications in about the same time regardless of FS used.

Certainly, I have more faith in UFS for filesystem security and permissions.
But alot of this is years of Unix/Linux experience in filesystem specific security.

I will be decomissioning the server within a month, then I can have better benchmarks for you. I have another machine identical in every aspect, which I will install HFS+

It is kind of a homework issue.

**rliebsch** · April 3rd, 2002, 08:39 PM

after re-reading onan's posts...

I say this.

Aqua, Quartz, Carbon, et al. are no less wonderful in UFS than Aqua.*

keep in mind, I am a sysadmin, so I live and die by
web browsers (surfin this site, Slashdot, SourceForge, etc.)
terminal emulators (ssh to servers, top, iostat, log analysis)
iTunes (gotta have music, dontcha)
Porn... ^H^H^H^H^H Jpeg viewers *kidding - i used to work for an online storage company, you wouldnt believe what floats around 75TB of data.

so my needs are more sensitive to network latency than I/O on the
localhost. Filesystem isnt going to impact Processing Power, Memory I/O...
It seems that it might cause a hiccup in Disk Seek time if anything.

Classic will go away. so the HFS system will too, I imagine...

But as i posted before, I will test and post, and I work in a design shop, I will set up a system for a Graphic Designer to hammer.

until then...