This may be a silly question. I read that btrfs will replace ext4 as the default filesystem in Fedora 33. Does that mean all my files will be deleted if I upgrade from Fedora 32 to Fedora 33?
Absolutely not.
Upgrading from 32 to 33 will be like upgrading 31 to 32. Your partition schema will be preserved, untouched.
“Btrfs as the default filesystem” means that in a new installation, if you will opt for automatic partitioning, the default filesystem will be Btrfs instead of LVM+ext4
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Do you mean my file system will still be ext4 if I upgrade from F32 to F33?
Yep, upgrading doesn’t change your partitioning and file systems.
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Exactly. If you perform an upgrade, your partitions will not be modified.
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I believe that even if btrfs replaces ext4 as the default filesystem for F33 - the users would be almost certainly given a choice to pick from. Right @alciregi?
Exactly like it is right now.
The only difference is that, in a new installation (not an upgrade) the default filesystem will be Btrfs and not LVM+ext4 if you chose automatic partitioning.
If you installed F31 with a custom partition scheme, for instance without LVM, and you upgrade to F32, the filesystem will remain as is, without LVM even if the default partitioning would be LVM+ext4 using automatic partitioning in a new F32 installation.
Same thing if you upgrade to F33.
Again: upgrading a F32 (or 31) installation to F33, the filesystem and the partition scheme in use will remain the same.
Of course, in a new F33 installation, you can always use custom partitioning and chose ext4 or LVM+ext4 as your file system (again, in a new installation).
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Here are two important links for this topic:
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When I installed my Fedora 32, I chose automatic partition, will my file system still be ext4 after upgrading to Fedora 33?
Is btrfs faster and safer than ext4? I need to do a lot of files transferring on a daily basis. If btrfs is faster and safer than ext4, how can I change my file system from ext4 to btrfs without having to reinstall my Fedora OS?
Yes. It will be ext4.
How can I change my ext4 file system to btrfs file system?
I can only recommend it if you have a way to completely back up your files away from your drive. There is a btrfs convert program, but it is tricky.
If you can do backups and store them somewhere else, repartition your drive, create a btrfs, and restore your files, Revise your fstab to account for the new filesystem.
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Thanks for your advice. Actually I am uncertain about if I should switch from ext4 for btrfs. My desktop uses a 1 TB SSD and a 4 TB HDD. I store and move a lot of data from my desktop to external storage devices. If btrfs is faster and more stable than ext4, I will switch to it.
Fedora takes pride in pioneering the mainstream distribution of technical advances, so its adoption of btrfs is understandable. But it is not expected to make much difference for most people doing most things. Btrfs has some “bookkeeping” innovations, but if you are just copying files in & then copying those files out to a different device, btrfs’ time complexity is dominated by the content of the files, just as in ext4. (My expertise in brtfs comes from attending a free powerpoint presentation about 10 years ago.)
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You are thinking too much and reading too little. I bet you wouldn’t notice any difference between ext4 and btrfs. The golden rule is Never Touch a Running System. If it works, it works! ext4 is stable since a long time, with Btrfs you risk being affected by a bug or some inconvenience.
Also, forget about the file system conversion. If you jump on btrfs, make a solid backup and re-install Fedora 33 after its release.
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OK. I think I will wait until Fedora 40 to see if I need to do the conversion.
No need to wait thaaaat long, but if you do, do a clean install from scratch and copy your backup back to a btrfs volume
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In any case, if you care about your files, you must have backups and test your restore procedure !!
(And keep your backup offline, ransomware is a very successful business)
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I thought Linux is free from the risks of ransomware
Hi,
Its been a very long time since you could actually consider linux to be virus, malware or ransomware free. Its just historically it was less likely to be targeted than Windows. In the last few years this has become less & less the case.
Thanks tom.