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The most-publicised advantage over what was the stock Linux file system at the time, ext2, is that it uses a transaction journal to record changes to filesystem structures. The journal allows the filesystem to quickly return to a consistent state after an unscheduled system shutdown caused by a power outage or a system crash. This feature greatly reduces the risk of filesystem corruption (and the need for lengthy file system checks). ReiserFS also handles directories containing huge numbers of small files very efficiently. Compared to ext2 and ext3 when dealing with files under 4k, ReiserFS is often faster by a factor of 10–15. This is important, for example, when handling Usenet news spools.

Unfortunately, converting a system to ReiserFS requires users of ext2 to completely reformat their disks, which is a disadvantage not shared by its main competitor ext3.

Due to its advantages, many Linux distributions have made it the default file system.

With the introduction of the Reiser4 filesystem, ReiserFS is occasionally referred to as Reiser3.

External link

• ReiserFS homepage