Re: rsync to ext2 filesystem issues

[Ramiro Aceves <ea1abz%gmail.com@localhost>]

El lun, 7 sept 2026 a las 10:09, x85729201kza
(<x85729201kza%outlook.com@localhost>) escribió:
>
>
>
> On 7/09/2026 3:53 pm, Ramiro Aceves wrote:
> > Thanks so much for your comments regarding this subject.
> >
> > I have fsck the ext2  filesystem using Linux and repeated the rsync.
> > Now rsync stopped into another file among the Mozilla firefox
> > directory that owns trillions of files.
> >
> > I noticed that when I fixed the filesystem with  fsck under Linux it
> > output the following  "Invalid HTREE directory" message:
>
> HTREE, according to netbsd, is a hashing in ext2 to speed up searches.
> https://github.com/NetBSD/src/blob/55e8a8a44d9e70b9589a9baec5b637d22673df06/sys/ufs/ext2fs/ext2fs_hash.c#L240
>
>
> >
> > sep 06 11:47:53 debian-nuc8i7 systemd-fsck[1293]: /dev/sdb1: Invalid
> > HTREE directory inode 38723585
> > (/COPIA_NETBSD_8I7/home/ramiro/.mozilla/firefox/527cpmj0.default-default-2/storage/permanent/chrome/idb/3870112724rsegmnoittet-es.files)
>
> Jeez, is that systemd now running file I/O as well. Magnificent bloatware there...

Yes, that is one of the reasons I am a NetBSD fan now! although I
cannot remove Debian completely cause I need it for things that do not
work in NetBSD ;-)

>
>
> >
> > Do you think it is  a bug in NetBSD ext2 filesystem implementation? I
> > am a total ignorant in this subject, just in case clue persons can
> > extract information from this finding.
>
>
> Yes, me too. However, I think your overall challenge is this: ffs is fast has proper buffer lock handling/optimizations, rsync creates a ton of file I/O per second (metadata etc), NetBSD's implementation of the VFS called ext2 cannot handle this.

I understand...

>
> > Anyway, I have excluded from the rsync backup all the offending files
> > and it seems to finish just fine. All those files are not important
> > for my backup.
> >
>
> Have you perhaps looked at another file system? ext4 can be run using fuse-ext2. That's far more robust than antique ext2. Geez, maybe even fat32 could be better? Why not try a small partition or another disk if you have spare and test them out?

I recall in the past having searched about ext4 using fuse and the
conclusion I remember is that write support to ext4 filesystems was
risky and experimental.
The other candidate was exFAT but I discarded cause it has no UNIX
permissions, if I recalled correctly.

Regards.




>
> Cheers
>
> > Not a fix, a workaround but if it works....
> >
> > Regards.
> >