Canek Peláez Valdés <[email protected]> [12-04-08 20:28]: > On Sun, Apr 8, 2012 at 11:44 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > Mick <[email protected]> [12-04-08 18:40]: > >> On Sunday 08 Apr 2012 16:56:23 David W Noon wrote: > >> > On Sun, 8 Apr 2012 17:26:03 +0200, [email protected] wrote about > >> > > >> > [gentoo-user] Extended file attributes: ext4: > >> > > is it possible to go from an ext4-filesystem with no extended file > >> > > attributes to one with extended file attributes without reformatting > >> > > the disk or other very risky low level things just by adding this > >> > > feature to the kenrel (?) ? > >> > > >> > Yes, it's simple. > >> > > >> > You need to ensure that your kernel configuration has the extended > >> > attribute support (ACL is a good idea too) and you have booted with the > >> > ext4 driver so configured. > >> > > >> > You then add the xattr option in /etc/fstab for the filesystem(s) where > >> > you want extended attribute support. If you do that before you reboot > >> > (as above) then you will have full extended attribute support. > >> > >> I thought that you are meant to pass such options on the CLI at the time > >> you > >> are formatting the partition ... is this incorrect? > >> > >> Of course if you must format the drive with such options then the data > >> won't > >> survive. > >> -- > >> Regards, > >> Mick > > > > > > Hi, > > > > thank you very much for all the input. > > > > To clearify things a little: > > > > Status quo: System with ext4 and no extended attributes. > > Where I want to be: The same system with extended attributes. > > > > Way to go: No reformatting and mkfs and all that things. Only kernel > > reconfiguring / recompiling / rebooting and emerging some tools. > > > > Possible? > > As others had said, this is possible. I used this guide: > > http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/643 > > You need basically to enable the ext4-only features: > > tune2fs -O extents,uninit_bg,dir_index <partition> > > Do the fsck: > > fsck.ext4 -yfD <partition> > > And (optionally) convert all the files and directories to use extends: > > find <directory> -xdev -type f -print0 | xargs -0 chattr +e > find <directory> -xdev -type d -print0 | xargs -0 chattr +e > > I did this on my laptop and desktop (including the root filesystem, > booting into emergency mode with systemd), and everything worked > perfectly. > > Note, however, that you *need* GRUB2 if your kernel lives in an ext4 > partition that it's not longer compatible with ext3. Don't do the > change without migrating to GRUB2 before. > > Regards. > -- > Canek Peláez Valdés > Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingeniería de la Computación > Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México >
Ok, thanks for the introduction and the link, Canek! :) Best regards, mcc
