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Understanding UNIX / Linux filesystem Superblock

by NI X CRA FT on NO V E M B E R 8 , 2 0 0 5 1 4 CO M M E NT S L A S T UP DA T E D S E P T E M B E R 2 5 , 2 0 0 7

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This is second part of "Understanding UNIX/Linux file system", part I is here. Let us take an example of 20 GB hard disk. The entire disk space subdivided into multiple file system blocks. And blocks used for what?
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Unix / Linux filesystem blocks

The blocks used for two different purpose: 1. Most blocks stores user data aka files (user data). 2. Some blocks in every file system store the file system's metadata. So what the hell is a metadata? In simple words Metadata describes the structure of the file system. Most common metadata structure are superblock, inode and directories. Following paragraphs describes each of them.

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Superblock
Each file system is different and they have type like ext2, ext3 etc. Further each file system has size like 5 GB, 10 GB and status such as mount status. In short each file system has a superblock, which contains information about file system such as: File system type Size Status Information about other metadata structures If this information lost, you are in trouble (data loss) so Linux maintains multiple redundant copies of the superblock in every file system. This is very important in many emergency situation, for example you can use backup copies to restore damaged primary super block. Following command displays primary and backup superblock location on /dev/sda3:
# dumpe2fs /dev/hda3 | grep -i superblock

Output:

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Primary superblock at 0, Group descriptors at 1-1 Backup superblock at 32768, Group descriptors at 32769-32769 Backup superblock at 98304, Group descriptors at 98305-98305 Backup superblock at 163840, Group descriptors at 163841-163841 Backup superblock at 229376, Group descriptors at 229377-229377 Backup superblock at 294912, Group descriptors at 294913-294913

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Continue reading rest of the Understanding Linux file system series (this is part II): Part I - Understanding Linux superblock Part II - Understanding Linux superblock Part III - An example of Surviving a Linux Filesystem Failures
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Part III - An example of Surviving a Linux Filesystem Failures Part IV - Understanding filesystem Inodes Part V - Understanding filesystem directories Part VI - Understanding UNIX/Linux symbolic (soft) and hard links Part VII - Why isn't it possible to create hard links across file system boundaries?
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{ 14 comments read them below or add one }

Anonymous
May 31, 2006 at 5:13 pm
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Understanding UNIX / Linux File System

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Anonymous
# dumpe2fs /dev/hda3grep -i superblock above command is not running here |(pipe) is missing, anyway I am getting different output as you mentioned [root@sachan /root]# dumpe2fs /dev/hda1 | grep -i superblock dumpe2fs 1.19, 13-Jul-2000 for EXT2 FS 0.5b, 95/08/09 [root@sachan /root]#
REPLY

Understanding UNIX / Linux symbolic (soft) and hard links

How To Measure Linux Filesystem I/O Performance With iozone

Surviving a Linux Filesystem Failures

nixcraft

May 31, 2006 at 9:59 pm

Opps pipe was missing, thanks for heads up. Hmm it should give the output.
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The importance of Linux partitions

Mount a Linux filesystem on a SAN from multiple nodes at the same time

Kristian

May 5, 2007 at 4:33 pm

It should be mentioned that dumpe2fs only is for the ext2/ext3 file systems.
REPLY

bipul

August 1, 2007 at 8:14 am

Hello Unix Team how are you

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Swapnil
Hi Vivek,

August 31, 2007 at 6:05 am

I have a doubt as how many redundant backups of superblock are created in the file system ? Is it made on every block group or only on initial few block groups ? In the filesystem that I created of size 128 MB with 16 block groups, when I run the dumpe2fs command on it, it gives the info on superblocks (These are not the exact wordings of the output ) : primary superblock is present on block group 0, back up superblock is present on block group 1, 3, 5, 7, 9. Similarly for a file system with 256 MB size and 31 block groups, primary superblock is present on block group 0 and backups are present on block groups 1,3,5,7, and 9. So my doubt is how does the file system how many backups of the superblock to be created ? And the same doubt for block group descriptors as well. Block group descriptors are not present in each block group but only in the block groups where superblock is present. Hoping for an earliest response. Thanks, Swapnil
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Sunil

April 18, 2008 at 6:40 am

Hey this command id not working on my system

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[sunilv@lnx202-28 ~]$ dump2fs /u/sunilv | grep -i superblock dump2fs: Command not found.
REPLY

rakesh

September 13, 2011 at 7:52 am

dude.. commands is dump2efs u used dump2fs

REPLY

vivek

April 18, 2008 at 10:46 am

Use full path /sbin/dumpe2fs, you are logged in as regular user and /sbin and /usr/sbin not in PATH settings.
REPLY

November 24, 2008 at 6:10 am

To Swapnil, You have sparse_super mode so super block and backups are saved in groups 0,1,3^n,5^n,7^n (e.g. 0,1,3,5,7,9,25,27,). If you take a look at mke2fs code, youll see these places where super blocks are saved. p.s. this is a very late comment but just wanted to comment..
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Govindasamy C

January 28, 2009 at 5:25 am

10

Its working fine for me sunil i think you did not give space after the command dumpe2fs
REPLY

sox

May 24, 2011 at 1:37 am

11

what is meant by offset information in a filesystem?

REPLY

saikumar

July 14, 2011 at 3:59 am

12

is it possible to install linux in personal lappies? core2duo processor( dell laptop) is it possible even vmware workstation is installed in laptops.
REPLY

lanh

May 17, 2012 at 8:06 am

13

Good content; I like how you explain this topic very simply, as linux is typically hard to grasp.
REPLY

Aravind

October 3, 2012 at 7:00 am

14

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Very fine . . . . . . .u
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Tagged as: internal data structures, linux filesystem, metadata structure, superblock, unix filesystem

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Understanding UNIX / Linux File System

Surviving a Linux Filesystem Failures

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