Monthly Archives: July 2011

Filesystem recovery examples with ltfsck

In addition to the filesystem implementation, the Linear Tape File System (LTFS) software ships with two core utilities, “mkltfs” and “ltfsck”. mkltfs (pronounced “make LTFS”) is used to format LTO cartridges with the LTFS Format. ltfsck is used to check … Continue reading

Posted in data safety, data storage, LTFS | 2 Comments

LTFS consistency and Index snapshots

An LTFS Volume must be in a consistent state when the volume is exchanged with another LTFS system. The LTFS Format Specification defines consistent state as: “A volume is consistent when both partitions are complete and the last Index Construct … Continue reading

Posted in data safety, data storage, LTFS, resiliency | 3 Comments

Can you use LTFS on LTO4 or earlier media?

I have noticed a pattern of Google searches related to the question “Can LTFS be used with LTO4 media?”. This question is implicitly answered in other posts but the frequency of the Google searches motivate me to post the following … Continue reading

Posted in data storage, LTFS | Leave a comment

sync() behavior in LTFS

Modern operating systems typically maintain an in-kernel cache of file-system metadata and small buffers of recent writes to open files. The file-system metadata typically includes data such as the filename, timestamps, and permissions for recently accessed files and directories. This … Continue reading

Posted in data storage, LTFS, sync, system call | Leave a comment