From ArkWiki

Before the release of Ark Linux 2006.1, we've run performance tests on various filesystems to see which one should be made the default.

Test hardware

All tests are being run on an Asus Pundit-S (Celeron 2.4/768 MB/IDE WD2000JB) using

Ark Linux	2006.1 dockyard-devel snapshot 20060722
kernel	2.6.18-0.rc1.1ark
glibc	2.4-4ark
coreutils	5.97-1ark
gcc	4.1.1-1ark
binutils	2.17.50.0.3-1ark

Comparison of file system performance

filesystem	run #	test	real	user	system
xfs	1	dd if=/dev/urandom of=/tmp/1GB bs=1M count=1024	6m34.878s	0m0.008s	6m34.517s
	2		6m35.878s	0m0.008s	6m34.445s
	3		6m35.155s	0m0.012s	6m34.721s
	AVG		6m35.303s	0m0.009s	6m34.561s
jfs	1		6m39.272s	0m0.016s	6m38.969s
	2		6m39.756s	0m0.012s	6m38.909s
	3		6m52.723s	0m0.020s	6m46.741s
	AVG		6m43.917s	0m0.016s	6m41.540s
ext3	1		6m37.352s	0m0.008s	6m36.109s
	2		6m38.298s	0m0.008s	6m36.457s
	3		6m38.867s	0m0.016s	6m37.497s
	AVG		6m38.172s	0m0.010s	6m36.688s
reiserfs	1		6m42.259s	0m0.016s	6m41.249s
	2		6m42.959s	0m0.020s	6m41.693s
	3		6m43.689s	0m0.008s	6m41.901s
	AVG		6m42.969s	0m015s	6m41.614s
xfs	1	cat /tmp/1GB >/dev/null	0m18.683s	0m0.044s	0m1.268s
	2		0m17.957s	0m0.104s	0m1.344s
	3		0m18.578s	0m0.096s	0m1.072s
	AVG		0m18.406s	0m0.081s	0m1.228s
jfs	1		0m17.662s	0m0.084s	0m1.344s
	2		0m21.467s	0m0.088s	0m1.232s
	3		0m21.963s	0m0.044s	0m1.020s
	AVG		0m20.364s	0m0.072s	0m1.199s
ext3	1		0m27.926s	0m0.072s	0m0.972s
	2		0m30.084s	0m0.084s	0m1.268s
	3		0m29.976s	0m0.076s	0m1.242s
	AVG		0m29.329s	0m0.077s	0m1.161s
reiserfs	1		0m25.574s	0m0.068s	0m1.316s
	2		0m25.596s	0m0.072s	0m1.396s
	3		0m25.777s	0m0.080s	0m1.640s
	AVG		0m25.649s	0m0.073s	0m1.451s
xfs	1	cp /tmp/1GB /tmp/1GB-2	0m37.958s	0m0.116s	0m6.180s
	2		0m37.942s	0m0.112s	0m6.360s
	3		0m38.271s	0m0.144s	0m5.656s
	AVG		0m38.057s	0m0.124s	0m6.065s
jfs	1		0m35.912s	0m0.084s	0m3.592s
	2		0m40.615s	0m0.092s	0m3.884s
	3		0m40.939s	0m0.072s	0m3.716s
	AVG		0m39.155s	0m0.083s	0m3.731s
ext3	1		0m53.559s	0m0.132s	0m6.468s
	2		1m4.545s	0m0.176s	0m6.472s
	3		0m58.256s	0m0.248s	0m8.009s
	AVG		0m58.787s	0m0.185s	0m6.983s
reiserfs	1		0m49.094s	0m0.264s	0m12.689s
	2		0m49.247s	0m0.308s	0m12.393s
	3		0m49.159s	0m0.324s	0m12.137s
	AVG		0m49.167s	0m0.299s	0m0.406s
xfs	1	shred /tmp/1GB	8m2.776s	0m6.536s	0m51.771s
	2		8m4.099s	0m6.316s	0m34.350s
	3		8m3.941s	0m6.496s	0m31.086s
	AVG		8m3.605s	0m6.449s	0m39.069s
jfs	1		7m43.197s	0m6.236s	0m28.686s
	2		9m17.987s	0m6.256s	0m31.830s
	3		9m28.499s	0m6.320s	0m38.746s
	AVG		8m49.894s	0m6.271s	0m33.087s
ext3	1		11m40.199s	0m6.320s	0m58.544s
	2		12m18.667s	0m7.068s	0m58.628s
	3		12m21.255s	0m6.788s	1m17.253s
	AVG		12m6.707s	0m6.722s	1m4.808s
reiserfs	1		11m0.982s	0m6.720s	1m3.416s
	2		11m2.494s	0m7.312s	1m5.308s
	3		11m1.767s	0m6.624s	1m7.236s
	AVG		11m1.748s	0m6.885s	1m5.320s
xfs	1	cat /tmp/1GB >>/tmp/1GB-2	0m39.550s	0m0.336s	0m5.580s
	2		0m40.253s	0m0.128s	0m6.036s
	3		0m38.557s	0m0.184s	0m5.744s
	AVG		0m39.453s	0m0.216s	0m5.787s
jfs	1		0m35.387s	0m0.108s	0m3.396s
	2		0m42.261s	0m0.112s	0m3.776s
	3		0m40.691s	0m0.060s	0m3.612s
	AVG		0m39.446s	0m0.093s	0m3.595s
ext3	1		1m2.566s	0m0.176s	0m7.016s
	2		0m54.163s	0m0.248s	0m7.324s
	3		0m59.388s	0m0.156s	0m7.320s
	AVG		0m58.706s	0m0.193s	0m7.220s
reiserfs	1		0m49.849s	0m0.188s	0m13.413s
	2		0m52.749s	0m0.228s	0m13.221s
	3		0m49.046s	0m0.228s	0m13.621s
	AVG		0m50.548s	0m0.215s	0m13.418s
xfs	1	rm /tmp/1GB	0m0.035s	0m0.000s	0m0.000s
	2		0m0.262s	0m0.000s	0m0.232s
	3		0m0.047s	0m0.004s	0m0.016s
	AVG		0m0.115s	0m0.013s	0m0.083s
jfs	1		0m0.148s	0m0.000s	0m0.004s
	2		0m0.210s	0m0.000s	0m0.052s
	3		0m0.233s	0m0.000s	0m0.036s
	AVG		0m0.197s	0m0.000s	0m0.031s
ext3	1		0m0.853s	0m0.004s	0m0.112s
	2		0m0.921s	0m0.000s	0m0.114s
	3		0m0.919s	0m0.000s	0m0.116s
	AVG		0m0.898s	0m0.001s	0m0.114s
reiserfs	1		0m0.801s	0m0.000s	0m0.188s
	2		0m0.894s	0m0.000s	0m0.180s
	3		0m1.006s	0m0.000s	0m0.184s
	AVG		0m0.901s	0m0.000s	0m0.184s
xfs	1	rpm --rebuild kernel-2.6.18-0.rc1.1ark.src.rpm &>/tmp/build.log	257m03.239s	225m24.290s	18m43.870s
	2		257m44.235s	225m32.118s	18m41.242s
	3		256m43.697s	225m13.625s	18m45.502s
	AVG		257m10.390s	225m23.344s	18m43.538s
jfs	1		242m38.461s	224m14.325s	16m24.202s
	2		248m56.931s	220m21.942s	16m46.827s
	3		240m16.178s	219m16.178s	16m35.506s
	AVG		243m58.190s	221m17.482s	16m35.512s
ext3	1		241m5.628s	222m59.828s	16m39.070s
	2		244m26.779s	223m49.511s	17m2.936s
	3		239m2.752s	221m1.029s	16m29.090s
	AVG		241m31.720s	222m36.789s	16m43.699s
reiserfs	1		239m36.781s	221m18.642s	17m8.484s
xfs	1	tar xf linux-2.6.17.tar.bz2	1m24.834s	0m45.655s	0m7.532s
	2		1m16.487s	0m45.239s	0m7.244s
	3		1m16.974s	0m45.371s	0m7.108s
	AVG		1m19.432s	0m45.522s	0m7.295s
jfs	1		0m54.270s	0m45.355s	0m5.520s
	2		0m53.102s	0m44.739s	0m5.916s
	3		0m53.435s	0m45.399s	0m5.940s
	AVG		0m53.602s	0m45.164s	0m5.792s
ext3	1		0m58.534s	0m45.551s	0m5.808s
	2		1m1.471s	0m45.371s	0m6.804s
	3		0m58.610s	0m45.271s	0m5.468s
	AVG		0m59.538s	0m45.398s	0m6.027s
xfs	1	find linux-2.6.17 >/dev/null	0m0.097s	0m0.036s	0m0.060s
	2		0m0.102s	0m0.040s	0m0.060s
	3		0m0.108s	0m0.048s	0m0.052s
	AVG		0m0.102s	0m0.041s	0m0.057s
jfs	1		0m0.196s	0m0.036s	0m0.048s
	2		0m0.078s	0m0.044s	0m0.032s
	3		0m0.080s	0m0.040s	0m0.040s
	AVG		0m0.118s	0m0.040s	0m0.040s
ext3	1		0m0.128s	0m0.036s	0m0.056s
	2		0m0.028s	0m0.028s	0m0.060s
	3		0m0.088s	0m0.028s	0m0.060s
	AVG		0m0.043s	0m0.030s	0m0.059s
xfs	1	find linux-2.6.17 -type f -exec sh -c 'cat {} >/dev/null' ';'	1m38.779s	0m37.314s	1m1.468s
	2		1m38.062s	0m37.498s	1m0.396s
	3		1m37.622s	0m37.446s	1m0.180s
	AVG		1m38.154s	0m37.419s	1m0.681s
jfs	1		1m17.404s	0m23.073s	0m54.203s
	2		1m17.184s	0m23.093s	0m54.095s
	3		1m17.622s	0m23.329s	0m54.287s
	AVG		1m17.403s	0m23.165s	0m54.195s
ext3	1		1m17.236s	0m23.689s	0m53.459s
	2		1m16.834s	0m23.305s	0m53.527s
	3		1m16.583s	0m23.389s	0m53.135s
	AVG		1m16.884s	0m23.461s	0m53.370s
xfs	1	rm -rf linux-2.6.17	0m27.662s	0m0.104s	0m3.248s
	2		0m29.462s	0m0.088s	0m3.272s
	3		0m42.241s	0m0.084s	0m3.436s
	AVG		0m33.122s	0m0.092s	0m3.319s
jfs	1		0m3.458s	0m0.076s	0m1.040s
	2		0m3.454s	0m0.068s	0m1.072s
	3		0m2.739s	0m0.056s	0m1.088s
	AVG		0m3.217s	0m0.067s	0m1.067s
ext3	1		0m0.836s	0m0.044s	0m0.744s
	2		0m0.844s	0m0.036s	0m0.764s
	3		0m0.825s	0m0.052s	0m0.728s
	AVG		0m0.835s	0m0.044s	0m0.745s

Conclusion

jfs performs best on all the "theoretical" tests, and performs very well on real-world tests like compiling a kernel.

ext3 is fairly slow on theoretical tests, but outperforms even jfs in the real world tests, and remains one of the best filesystems.

Our choice to stick with ext3 over jfs is based mostly on the fact that it has a lot more testing in the Linux world, and doesn't seem to bring a notable performance disadvantage -- jfs is definitely worth another consideration for the next release though. It definitely seems to be the right choice for working with large files.

Note: As of 2007.1, jfs is being used.