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4.5. Resizing an ext4 File System

Before growing an ext4 file system, ensure that the underlying block device is of an appropriate size to hold the file system later. Use the appropriate resizing methods for the affected block device.
When grown, the ext4 filesystem can be mounted. When shrunk, the ext4 file system has to be unmounted. You can resize an ext4 file system using the resize4fs command: 
~]# resize4fs block_devicenew_size
When resizing an ext4 file system, the resize2fs utility reads the size in units of file system block size, unless a suffix indicating a specific unit is used. The following suffixes indicate specific units:
  • s — 512 byte sectors
  • K — kilobytes
  • M — megabytes
  • G — gigabytes
The size parameter is optional (and often redundant) when expanding. The resize4fs automatically expands to fill all available space of the container, usually a logical volume or partition. For more information about resizing an ext4 file system, refer to the resize4fs(8) manual page.