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11.2. Overview of Supported File Systems

This section shows basic technical information on each file system supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Table 11.1. Technical Specifications of Supported File Systems

File System Max Supported Size Max File Offset Max Subdirectories (per directory) Max Depth of Symbolic Links ACL Support Details
Ext2 8TB 2TB 32,000 8 Yes N/A
Ext3 16TB 2TB 32,000 8 Yes Chapter 5, The Ext3 File System
Ext4 16TB 16TB[a] Unlimited[b] 8 Yes Chapter 6, The Ext4 File System
XFS 100TB 100TB[c] Unlimited 8 Yes Chapter 8, The XFS File System
[a] This maximum file size is based on a 64-bit machine. On a 32-bit machine, the maximum files size is 8TB.
[b] When the link count exceeds 65,000, it is reset to 1 and no longer increases.
[c] This maximum file size is only on 64-bit machines. Red Hat Enterprise Linux does not support XFS on 32-bit machines.

Note

The listed maximum file and file system sizes are what Red Hat has tested and supports. This does not take into account the theoretical maximum limits.
Both the maximum supported size and maximum file offset columns assume 4k blocks.