|
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXIT STATUS | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON |
BTRFS-CONVERT(8) Btrfs Manual BTRFS-CONVERT(8)
btrfs-convert - convert from ext2/3/4 filesystem to btrfs in-place
btrfs-convert [options] <device>
btrfs-convert is used to convert existing ext2/3/4 filesystem image
to a btrfs filesystem in-place. The original filesystem image is
accessible subvolume named ext2_saved as file image.
Warning
If you are going to perform rollback to ext2/3/4, you should not
execute btrfs balance command on the converted filesystem. This
will change the extent layout and make btrfs-convert unable to
rollback.
The conversion utilizes free space of the original filesystem. The
exact estimate of the required space cannot be foretold. The final
btrfs metadata might occupy several gigabytes on a hundreds-gigabyte
filesystem.
If you decide not to rollback anymore, it is recommended to perform a
few more steps to transform the btrfs filesystem to a more compact
layout. The conversion inherits the original data block fragmentation
and the metadata blocks are bound to the original free space layout.
Due to different constraints, it’s possible to convert only
filesystem that have supported data block size (ie. the same that
would be valid for mkfs.btrfs). This is typically the system page
size (4KiB on x86_64 machines).
Note
The source filesystem should be clean, you are encouraged to run
the fsck tool if you’re not sure.
REMOVE THE ORIGINAL FILESYSTEM METADATA
By removing the ext2_saved subvolume, all metadata of the original
filesystem will be removed:
# btrfs subvolume delete /mnt/ext2_saved
At this point it’s not possible to do rollback. The filesystem is
usable but may be impacted by the fragmentation inherited from the
original filesystem.
MAKE FILE DATA MORE CONTIGUOUS
An optional but recommended step is to run defragmentation on the
entire filesystem. This will attempt to make file extents more
contiguous.
# btrfs filesystem defrag -v -r -f -t 32M /mnt/btrfs
Verbose recursive defragmentation (-v, -r), flush data per-file (-f)
with target extent size 32MiB (-t).
ATTEMPT TO MAKE BTRFS METADATA MORE COMPACT
Optional but recommended step.
The metadata block groups after conversion may be smaller than the
default size (256MiB or 1GiB). Running a balance will attempt to
merge the block groups. This depends on the free space layout (and
fragmentation) and may fail due to lack of enough work space. This is
a soft error leaving the filesystem usable but the block group layout
may remain unchanged.
Note that balance operation takes a lot of time, please see also
btrfs-balance(8).
# btrfs balance start -m /mnt/btrfs
-d|--no-datasum
disable data checksum calculations and set the NODATASUM file
flag, this can speed up the conversion
-i|--no-xattr
ignore xattrs and ACLs of files
-n|--no-inline
disable inlining of small files to metadata blocks, this will
decrease the metadata consumption and may help to convert a
filesystem with low free space
-N|--nodesize <SIZE>
set filesystem nodesize, the tree block size in which btrfs
stores its metadata. The default value is 16KB (16384) or the
page size, whichever is bigger. Must be a multiple of the
sectorsize, but not larger than 65536. See mkfs.btrfs(8) for more
details.
-r|--rollback
rollback to the original ext2/3/4 filesystem if possible
-l|--label <LABEL>
set filesystem label during conversion
-L|--copy-label
use label from the converted filesystem
-O|--features <feature1>[,<feature2>...]
A list of filesystem features turned on at conversion time. Not
all features are supported by old kernels. To disable a feature,
prefix it with ^. Description of the features is in section
FILESYSTEM FEATURES of mkfs.btrfs(8).
To see all available features that btrfs-convert supports run:
btrfs-convert -O list-all
-p|--progress
show progress of conversion (a heartbeat indicator and number of
inodes processed), on by default
--no-progress
disable progress and show only the main phases of conversion
btrfs-convert will return 0 if no error happened. If any problems
happened, 1 will be returned.
mkfs.btrfs(8)
This page is part of the btrfs-progs (btrfs filesystem tools)
project. Information about the project can be found at
⟨https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Btrfs_source_repositories⟩.
If you have a bug report for this manual page, see
⟨https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Problem_FAQ#How_do_I_report_bugs_and_issues.3F⟩.
This page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository
⟨git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/kdave/btrfs-progs.git⟩
on 2017-07-05. If you discover any rendering problems in this HTML
version of the page, or you believe there is a better or more up-to-
date source for the page, or you have corrections or improvements to
the information in this COLOPHON (which is not part of the original
manual page), send a mail to man-pages@man7.org
Btrfs v4.6.1 12/10/2016 BTRFS-CONVERT(8)
Pages that refer to this page: btrfs(8)