5.9.2.2. EXT3

The ext3 file system builds upon ext2 by adding journaling capabilities to the already-proven ext2 codebase. As a journaling file system, ext3 always keeps the file system in a consistent state, eliminating the need for lengthy file system integrity checks.

This is accomplished by writing all file system changes to an on-disk journal, which is then flushed on a regular basis. After an unexpected system event (such as a power outage or system crash), the only operation that needs to take place prior to making the file system available is to process the contents of the journal; in most cases this takes approximately one second.

Because ext3's on-disk data format is based on ext2, it is possible to access an ext3 file system on any system capable of reading and writing an ext2 file system (without the benefit of journaling, however). This can be a sizable benefit in organizations where some systems are using ext3 and some are still using ext2.