NTFS-3G

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NTFS-3G
Ntfs-3g-logo.png
Developer(s)Tuxera Inc.
Stable release
2017.3.23 / March 23, 2017; 4 years ago (2017-03-23)[1]
Preview release
2017.3.23AR.6 / February 1, 2021; 4 months ago (2021-02-01)[2]
Repository Edit this at Wikidata
Written inC
Operating systemUnix-like, Haiku
TypeFile system driver
LicenseDual-licensed GNU GPL[3]
Websitewww.tuxera.com/community/open-source-ntfs-3g/

NTFS-3G is an open-source cross-platform implementation of the Microsoft Windows NTFS file system with read/write support. NTFS-3G often uses the FUSE file system interface, so it can run unmodified on many different operating systems. It is runnable on Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenSolaris, illumos, BeOS, QNX, WinCE, Nucleus, VxWorks, Haiku,[1]MorphOS, Minix, macOS[4] and OpenBSD.[5][6] It is licensed under the GNU General Public License. It is a partial fork of ntfsprogs and is under active maintenance and development.

NTFS-3G was introduced by one of the senior Linux NTFS developers, Szabolcs Szakacsits, in July 2006. The first stable version was released on February 21, 2007, as version 1.0. The developers of NTFS-3G later formed a company, Tuxera Inc., to further develop the code. NTFS-3G is now the free "community edition",[1][failed verification] while Tuxera NTFS is the proprietary version.

Features

NTFS-3G supports all operations for writing files: files of any size can be created, modified, renamed, moved, or deleted on NTFS partitions. Transparent compression is supported, as well as system-level encryption.[7] Support to modify access control lists and permissions is available.[8] NTFS partitions are mounted using the Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) interface. NTFS-3G supports hard links, symbolic links, and junctions. With the help of NTFS reparse point plugins, it can be made to read chunk-deduplicated files, system-compressed files, and OneDrive files.[9] NTFS-3G provides complete support and translation of NTFS access control list (ACL) to POSIX ACL permissions. A "usermap" utility is included to record the mapping from UIDs to Windows NT SIDs.

NTFS-3G supports partial NTFS journaling, so if an unexpected computer failure leaves the file system in an inconsistent state, the volume can be repaired. As of 2009, a volume having an unclean journal file is recovered and mounted by default. The ‘norecover’ mount option can be used to disable this behavior.[10]

Performance

Benchmarks show that the driver's performance via FUSE is comparable to that of other filesystems' drivers in-kernel,[11] provided that the CPU is powerful enough. On embedded or old systems, the high processor usage can severely limit performance. Tuxera sells optimized versions of the driver that claims to have improved CPU utilization for embedded systems and MacOS.[12]

The slowness of NTFS-3G (and FUSE in general) on embedded systems is attributed to the frequent context switching associated with FUSE calls. Some open-source methods provided to reduce this overhead include:[13]

  • The underlying FUSE layer has an option called big_writes to use larger blocks when writing. Using a larger block means fewer context switches. This is in fact a solution recommended by Tuxera.[14] A patch is available to use an even larger block.[15]
  • There is also a Linux kernel option called lazytime to reduce the writes on file access.
  • Synology Inc. uses a modified NTFS-3G on their NAS systems. It replaces the ntfs-3g inode caching CACHE_NIDATA_SIZE with a different mechanism with unsure benefit. (It also includes an alternative Security Identifier translation for the NAS.)

History

  • NTFS-3G forked from the Linux-NTFS project on October 31, 2006.
  • On February 21, 2007, Szabolcs Szakacsits announced "the release of the first open-source, freely available, stable read/write NTFS driver, NTFS-3G 1.0."
  • On October 5, 2009, NTFS-3G for Mac was brought under the auspices of Tuxera Ltd. and a proprietary version called Tuxera NTFS for Mac was made available.[16]
  • On April 12, 2011, it was announced that Ntfsprogs project was merged with NTFS-3G.[17]
  • NTFS-3g added TRIM support in version 2015.3.14.
  • NTFS-3G fixed CVE-2017-0358 in version 2016.2.22.
  • NTFS-3G fixed CVE-2019-9755 in version 2017.3.23AR.4.

Advanced version

While Tuxera Ltd. rarely releases updates to the NTFS-3G software, the software's main maintainer Jean-Pierre André has kept the development active on SourceForge, providing bug fixes and new features. He runs a parallel release system on his website as the NTFS-3G Advanced Version (NTFS-3G AR). Each version is run through a test suite and is considered stable.[18][2]

Linux distributions that have switched to NTFS-3G AR include Debian and its derivatives (Ubuntu, PureOS, Pardus, Parrot OS, Trisquel), Gentoo Linux, and LiGurOS.[19]

See also

  • Captive NTFS

References

  1. ^ a b c "STABLE Version 2017.3.23 (March 28, 2017)". Tuxera. Tuxera. 2017-03-23. Retrieved 2017-03-23.
  2. ^ a b "NTFS-3G: Changelog for the Advanced Versions". jp-andre.pagesperso-orange.fr.
  3. ^ https://sourceforge.net/p/ntfs-3g/ntfs-3g/ci/edge/tree/README
  4. ^ NTFS-3G for Mac OS X ("Catacombae")
  5. ^ "OpenBSD adds fuse(4) support for adding file systems in userland". OpenBSD Journal. 2013-11-08. Retrieved 2013-11-08.
  6. ^ "ntfs_3g-2014.2.15 – FUSE NTFS driver with read/write support". OpenBSD ports. 2014-01-05. Retrieved 2015-02-14.
  7. ^ NTFS-3G FAQ
  8. ^ NTFS-3G: NTFS Driver with Ownership and permissions
  9. ^ André, Jean-Pierre (March 1, 2019). "NTFS-3G: Junction Points, Symbolic Links and Reparse Points". jp-andre.pagesperso-orange.fr.
  10. ^ "NTFS-3G 2009.2.1 changelog". Archived from the original on 2009-03-23. Retrieved 2012-09-10.
  11. ^ Comparing NTFS-3G to ZFS-FUSE for FUSE Performance
  12. ^ Performance at Tuxera
  13. ^ Gothe, Markus. "On Linux NTFS Performance". Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  14. ^ "NTFS-3G Questions". Tuxera. Workaround: using the mount option “big_writes” generally reduces the CPU usage, provided the software requesting the writes supports big blocks.
  15. ^ Wang, M. "linux - Disadvantages of ntfs-3g `big_writes` mount option". Unix & Linux Stack Exchange. Retrieved 3 October 2019.
  16. ^ NTFS-3G for Mac OS X is now Tuxera NTFS for Mac
  17. ^ Release: NTFS-3G + NTFSPROGS 2011.4.12
  18. ^ "Advanced NTFS-3G Features". jp-andre.pagesperso-orange.fr.
  19. ^ "ntfs-3g package versions". Repology.

By: Wikipedia.org
Edited: 2021-06-18 18:48:37
Source: Wikipedia.org