- the on-disk format of ext4dev is not the same as ext3 any more:
- it is based on extent maps and it supports 48-bit physical block
- numbers. These combined on-disk format changes will allow
- ext4dev/ext4 to handle more than 16 TB filesystem volumes --
- a hard limit that ext3 cannot overcome without changing the
- on-disk format.
-
- Other than extent maps and 48-bit block numbers, ext4dev also is
- likely to have other new features such as persistent preallocation,
- high resolution time stamps, and larger file support etc. These
- features will be added to ext4dev gradually.
+ the on-disk format of ext4 is not forwards compatible with
+ ext3; it is based on extent maps and it supports 48-bit
+ physical block numbers. The ext4 filesystem also supports delayed
+ allocation, persistent preallocation, high resolution time stamps,
+ and a number of other features to improve performance and speed
+ up fsck time. For more information, please see the web pages at
+ http://ext4.wiki.kernel.org.
+
+ The ext4 filesystem will support mounting an ext3
+ filesystem; while there will be some performance gains from
+ the delayed allocation and inode table readahead, the best
+ performance gains will require enabling ext4 features in the
+ filesystem, or formating a new filesystem as an ext4
+ filesystem initially.