207
all 30 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] DmMacniel@feddit.de 37 points 1 year ago
[-] Devorlon@lemmy.zip 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's a systemd timer included within Arch that runs fstrim every week.

[-] FQQD@feddit.de 18 points 1 year ago

and what does that achieve?

[-] taaz@biglemmowski.win 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's a systemd timer included within Arch that runs fstrim every week.

[-] 9point6@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Good for performance. It lets the SSD know when something isn't needed anymore and means when something comes to write to the same area it doesn't have to do a load of internal faffing (garbage collection) before it can actually write

[-] drdiddlybadger@pawb.social 4 points 1 year ago

It appearantly helps with SSDs so unused blocks aren't clogging things up. Not sure I fully understand what dropping unused blocks does but I guess it could help with performance?

[-] Ooops@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

Simplified version: SSDs or more precisely NAND flash memory has some technical quirks. You can't just overwrite stuff like you do with magnetic hard drives. You have to actually delete things. Also you can usually only delete full physical blocks.

But data rarely fits neatly into physical blocks, so instantly deleting data would mean every time you delete something that partly resides in one block, you would need to save the data in that block you want to keep, wipe the whole thing then rewrite parts of it. That's a lot of unnecessary stress on the hardware and also more work in teh writing and rewriting process.

So SSDs use a similiar approach as old magnetic hard drives. Blocks aren't physical deleted but marked as no longer used. Which works well for hard drives where you can just overwrite data, but for SSDs this is also far from optimal as with every new write you want to commit you have to pre-check if this unused part of a block is already deleted and usuable or not? In the latter case you either need to do the "save some of it, wipe the block, rewrite" oparation you tried to avoid before or simply go on and try to find another actual free block to use. Which decreases performance obviously. And at some time you would have a lot of wasted half-full blocks and would need to organize your data to reclaim these

Enter TRIM... where periodically (usually when the system is idle anyway) the blocks that are marked as deleted are checked if there's still used data in it (those are then copied to a completely free block and the whole block is wiped to free it up for the next write.

In layman's terms it's basically anolog to defragmenting a hard drive in the brackground. When the drive isn't doing anything important it spends time rearranging data only partly using a physical block to wipe the whole thing and also to wipe blocks that are completely marked as deleted to keep everything neat and organized with fully used blocks and wiped blocks available for re-use.

PS: so-called continues TRIM is available also. That will basically do the whole "everytime a part in a block is marked as deleted write the other data to a new block an wipe the whole block"-routine in real-time... but after the regular writes are done to not clog up the system. But periodic TRIM is easier on the drive and usually sufficient.

PPS: TRIM is part of the drive's set of commands. So all the data handling involved doesn't need to be handled by the file system. You just issue the TRIM command to the drive and it handles everything internally.

[-] treadful@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, the man page doesn't really help me out.

   fstrim is used on a mounted filesystem to discard (or "trim")
   blocks which are not in use by the filesystem. This is useful for
   solid-state drives (SSDs) and thinly-provisioned storage.

   By default, fstrim will discard all unused blocks in the
   filesystem. Options may be used to modify this behavior based on
   range or size, as explained below.

   The mountpoint argument is the pathname of the directory where
   the filesystem is mounted and is required when -A, -a, --fstab,
   or --all are unspecified.

   Running fstrim frequently, or even using mount -o discard, might
   negatively affect the lifetime of poor-quality SSD devices. For
   most desktop and server systems a sufficient trimming frequency
   is once a week. Note that not all devices support a queued trim,
   so each trim command incurs a performance penalty on whatever
   else might be trying to use the disk at the time.

For instance, why would unused blocks not be discarded? And what does "discarded" even mean in this context? But it does recommend against using it for SSDs so I think I'll skip it.

[-] naeap@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 year ago

"this is useful for solid-state drives"
Where is it not recommended?

Or did I just miss something?

[-] treadful@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 year ago

Running fstrim frequently, or even using mount -o discard, might negatively affect the lifetime of poor-quality SSD devices.

I guess it was recommending against frequent runs.

[-] chtk@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year ago

Specifically, it's in the util-linux package. On Gentoo at least.

[-] olympicyes@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Can’t you set this up as a cronjob?

[-] TootSweet@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

Systemd does everything including cron functionality. Timers are the Systemd equivalent of lines in /etc/crontab. Arch doesn't even have a cron application pre-installed. (But does have Systemd.) So in short, timers are kindof the idiomatic way to run things on a schedule in Arch.

[-] cjf@feddit.uk 15 points 1 year ago

The way I understand it, it’s an automated job that sends the “trim” command to hard drives & SSDs to discard all the blocks that have been marked as unused by the filesystem.

It’s a maintenance task that helps optimise your usage of said storage device. SSDs in particular benefit from it. The recommended frequency for most SSDs is once a week.

[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 year ago

Doesn't btrfs do this already?

[-] SuperIce@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Yeah, it's unnecessary with btrfs on somewhat recent kernels since it now enables discard=async by default.

[-] bazsy@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

It is not necessary but still better to run both online discard and batched fstrim. from man:

Also, a device may ignore the TRIM command if the range is too small, so running a batch discard has a greater probability of actually discarding the blocks.

[-] Perroboc@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago
[-] Newchair@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago
[-] tentacles9999@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 1 year ago

Just run a cron job every week that runs fstrim

[-] iWisp360@mastodon.social 2 points 1 year ago

@Newchair @Devorlon
You will regret it because of compatibility lack and larger boot time

[-] Newchair@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

For me runit boots just as fast. Compatibility wise everything I use works just fine. Out of curiosity, what requires it to run besides gnome anyway? (I'm not a systemd hater I just use a distro I like that happens to not use systemd)

this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
207 points (97.3% liked)

linuxmemes

21280 readers
1243 users here now

Hint: :q!


Sister communities:


Community rules (click to expand)

1. Follow the site-wide rules

2. Be civil
  • Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
  • Do not harrass or attack members of the community for any reason.
  • Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
  • Bigotry will not be tolerated.
  • These rules are somewhat loosened when the subject is a public figure. Still, do not attack their person or incite harrassment.
  • 3. Post Linux-related content
  • Including Unix and BSD.
  • Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of sudo in Windows.
  • No porn. Even if you watch it on a Linux machine.
  • 4. No recent reposts
  • Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
  •  

    Please report posts and comments that break these rules!


    Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't fork-bomb your computer.

    founded 1 year ago
    MODERATORS