To use -c0 -i0 in file-systems with journal

Question

I've several partitions with ext4.
Now, I would want if it makes sense to use tune2fs with flags -c0 (max-mount-counts) and -i0 (interval-between-checks) in the partitions with a journal file-system since it needs less checks?

Answer 1

Generally speaking... yes, it does make sense. Though you might want to run

tune2fs -l /dev/sdXY | egrep "Maxim|Check"

to see how those flags are set as it all depends on the version of e2fsprogs used to create the filesystems and/or distribution specific patches applied to e2fsprogs. You might already have MAX_MNT_COUNT and CHECKINTERVAL set to -1 and 0 respectively, due to the fact that, as of v. 1.42, e2fsprogs defaults to -c1 -i0, see changelog:

If the enable_periodic_fsck option is false in /etc/mke2fs.conf (which is the default), mke2fs will now set the s_max_mnt_count superblock field to -1, instead of 0. Kernels older then 3.0 will print a spurious message on each mount then they see a s_max_mnt_count set to 0, which will annoy users.

/etc/mke2fs.conf compared:

v. 1.41.14 released 2010-12-22:

[defaults]
    base_features = sparse_super,filetype,resize_inode,dir_index,ext_attr
    blocksize = 4096
    inode_size = 256
    inode_ratio = 16384

v. 1.42 released 2011-11-29:

[defaults]
    base_features = sparse_super,filetype,resize_inode,dir_index,ext_attr
    default_mntopts = acl,user_xattr
    enable_periodic_fsck = 0
    blocksize = 4096
    inode_size = 256
    inode_ratio = 16384