BTRFS-CONVERT(8)

NAME
btrfs-convert - convert from ext2/3/4 filesystem to btrfs in-place

SYNOPSIS

btrfs-convert [options] <device>

DESCRIPTION

btrfs-convert is used to convert existing ext2/3/4 filesystem image to a btrfs filesystem in-place. The original filesystem image is accessible subvolume named ext2_saved as file image.

    Warning

    If you are going to perform rollback to ext2/3/4, you should not execute btrfs balance command on the converted filesystem. This will change the extent layout and make btrfs-convert unable to rollback.

The conversion utilizes free space of the original filesystem. The exact estimate of the required space cannot be foretold. The final btrfs metadata might occupy several gigabytes on a hundreds-gigabyte filesystem.

If you decide not to rollback anymore, it is recommended to perform a few more steps to transform the btrfs filesystem to a more compact layout. The conversion inherits the original data block fragmentation and the metadata blocks are bound to the original free space layout.

Due to different constraints, it’s possible to convert only filesystem that have supported data block size (ie. the same that would be valid for mkfs.btrfs). This is typically the system page size (4KiB on x86_64 machines).

    Note

    The source filesystem should be clean, you are encouraged to run the fsck tool if you’re not sure.

REMOVE THE ORIGINAL FILESYSTEM METADATA

By removing the ext2_saved subvolume, all metadata of the original filesystem will be removed:

    # btrfs subvolume delete /mnt/ext2_saved

At this point it’s not possible to do rollback. The filesystem is usable but may be impacted by the fragmentation inherited from the original filesystem.

MAKE FILE DATA MORE CONTIGUOUS

An optional but recommended step is to run defragmentation on the entire filesystem. This will attempt to make file extents more contiguous.

    # btrfs filesystem defrag -v -r -f -t 32M /mnt/btrfs

Verbose recursive defragmentation (-v, -r), flush data per-file (-f) with target extent size 32MiB (-t).

ATTEMPT TO MAKE BTRFS METADATA MORE COMPACT

Optional but recommended step.

The metadata block groups after conversion may be smaller than the default size (256MiB or 1GiB). Running a balance will attempt to merge the block groups. This depends on the free space layout (and fragmentation) and may fail due to lack of enough work space. This is a soft error leaving the filesystem usable but the block group layout may remain unchanged.

Note that balance operation takes a lot of time, please see also btrfs-balance(8).

    # btrfs balance start -m /mnt/btrfs

OPTIONS

-d|--no-datasum
    disable data checksum calculations and set the NODATASUM file flag, this can speed up the conversion

-i|--no-xattr
    ignore xattrs and ACLs of files

-n|--no-inline
    disable inlining of small files to metadata blocks, this will decrease the metadata consumption and may help to convert a filesystem with low free space

-N|--nodesize <SIZE>
    set filesystem nodesize, the tree block size in which btrfs stores its metadata. The default value is 16KB (16384) or the page size, whichever is bigger. Must be a multiple of the sectorsize, but not larger than 65536. See mkfs.btrfs(8) for more details.

-r|--rollback
    rollback to the original ext2/3/4 filesystem if possible

-l|--label <LABEL>
    set filesystem label during conversion

-L|--copy-label
    use label from the converted filesystem

-O|--features <feature1>[,<feature2>...]
    A list of filesystem features turned on at conversion time. Not all features are supported by old kernels. To disable a feature, prefix it with ^. Description of the features is in section FILESYSTEM FEATURES of mkfs.btrfs(8).

    To see all available features that btrfs-convert supports run:

    btrfs-convert -O list-all

-p|--progress
    show progress of conversion (a heartbeat indicator and number of inodes processed), on by default

--no-progress
    disable progress and show only the main phases of conversion

EXIT STATUS

btrfs-convert will return 0 if no error happened. If any problems happened, 1 will be returned.

SEE ALSO

mkfs.btrfs(8)