20.2. Linux® File Systems

FreeBSD provides built-in support for several Linux® file systems. This section demonstrates how to load support for and how to mount the supported Linux® file systems.

20.2.1. ext2

Kernel support for ext2 file systems has been available since FreeBSD 2.2. In FreeBSD 8.x and earlier, the code is licensed under the GPL. Since FreeBSD 9.0, the code has been rewritten and is now BSD licensed.

The ext2fs(5) driver allows the FreeBSD kernel to both read and write to ext2 file systems.

Note:

This driver can also be used to access ext3 and ext4 file systems. The ext2fs(5) filesystem has full read and write support for ext4 as of FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE. Additionally, extended attributes and ACLs are also supported, while journalling and encryption are not. Starting with FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE, a DTrace provider will be available as well. Prior versions of FreeBSD can access ext4 in read and write mode using sysutils/fusefs-ext2.

To access an ext file system, first load the kernel loadable module:

# kldload ext2fs

Then, mount the ext volume by specifying its FreeBSD partition name and an existing mount point. This example mounts /dev/ad1s1 on /mnt:

# mount -t ext2fs /dev/ad1s1 /mnt

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