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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Is using an HDD with an SSD as cache on Linux a good idea? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by qaz@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I currently have a 1 TiB NVMe drive that has been hovering at 100 GiB left for the past couple months. I've kept it down by deleting a game every couple weeks, but I would like to play something sometime, and I'm running out of games to delete if I need more space.

That's why I've been thinking about upgrading to a 2 TiB drive, but I just saw an interesting forum thread about LVM cache. The promise of having the storage capacity of an HDD with (usually) the speed of an SSD seems very appealing, but is it actually as good as it seems to be?

And if it is possible, which software should be used? LVM cache seems like a decent option, but I've seen people say it's slow. bcache is also sometimes mentioned, but apparently that one can be unreliable at times.

Beyond that, what method should be used? The Arch Wiki page for bcache mentions several options. Some only seem to cache writes, while some aim to keep the HDD idle as long as possible.

Also, does anyone run a setup like this themselves?

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[–] tiddy@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

Currently have 2 1tb NVME's over around 6 tb of HDDs, works really nice to keep a personal steam cache on the HDD's in case I pick up an old game with friends, or want to play a large game but only use part of it (ie cod zombies).

Also is super helpful for shared filesystem's (syncthing or NFS), as its able to support peripheral computers a lot more dynamically then I'd ever care to personally configure. (If thats unclear, I use it for a jellyfin server, crafty instance, some coding projects - things that see heavy use in bursts, but tend to have an attention lifespan).

Using bcachefs with backups myself, and after a couple months my biggest worry is the kernel drama more than the fs itself