A Comparison of Commercial and Open-Source Flash File Systems for Linux

Linux developers have many open-source file systems to choose from. Some of these products—JFFS2, for example—have become de-facto standards in embedded Linux designs. Do they provide performance that is fast enough to make a favorable impression with device users? And can the reliability of these open-source file systems be trusted for critical applications? Are you confident that their roadmap will answer the needs of future versions of your products?

This paper examines three flash file systems for Linux. Two of these—JFFS2 and YAFFS—are open-source, GPL products; the third solution is a commercial data management platform from Datalight.