`stat -f` show a ext4 file system type as ext2/ext3

Question

On Ubuntu 14.04, I am checking the ext4 filesystem for my home based on a file new in it:

$ stat -f new
  File: "new"
    ID: 38d4cd29e44142c6 Namelen: 255     Type: ext2/ext3
Block size: 4096       Fundamental block size: 4096
Blocks: Total: 144152970  Free: 79424314   Available: 72095994
Inodes: Total: 36626432   Free: 35430143

why does stat -f show the file system type is ext2/ext3 while my home filesystem type is ext4?

Have you ever seen stat output ext4? Probably is just doesn't care. — Hauke Laging, Jan 22 '16 at 03:18
I have seldom used stat, and I haven't seen stat output ext4. — Tim, Jan 22 '16 at 03:34
Use blkid - it will hunt through the superblock looking at various flags to determine whether the filesystem is ext2, ext3, or ext4. — Mark Plotnick, Jan 22 '16 at 09:07

Pandya · Answer 1 · 2016-04-04T12:25:11.500

Strictly speaking stat -f doesn't differentiate between ext2, ext3 and ext4. Instead, it just shows them as ext2/ext3 and probably ext2/ext3/ext4.

So, it is not good ideat to use stat -f to check specific ext type file-system. You can use df -T from coreutils for such purpose.

From manpage:

NAME
       df - report file system disk space usage

       -T, --print-type
              print file system type

`stat -f` show a ext4 file system type as ext2/ext3

1 Answers1