a featureful union filesystem https://trapexit.github.io/mergerfs/
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Antonio SJ Musumeci ef1e01b5a5 Add unit and integration tests for recently changed code
Unit tests (29 new in tests/tests.cpp):
- str::eq() and str::startswith() char* nullptr safety
- str::from() u64/s64/int suffix parsing (K/M/G/T, overflow, invalid)
- num::humanize() byte formatting (0, 512, 1K, 1M, 1G, 1T, non-exact)
- RmdirErr priority error accumulation (ENOTEMPTY/EEXIST override rules)
- HashSet inline-to-heap growth, empty string, and large insertion
- fs::inode algorithm switching (valid/invalid names, passthrough raw ino,
  distinct inodes across algorithms)
- RND::rand64() bounds (range, max, shrink_to_rand_elem)
- Branches::Impl copy and move assignment re-links default_minfreespace

Integration tests (5 new in tests/):
- TEST_policy_lup: LUP policy create and search
- TEST_rmdir_enotempty_priority: rmdir returns ENOTEMPTY for non-empty dirs
- TEST_open_after_unlink: read/write via fd after unlink
- TEST_api_xattr: mergerfs xattr API (fullpath, relpath, basepath, allpaths)
- TEST_movefile_enospc: moveonenospc configuration round-trip

Also: remove xattr nosys checks from TEST_cfg_xattr_modes, reformat
integration test scripts to use temp_dir/cleanup_dir helpers, and
minor parameter alignment changes in fuse_getxattr, fuse_init,
fuse_rename.
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mergerfs.spec Build improvements (#1501) 2025-08-04 23:39:52 -05:00
README.md Fix some links in docs (#1582) 2025-11-18 08:35:27 -06:00

mergerfs - a featureful union filesystem

mergerfs is a FUSE based union filesystem geared towards simplifying storage and management of files across numerous commodity storage devices. It is similar to mhddfs, unionfs, aufs, DrivePool, etc.

Features

  • Logically combine numerous filesystems/paths into a single mount point (JBOFS: Just a Bunch of FileSystems)
  • Combine paths of the same or different filesystems
  • Ability to add or remove filesystems/paths without impacting the rest of the data
  • Unaffected by individual filesystem failure
  • Configurable file selection and creation placement
  • File IO passthrough for near native IO performance (where supported)
  • Works with filesystems of any size
  • Works with filesystems of almost any type
  • Ignore read-only filesystems when creating files
  • Hard links
  • Hard link copy-on-write / CoW
  • Runtime configurable
  • Support for extended attributes (xattrs)
  • Support for file attributes (chattr)
  • Support for POSIX ACLs

Non-features

  • Read/write overlay on top of read-only filesystem like OverlayFS
  • File whiteout
  • RAID like parity calculation (see SnapRAID)
  • Redundancy
  • Splitting of files across branches

How it works

mergerfs logically merges multiple filesystem paths together. Not block devices, not filesystem mounts, just paths. It acts as a proxy to the underlying filesystem paths. Combining the behaviors of some functions and being a selector for others.

When the contents of a directory are requested mergerfs combines the list of files from each directory, deduplicating entries, and returns that list.

When a file or directory is created a policy is first run to determine which branch will be selected for the creation.

For functions which change attributes or remove the file the behavior may be applied to all instances found.

The way in which mergerfs behaves is controlled by the config/options/settings. More specifically by policies.

Visualization

A         +      B        =       C
/disk1           /disk2           /merged
|                |                |
+-- /dir1        +-- /dir1        +-- /dir1
|   |            |   |            |   |
|   +-- file1    |   |            |   +-- file1
|                |   +-- file2    |   +-- file2
|                |   +-- file3    |   +-- file3
|                |                |
+-- /dir2        |                +-- /dir2
|   |            |                |   |
|   +-- file4    |                |   +-- file4
|                |                |
|                +-- /dir3        +-- /dir3
|                |   |            |   |
|                |   +-- file5    |   +-- file5
|                |                |
+-- file6        |                +-- file6
+-- file7        +-- file7        +-- file7

QuickStart

https://trapexit.github.io/mergerfs/latest/quickstart/

Documentation

https://trapexit.github.io/mergerfs

Support

https://trapexit.github.io/mergerfs/latest/support/

Sponsorship and Donations

https://github.com/trapexit/support

Development and support of a project like mergerfs requires a significant amount of time and effort. The software is released under the very liberal ISC license and is therefore free to use for personal or commercial uses.

If you are a non-commercial user and find mergerfs and its support valuable and would like to support the project financially it would be very much appreciated.

If you are using mergerfs commercially please consider sponsoring the project to ensure it continues to be maintained and receive updates. If custom features are needed feel free to contact me directly.