Bug 608310 – Handbook recommends to use "discard" mount option for SSD and doesn't even mention periodical fstrim from util-linux

• Product: Documentation
• Status: RESOLVED FIXED

[Description Pacho Ramos 2017-02-05 12:12:19 UTC]

I was a bit surprised because our handbook was recommending to use "discard" mount option for SSDs:
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook:AMD64/Installation/System

But in many other places I saw recommendations pointing to periodical trim (usually by the .timer/.service files in the case of systemd provided by util-linux). For example:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:SSD_discard_(trim)_support

but there are many other sources recommending to run it with a cron instead of relying on discard. Could this be clarified a bit (well, this is my first SSD setup I own and, then, I am a newbie on this, then, apart of this and some people recommending "deadline" over "cfq" scheduler, I haven't seen many other important changes that the Handbook could get for better SSD support)

Thanks

[Comment 1 Pacho Ramos 2017-02-19 13:52:53 UTC]

Even man fstrim recommends to run it once a week:
       Running  fstrim  frequently, or even using mount -o discard, might negatively affect the lifetime of poor-quality SSD devices.  For most desktop and server systems a sufficient trimming frequency is
       once a week.  Note that not all devices support a queued trim, so each trim command incurs a performance penalty on whatever else might be trying to use the disk at the time.

In systemd setups it should be done with fstrim.timer... on non-systemd setups I guess that probably with a cron entry :/

[Comment 2 Pacho Ramos 2017-12-15 22:00:57 UTC]

Any news? Thanks

[Comment 3 Pacho Ramos 2021-04-29 16:40:30 UTC]

I wouldn't find a bugzilla account for handbook project :/

[Comment 4 Sam James 2021-04-29 16:41:40 UTC]

I think we generally recommend using the Talk pages on the wiki, but yeah, it's a bit weird when we want formal discussion of an approach..

[Comment 5 David Sardari 2022-11-01 13:35:15 UTC]

I think this is taken care of and can be marked as "resolved". See "discard" mount option" at https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Handbook_Talk:Parts/Installation/System

[Comment 6 Pacho Ramos 2022-12-15 09:57:31 UTC]

https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/SSD#Periodic_fstrim_jobs