# Berkeley Fast File System (FFS)

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Berkeley Fast File System (FFS) and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 3 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Long-standing OpenBSD filesystem that many find reliable in daily use. Main caveat: it lacks journaling, which critics call outdated, and some report corruption.

## Why people recommend it

- Reliable in daily use (3 comments): "FFS has so far never gone corrupt on me." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49716919)) "it has been fully reliable for me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49773408)) "ffs has never really let me down" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45947074))

## What people warn about

- No journaling, considered outdated (2 comments): "OpenBSD's pre-journaling FFS is ancient and creaky but also extremely robust" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46043726)) "The lack of at least a journaling FS is inexcusable in a modern OS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46063865))
- Reports of data corruption (2 comments): "it will be more reliable than FFS, for sure" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49716198)) "FFS corrupted multiple times on me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49719060))

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Berkeley Fast File System (FFS)", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ffs/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).