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I happy to have only linux hosts in my surroundings. So I may choose other filesystems than vfat for usb sticks. I'd like to use something that is more native to linux.

I tried ext4 but get unexpected problem: file permissions that was writed by the first host was applied by the second which cause inconsistency due to difference between uid's and gid's in use on both computers.

vfat has special mount options like umask,gid,uid, that grants everybody privileges to write and read any file on the stick. On the contrary ext4 respects original inconsistent privileges and provides no way to bypass them. So using this awesome filesystem for usb sticks is rather tiresome.

What other filesystems may be good choice for usb sticks?

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    This is not an answer (and not meant to be), but I would still like to add: When choosing a filesystem I always look for the most generic/most widely used filesystem that fits my requirements. To me it seems that vfat more than meets your requirements and if you ever have to share files with a Windows user, you don't have to format the drive.
    – mtak
    Aug 25, 2014 at 11:49
  • vfat is not robust, although this have little importance for media used only for transferring files
    – ayvango
    Aug 25, 2014 at 12:07

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Hmmm, last winter I read a article about F2FS on phoronix. It said that this fs was designed for flashmemory devices like pendrives. But I do not know the current state of development of the project. I think you have to search your favourite distros wiki about it.

A other option is UDF, which is used on e.g DVDs, it is supported on linux,mac and windows. This superuser question contains more info on the procedure of formating a pen-drive with UDF.

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