Journaling file systems record file system changes in a journal before committing them to the main file system. This allows the file system to be brought back online more quickly after a crash with lower likelihood of corruption. Different journaling modes trade off performance versus data integrity - writeback journals metadata only for best performance but risks data corruption, while data mode journals all changes for maximum integrity but lower performance. Common Linux journaling file systems include Ext3, XFS, JFS, and ReiserFS, each using different journaling strategies and optimizations.