Ted, there are several COMPAT flag assignments that have been proposed in the past: - EXT4_FEATURE_INCOMPAT_64BIT (0x0080!) - support for 64-bit block count fields in the superblock (s_blocks_count_hi, s_free_blocks_count_hi), large group descriptors (s_desc_size), extents with high 16 bits (ee_start_hi, ei_leaf_hi), inode ACL (i_file_acl_hi). May also grow to encompass the previously proposed BIG_BG. - EXT4_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_HUGE_FILE (0x0008) - change i_blocks to be in units of s_blocksize units instead of 512-byte sectors, use l_i_frag and l_i_fsize as i_blocks_hi (could also be part of 64BIT). Also uses EXT4_HUGE_FILE_FL 0x40000 for i_flags. - EXT4_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_GDT_CSUM (0x0010?) - store a crc16 checksum in the group descriptor (s_uuid[16] | __u32 group | ext3_group_desc (excluding gd_checksum itself)). This allows the kernel to more safely manage UNINIT groups. Incomplete patch, e2fsck support mostly done. - EXT4_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_DIR_NLINK (0x0020?) - allow directories to have > 65000 subdirectories (i_nlinks) by setting i_nlinks = 1 for such directories. RO_COMPAT protects old filesystems from unlinking such directories incorrectly and losing all files therein. Needs RO_COMPAT flag handling, needs e2fsck support, but very heavily tested. - EXT4_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_EXTRA_ISIZE (0x0040?) - add s_min_extra_isize and s_want_extra_isize fields to superblock, which allow specifying the minimum and desired i_extra_isize fields in large inodes (for nsec+epoch timestamps, potential other uses). Needs RO_COMPAT flag handling, needs e2fsck support, patch complete, little testing. I'm not sure about the state of HUGE_FILE (it might be useful for ext[23] to allow larger sparse files, but also fits quite well with INCOMPAT_64BIT), but the others are definitely useful independent from INCOMPAT_64BIT. There are patches in various states of completion for all of the features. Cheers, Andreas -- Andreas Dilger Principal Software Engineer Cluster File Systems, Inc. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ext4" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
