On Tue, Feb 11, 2020 at 04:02:16PM -0500, Eric Whitney wrote: > The EXT4_EOFBLOCKS_FL inode flag is used to indicate whether a file > contains unwritten blocks past i_size. It's set when ext4_fallocate > is called with the KEEP_SIZE flag to extend a file with an unwritten > extent. However, this flag hasn't been useful functionally since > March, 2012, when a decision was made to remove it from ext4. > > All traces of EXT4_EOFBLOCKS_FL were removed from e2fsprogs version > 1.42.2 by commit 010dc7b90d97 ("e2fsck: remove EXT4_EOFBLOCKS_FL flag > handling") at that time. Now that enough time has passed to make > e2fsprogs versions containing this modification common, this patch now > removes the code associated with EXT4_EOFBLOCKS_FL from the kernel as > well. > > This change has two implications. First, because pre-1.42.2 e2fsck > versions only look for a problem if EXT4_EOFBLOCKS_FL is set, and > because that bit will never be set by newer kernels containing this > patch, old versions of e2fsck won't have a compatibility problem with > files created by newer kernels. > > Second, newer kernels will not clear EXT4_EOFBLOCKS_FL inode flag bits > belonging to a file written by an older kernel. If set, it will remain > in that state until the file is deleted. Because e2fsck versions since > 1.42.2 don't check the flag at all, no adverse effect is expected. > However, pre-1.42.2 e2fsck versions that do check the flag may report > that it is set when it ought not to be after a file has been truncated > or had its unwritten blocks written. In this case, the old version of > e2fsck will offer to clear the flag. No adverse effect would then > occur whether the user chooses to clear the flag or not. > > Signed-off-by: Eric Whitney <enwlinux@xxxxxxxxx> Applied, thanks. - Ted