... This time with the correct email address for the Rust list. On Wed, Jan 26, 2022 at 10:35:19PM +0000, Matthew Wilcox wrote: > On Tue, Jan 25, 2022 at 04:02:56PM -0600, Hayley Leblanc wrote: > > I'm a PhD student at UT Austin advised by Vijay Chidambaram (cc'ed). > > We are interested in building a file system for persistent memory in > > Rust, as recent research [1] has indicated that Rust's safety features > > could eliminate some classes of crash consistency bugs in PM systems. > > In doing so, we'd like to build a system that has the potential to be > > adopted beyond the research community. I have a few questions (below) > > about the direction of work in this area within the Linux community, > > and would be interested in hearing your thoughts on the general idea > > of this project as well. > > Hi Hayley, > > Thanks for reaching out to us. > > First, my standard advice for anyone thinking of writing a Linux > filesystem: Absolutely do it; you'll learn so much, and it's a great deal > of fun. Then my standard advice for anyone thinking about releasing a > Linux filesystem: Think very carefully about whether you want to do it. > If you're lucky, it's only about as much work as adopting a puppy. > If you're unlucky, it's like adopting a parrot; far more work and it > may outlive you. > > In particular, the demands of academia (generate novel insights, write > as many papers as possible, get your PhD) are at odds with the demands > of a production filesystem (move slowly, don't break anything, DON'T > LOSE USER DATA). You wouldn't be the first person to try to do both, > but I think you might be the first person to be successful. > > There's nothing wrong with having written an academic filesystem > that you learned things from. I think I've written three filesystems > myself that have never seen a public release -- and I'm totally fine > with that. > > > 1. What is the state of PM file system development in the kernel? I > > know that there was some effort to merge NOVA [2] and nvfs [3] in the > > last few years, but neither seems to have panned out. > > Correct. I'm not aware of anything else currently under development. > I'd file both those filesystems under "Things people tried and learned > things from", although maybe there'll be a renewed push to get one > or the other merged. > > > 2. What is the state of file system work, if any, on the Rust for > > Linux side of things? > > I only have a toe in Rust development, but I'm not aware of > any work being done specifically for filesystems, that said ... > > > 3. We're interested in using a framework called Bento [4] as the basis > > for our file system development. Is this project on Linux devs' radar? > > What are the rough chances that this work (or something similar) could > > end up in the kernel at some point? > > Bento seems like a good approach (based on a 30 second scan of their > git repo). It wasn't on my radar before, so thanks for bringing it up. > I think basing your work on Bento is a defensible choice; it might be > wrong, but the only way to find out is to try. > > All this is just my opinion, and it's worth exactly what you're paying > for it. I have no say in what gets merged and what doesn't, and I > decided academia was not for me after getting my BSc. I hope it all > works out for you, and we end up seeing your paper(s) in FAST.
