On Fri, 21 Jul 2023, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
On Fri, Jul 21, 2023 at 11:03:28AM +1000, Finn Thain wrote:
On Fri, 21 Jul 2023, Dave Chinner wrote:
I suspect that this is one of those catch-22 situations: distros
are going to enable every feature under the sun. That doesn't mean
that anyone is actually _using_ them these days.
I think the value of filesystem code is not just a question of how
often it gets executed -- it's also about retaining access to the data
collected in archives, museums, galleries etc. that is inevitably held
in old formats.
That's an argument for adding support to tar, not for maintaining
read/write support.
I rather think it's an argument for collaboration between the interested
parties upstream (inluding tar developers). As I see it, the question is,
what kind of "upstream" is best for that?
We need to much more proactive about dropping support for
unmaintained filesystems that nobody is ever fixing despite the
constant stream of corruption- and deadlock- related bugs reported
against them.
IMO, a stream of bug reports is not a reason to remove code (it's a
reason to revert some commits).
Anyway, that stream of bugs presumably flows from the unstable kernel
API, which is inherently high-maintenance. It seems that a stable API
could be more appropriate for any filesystem for which the on-disk
format is fixed (by old media, by unmaintained FLOSS implementations
or abandoned proprietary implementations).
You've misunderstood. Google have decided to subject the entire kernel
(including obsolete unmaintained filesystems) to stress tests that it's
never had before. IOW these bugs have been there since the code was
merged. There's nothing to back out. There's no API change to blame.
It's always been buggy and it's never mattered before.
I see. Thanks for providing that background.
It wouldn't be so bad if Google had also decided to fund people to fix
those bugs, but no, they've decided to dump them on public mailing lists
and berate developers into fixing them.
Those bugs, if moved from kernel to userspace, would be less harmful,
right?
