[Cluster-devel] [PATCH 00/19] gfs2-utils: Introduce extent allocation and speed up journal creation

[Bob Peterson <rpeterso@redhat.com>]

----- Original Message -----
> One thing to note is that, with these patches, the root and master inodes are
> no longer the first objects in the first resource group. The master inode is
> written in the first free block after the journals and then the other metafs
> structures are placed. The root directory inode is then finally created. This
> is not a format change but it may cause some confusion after years of
> expecting
> the root and master inodes to be at certain addresses so I thought it worth
> mentioning.

Hi,

I know that in fsck.gfs2, in initialize.c, it plays some games trying to find
and repair damaged system dinodes. For example, it looks for a missing master
directory by looking for "no_formal_ino==2" for example. So I'd be very cautious
and check to make sure these repairs still work properly. In the past, I've
done a for loop, wiping out the first X blocks of the file system, running
fsck.gfs2, and seeing if it can properly repair it.

Another concern is gfs2_convert. I don't know if it makes any assumptions
about the master directory, but it's much less likely. I think it just
assumes the file system is healthy. But fsck.gfs2 is a concern.

Regards,

Bob Peterson
Red Hat File Systems