From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from outgoing.mit.edu (outgoing-auth-1.mit.edu [18.9.28.11]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id C185D1C8630 for ; Wed, 27 Aug 2025 12:02:45 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=18.9.28.11 ARC-Seal:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1756296167; cv=none; b=WeIQ282CCQ0aYdFB+/uf90M0SyNvQzpyPcrCoYeMNoNEUxfgyvhr57VX6M33xoArVxk8ywdyjYYQHuu7gN5NPb+GLR7X7SS5ydV7+4QIiWYX3L5QSExozhZzCh4agn7WdD6ZaJbvVWbM4m7LeP02kQNHgwDpk43vQYz/au+QHlo= ARC-Message-Signature:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1756296167; c=relaxed/simple; bh=ICrqE13s49dbDB4Gwp1lTRNh0ah26W1Bmg4IF5kHnFo=; h=Date:From:To:Cc:Subject:Message-ID:References:MIME-Version: Content-Type:Content-Disposition:In-Reply-To; b=R94iGmFeanNX26veXycDmxhcb9dtMquPebgOWiGuygJMRY3Qh0sSMojF/7Me/VWmbYGsGhBrsqblXuHaWbLRSvdQk6fDCb2/ayKvliL+kDVaQJkjCVUeNtz3uXC+htl+G3/akpe4G1ekSVFNtExiC+4L68+DeEsZFXb1ewL1Ido= ARC-Authentication-Results:i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=mit.edu; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=mit.edu; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=mit.edu header.i=@mit.edu header.b=Su1nJqDs; arc=none smtp.client-ip=18.9.28.11 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=mit.edu Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=mit.edu Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=mit.edu header.i=@mit.edu header.b="Su1nJqDs" Received: from trampoline.thunk.org (pool-173-48-119-253.bstnma.fios.verizon.net [173.48.119.253]) (authenticated bits=0) (User authenticated as tytso@ATHENA.MIT.EDU) by outgoing.mit.edu (8.14.7/8.12.4) with ESMTP id 57RC2b1K018279 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NOT); Wed, 27 Aug 2025 08:02:38 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=mit.edu; s=outgoing; t=1756296159; bh=g0OAUx2qHR+X+MEnyeHrNi4vGsQ/st8jB1elnzvliz4=; h=Date:From:Subject:Message-ID:MIME-Version:Content-Type; b=Su1nJqDsA4r/voWMPA1qp9a4VJm7PHTFRcU98J3b61uQUGzmbBA19Wmln2WIorOMk gj2cpkDg3yg///wGy+pOyoVko9/xVz6RAj0EEo/T8JPUQA81J5GgEaTJPxv10OUcTI 2OQ+CWbeaIxxB4ZdxfbjLZ29ExaN+1Ds9Wh8Ea071eaB1JwgsG9z/bWqwt1WSha07Z xCokw0upDqhIrGyeAfdSiBLkHZyTBoPRgj5mwQ7kgWbT34TRIvAWjTKjPo9mptDvQA k2ChWOz0wep5Y/l1rDWr6VK4p2vvSKzMLaOR0HRU6L09oGXrlNGO2CzuLNVn5XgJKi Ip8vPZZtYzUPg== Received: by trampoline.thunk.org (Postfix, from userid 15806) id 557D52E00D6; Wed, 27 Aug 2025 08:02:37 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2025 08:02:37 -0400 From: "Theodore Ts'o" To: Lukas Bulwahn Cc: Andreas Dilger , linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org, kernel-janitors@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Lukas Bulwahn Subject: Re: [PATCH] ext4: remove obsolete EXT3 config options Message-ID: <20250827120237.GE1603531@mit.edu> References: <20250827090808.80287-1-lukas.bulwahn@redhat.com> Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: kernel-janitors@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20250827090808.80287-1-lukas.bulwahn@redhat.com> On Wed, Aug 27, 2025 at 11:08:08AM +0200, Lukas Bulwahn wrote: > From: Lukas Bulwahn > > In June 2015, commit c290ea01abb7 ("fs: Remove ext3 filesystem driver") > removed the historic ext3 filesystem support as ext3 partitions are fully > supported with the ext4 filesystem support. To simplify updating the kernel > build configuration, which had only EXT3 support but not EXT4 support > enabled, the three config options EXT3_{FS,FS_POSIX_ACL,FS_SECURITY} were > kept, instead of immediately removing them. The three options just enable > the corresponding EXT4 counterparts when configs from older kernel versions > are used to build on later kernel versions. This ensures that the kernels > from those kernel build configurations would then continue to have EXT4 > enabled for supporting booting from ext3 and ext4 file systems, to avoid > potential unexpected surprises. > > Given that the kernel build configuration has no backwards-compatibility > guarantee and this transition phase for such build configurations has been > in place for a decade, we can reasonably expect all such users to have > transitioned to use the EXT4 config options in their config files at this > point in time. With that in mind, the three EXT3 config options are > obsolete by now. Do we need to worry about what happens if someone uses an oldconfig from an RHEL 7/8/9 kernel (or equivalent SuSE kernel) to try to build the latest upstream kernel? I don't really care because I don't use enterprise distros, and I haven't worked for a company that supports enterprise customers for over a decade, but I thought I should just check. Cheers, - Ted