Re: [GIT PULL] bcachefs changes for 6.17

Martin Steigerwald
2025-08-07T14:35:12Z

Hi.

Malte Schröder - 05.08.25, 23:19:21 CEST:
> So, no merge yet? That really is a bummer. I was really hoping to
> finally be able to run mainline Linux again on my boxes (yes, I
> converted all of them to bcachefs early this year), now that pretty much
> all issues I was hitting are fixed by this merge request.

Thanks, that is great to know.

> I mean, at the rate Kent's tree is stabilizing right now I am actually
> considering moving some productive systems over there. But those will
> need to run distro kernels. So, please merge, I don't want to jump
> through the hoops to run OpenZFS ...

I did not agree to some of your behavior before, Kent. But actually at
least from your description I had the feeling this pull request is about
stabilizing BCacheFS in order to remove the experimental tag. The pull
request looked quite reasonable to me.

And frankly I am using BCacheFS in production meanwhile, even with
encryption: On a 4 TB XS-2000 external SSD and I am quite sure I am not
willing to copy over all that data to a different filesystem again. And on
a scratch filesystem on my laptop, but that one is easily replaceable.

Sure I can switch to a different kernel source tree, having compiled
BCacheFS tools myself as well. And I am fine to do so.

But on the other hand, Linus, on a past rc1 pull request that does not
only contain bug fixes, there is still the option to simply not pull it.
After the discussion that has been had, even not pulling it without
explaining it sounds absolutely fair enough to me. It is not that someone
could force you to accept a pull request as far as I understand.

Well, maybe that is the strategy here: Just pull this at the last day of
the 2-week window to make sure everything else after that can only contain
bug fixes anymore. :)

So my two cents… I'd appreciate BCacheFS to stay in kernel. I bet the
churn to remove it and later again reintroduce it would be actually more
work than to simply ignore a pull request every now and then.

And I think I may not be the only BCacheFS user who prefers to use
mainline kernels.

Maybe at one conference you could come together in a room and sort this
all out face to face. But until then maybe the approach I outlined above
can be an option?

Best,
--
Martin