Re: compress-force mount option documentation is ambiguous

[Andrew Skretvedt <andrew.skretvedt@gmail.com>]

On 8/17/20 3:18 PM, Peter Kese wrote:
> The `compress-force` mount  option which states:
> 
> "If compress-force is specified, then compression will always be
> attempted, but the data may end up uncompressed if the compression
> would make them larger."
> 

Meanwhile, on my system (Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia (tracks Ubuntu Xenial)),
the manpage for `mount` (July 2014 - util-linux 2.27.1), in the section
on btrfs-specific mount options says:

> If  compress-force  is specified,  all  files  will  be compressed,
> whether or not they compress well.  If compression is enabled,
> nodatacow and nodata‐ sum are disabled.

While experience suggests to me I shouldn't necessarily consider `man 8
mount` authoritative for every filesystem supported, the reality that
inexperienced users will consult it for authoritative advice suggests
that every effort must be made to keep its information in-sync with
documentation published elsewhere. Alternatively, it's specific
authoritativeness could be called out and then refer the user to where
the most current details can be found, e.g. `man 5 btrfs`. This is kinda
done already, as `man 8 mount` does say, immediately under its
FILESYSTEM-SPECIFIC MOUNT OPTIONS header:

> What options are supported depends a bit on the running  kernel.
> More info  may  be  found  in  the  kernel  source  subdirectory
> Documentation/filesystems.

as a catch-all. *shrug*

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