[f2fs-dev] Populate f2fs with files during mkfs.f2fs

[Tomas Mudrunka <mudrunka@spoje.net>]

Hello,
i've noticed that mkfs.f2fs does not allow files to be copied to 
filesystem during formating by mkfs.f2fs.
Do you think it would be hard to add such feature?

I understand that this might be a weird request which in some sense 
defies the definition of filesystem formating process. But there are 
also some arguments for this case.

In the world of embedded development we often need to build firmware 
images to be flashed into the device. And F2FS is one of the best suited 
filesystems for embedded and perhaps the one best for managed flash. So 
we naturaly want to use it and build into our fw images. However to 
build such image i need to create f2fs image, format it and then mount 
it using loopback, copy data to it, unmount, sync, handle errors, etc... 
And we have huge makefiles or stuff like genimage, to put all the image 
partitions and bootloaders and everything together. It just adds quite 
complexity to the embedded build systems.

Turns out that quite few filesystems already have this feature to 
simplify creating filesystem images without need for mounting or root 
permissions:

mkfs.ext4 -d ./input_directory
mkfs.ubifs -d ./input_directory
mkfs.jffs2 -d ./input_directory
mkcramfs (obviously)
mksquashfs (obviously)

would you please consider adding such feature as well?

Thank you

-- 
S pozdravem
Best regards
      Tomáš Mudruňka - SPOJE.NET s.r.o.


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