From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jeff Garzik Subject: Re: [RFC 0/13] extents and 48bit ext3 Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:51:14 -0400 Message-ID: <448998F2.5070206@garzik.org> References: <1149816055.4066.60.camel@dyn9047017069.beaverton.ibm.com> <20060609091327.GA3679@infradead.org> <20060609030759.48cd17a0.akpm@osdl.org> <44899653.1020007@garzik.org> <20060609154238.GN1651@parisc-linux.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Andrew Morton , Christoph Hellwig , cmm@us.ibm.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, ext2-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org Return-path: To: Matthew Wilcox In-Reply-To: <20060609154238.GN1651@parisc-linux.org> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-fsdevel.vger.kernel.org Matthew Wilcox wrote: > On Fri, Jun 09, 2006 at 11:40:03AM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote: >> Users are now forced to remember that, if they write to their filesystem >> after using either $mmver or $korgver kernels, they are locked out of >> using older kernels. >> >> From the user's perspective, ext3 has no clear "metadata version 1", >> "metadata version 2" division. Thus they are now forced to keep a >> matrix of kernel versions and ext3 feature flag support, to know which >> kernels are usable with which data. It is a support nightmare. > > Hang on, you're going too far. You have to enable extents with the > extent mount option. Otherwise you don't get to use them. The user > does, in fact, have a clear division, although maybe the blinky signs > aren't quite luminous enough. ...and how are distros going to deploy this? They are going to turn on extents by default. And do we honestly think that is a scalable option _anyway_? That will slowly bloat fstab and mount command lines with an ever-increasing list of options. It's IMO better experience for the user, and gives the developers more freedom.Look, I _really_ want extents. I am a big fan. But I think that extents are good time to make a clean break, and let ext3 live as it is. And it will let ext3 stabilize. Jeff