Re: [RFC PATCH 0/8] staging: apfs: init APFS module

Ernesto A. Fernández
2025-03-16T03:31:43Z

Hi Ethan,

I'm happy to see your enthusiasm for my driver but, if you want to help, I
think you should simply send the changes you have in mind to the out-of-tree
repo. That way you'll start learning the codebase while I can review your
work and run xfstests for you. Filesystems are very dangerous things; I've
probably done a lot of damage myself back in the day trying to help out with
the hfs drivers.

As for upstreaming, the driver still has a few rough edges, but I don't
think that's the real reason I never tried to submit. I'm just no longer
confident that filesystem compatibility is a reasonable goal, and I don't
expect much interest from reviewers. There are too many risks, and too many
hardware restrictions these days; regular users have much easier (even if
slower) ways to move their files around. Other uses exist of course (like
Aditya can explain), but they are a bit esoteric. Of course if upstream
people disagree, and they do want the apfs support, I will be glad to
prepare a patch series.

Ernesto