From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from cuda.sgi.com (cuda2.sgi.com [192.48.176.25]) by oss.sgi.com (8.14.3/8.14.3/SuSE Linux 0.8) with ESMTP id q28GEKPR047251 for ; Thu, 8 Mar 2012 10:14:20 -0600 Received: from josefsipek.net (josefsipek.net [64.9.206.49]) by cuda.sgi.com with ESMTP id 8xtVpJQscn0hEn2r for ; Thu, 08 Mar 2012 08:14:19 -0800 (PST) Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 11:14:18 -0500 From: "Josef 'Jeff' Sipek" Subject: Re: [PATCH] default to 64 bit inodes & add feature flag Message-ID: <20120308161418.GA17800@josefsipek.net> References: <4F5798F9.2050809@redhat.com> <20120308013413.GL3592@dastard> <4F5813D8.8070305@sandeen.net> <20120308153721.GS7762@sgi.com> <4F58D35D.7080504@sandeen.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <4F58D35D.7080504@sandeen.net> List-Id: XFS Filesystem from SGI List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: xfs-bounces@oss.sgi.com Errors-To: xfs-bounces@oss.sgi.com To: Eric Sandeen Cc: Ben Myers , xfs-oss On Thu, Mar 08, 2012 at 09:42:21AM -0600, Eric Sandeen wrote: > So, after thinking about this (and talking on irc) some more, I'm > not convinced that a feature flag is the way to go. > > If we set a feature flag, suddenly old filesystems with 64-bit > inodes will grow a new feature, and this will force a userspace > upgrade - but there is no real new feature. This seems like a bad > idea. My original patch (which Dave responded to with this one) > simply made inode64 default, with no feature flags. > > Unless someone has a really compelling argument for the flag, > I'm thinking this is the wrong approach after all. > > Perhaps I should resend the just-make-it-default patch. > > Comments? I was thinking about this sort of scenario. You are right, there's no on-disk format change. My initial thought about how to handle this was to just make inode64 the default on 64-bit builds. I think the feature flag idea is good because it essentially acts as a taint flag - much like the attr2 feature flag. The difference is, in the inode64 case... 1) it's the same on-disk format 2) there are years of ambiguous-inode filesystems out there Out of curiosity...is there a reason we can't do both? Default to 64-bit, and slowly introduce the 64-bit inodes feature flag? Jeff. -- What is the difference between Mechanical Engineers and Civil Engineers? Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets. _______________________________________________ xfs mailing list xfs@oss.sgi.com http://oss.sgi.com/mailman/listinfo/xfs