[ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[Anton Altaparmakov]

This is to announce the new release of the ntfsprogs package (formerly
Linux-NTFS).

This is a massive update featuring an almost complete rewrite of the ntfs
library (the API should hopefully remain stable from now on) as well as
several new utilities: ntfslabel, ntfsresize, and ntfsundelete.

Note this is a beta release and can contain bugs. Please backup your data
before using any of the utilities in write mode. 

You can download the source code as a tar ball or source rpm or binary
rpms for intel 386 architecture from our website:

	http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/downloads.html

Or you can get the latest source from our bitkeeper repository by doing a:

	bk clone http://linux-ntfs.bkbits.net/ntfsprogs

You can also browse the source code online here:

	http://linux-ntfs.bkbits.net:8080/ntfsprogs

Best regards,

	Anton
-- 
Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cantab.net> (replace at with @)
Linux NTFS maintainer / IRC: #ntfs on irc.freenode.net
WWW: http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/ & http://www-stu.christs.cam.ac.uk/~aia21/

Re: [ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[Joshua Kwan]

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How stable would you say NTFS write is for this release? Is it as 
yucky as it was in the 2.4.20 driver version?

Regards
Josh

On Sat, Jan 18, 2003 at 04:44:17PM +0000, Anton Altaparmakov wrote:
> This is to announce the new release of the ntfsprogs package (formerly
> Linux-NTFS).
> 
> This is a massive update featuring an almost complete rewrite of the ntfs
> library (the API should hopefully remain stable from now on) as well as
> several new utilities: ntfslabel, ntfsresize, and ntfsundelete.
> 
> Note this is a beta release and can contain bugs. Please backup your data
> before using any of the utilities in write mode. 
> 
> You can download the source code as a tar ball or source rpm or binary
> rpms for intel 386 architecture from our website:
> 
> 	http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/downloads.html
> 
> Or you can get the latest source from our bitkeeper repository by doing a:
> 
> 	bk clone http://linux-ntfs.bkbits.net/ntfsprogs
> 
> You can also browse the source code online here:
> 
> 	http://linux-ntfs.bkbits.net:8080/ntfsprogs
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> 	Anton
> -- 
> Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cantab.net> (replace at with @)
> Linux NTFS maintainer / IRC: #ntfs on irc.freenode.net
> WWW: http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/ & http://www-stu.christs.cam.ac.uk/~aia21/
> 
> -
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-- 
.-`-.-`-.-=============----->
Joshua Kwan	joshk@ludicrus.ath.cx
		joshk@mspencer.net

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Re: [ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[Pawel Kot]

On Sun, 19 Jan 2003, Joshua Kwan wrote:

Josh,

> How stable would you say NTFS write is for this release? Is it as
> yucky as it was in the 2.4.20 driver version?

Ntfsprogs is a library and set of utilities to do variuos things with the
ntfs filesystem. It is not the kernel driver.

And the kernel driver is what you give the write ability to the ntfs
filesystem. And you are right -- the old driver in fact does not support
writing (yeah, DANGEROUS means your filesystem will get damaged with very
high probability).

There exists a new ntfs driver called NTFS-TNG, which is present already
in 2.5.x kernel series and it has its backport to the 2.4.x kernel series
(you'll find it at http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/).

This driver has no write support yet, but it allows you to overwrite the
files, without changing their attributes and size (ie. mmap() the file,
change the contents, write() the file). And the overwrite is considered
safe.

pkot
-- 
mailto:pkot@linuxnews.pl :: mailto:pkot@slackware.pl
http://kt.linuxnews.pl/ :: Kernel Traffic po polsku

Re: [ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[jlnance]

On Sun, Jan 19, 2003 at 04:05:50PM +0100, Pawel Kot wrote:

> There exists a new ntfs driver called NTFS-TNG, which is present already
> in 2.5.x kernel series and it has its backport to the 2.4.x kernel series
> (you'll find it at http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/).
> 
> This driver has no write support yet, but it allows you to overwrite the
> files, without changing their attributes and size (ie. mmap() the file,
> change the contents, write() the file). And the overwrite is considered
> safe.

Is this stable enough to allow you to put an ext2 image on an NTFS
partition and then mount that image as a r/w loopback mount from
Linux?

Thanks,

Jim

Re: [ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[Anton Altaparmakov]

On Mon, 20 Jan 2003 jlnance@unity.ncsu.edu wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 19, 2003 at 04:05:50PM +0100, Pawel Kot wrote:
> > There exists a new ntfs driver called NTFS-TNG, which is present already
> > in 2.5.x kernel series and it has its backport to the 2.4.x kernel series
> > (you'll find it at http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/).
> > 
> > This driver has no write support yet, but it allows you to overwrite the
> > files, without changing their attributes and size (ie. mmap() the file,
> > change the contents, write() the file). And the overwrite is considered
> > safe.
> 
> Is this stable enough to allow you to put an ext2 image on an NTFS
> partition and then mount that image as a r/w loopback mount from
> Linux?

Yes! This was the most desired item by people which is why I made sure it
was the first thing to be implemented (it also happens to be the easiest
thing to implement as it doesn't involve any changes to metadata at all). 

I consider that completely stable although there have been some reports of
hangs but I have never seen one and everyone who has filed a bug report
wasn't able to reproduce the hang on request so I am not really sure where
the hangs come from... It might not even be the ntfs driver per se but a
bad interaction between ntfs and some other kernel subsystem like the mm
layer or the block layer. But I have only seen three reports of a system
freeze so far and Mandrake who ship the new driver I would assume have
more users than that and either they are not complaining or they are not
having problems. I hope the latter. (-;

In any case, even if there is a bug somewhere which causes the kernel to
hang, no damage to the ntfs partition will occur from the new driver as it
is now. It simply doesn't modify any metadata at all so it can't cause any
damage.

Best regards,

	Anton
-- 
Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cantab.net> (replace at with @)
Linux NTFS maintainer / IRC: #ntfs on irc.freenode.net
WWW: http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/ & http://www-stu.christs.cam.ac.uk/~aia21/

Re: [ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[Pawel Kot]

On Mon, 20 Jan 2003, Anton Altaparmakov wrote:

> I consider that completely stable although there have been some reports of
> hangs but I have never seen one and everyone who has filed a bug report
> wasn't able to reproduce the hang on request so I am not really sure where
> the hangs come from... It might not even be the ntfs driver per se but a
> bad interaction between ntfs and some other kernel subsystem like the mm
> layer or the block layer. But I have only seen three reports of a system
> freeze so far and Mandrake who ship the new driver I would assume have
> more users than that and either they are not complaining or they are not
> having problems. I hope the latter. (-;

Were the hangs with 2.5.x kernel or with 2.4.x kernel?

pkot
-- 
mailto:pkot@linuxnews.pl :: mailto:pkot@slackware.pl
http://kt.linuxnews.pl/ :: Kernel Traffic po polsku

Re: [ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[Anton Altaparmakov]

On Mon, 20 Jan 2003, Pawel Kot wrote:
> On Mon, 20 Jan 2003, Anton Altaparmakov wrote:
> > I consider that completely stable although there have been some reports of
> > hangs but I have never seen one and everyone who has filed a bug report
> > wasn't able to reproduce the hang on request so I am not really sure where
> > the hangs come from... It might not even be the ntfs driver per se but a
> > bad interaction between ntfs and some other kernel subsystem like the mm
> > layer or the block layer. But I have only seen three reports of a system
> > freeze so far and Mandrake who ship the new driver I would assume have
> > more users than that and either they are not complaining or they are not
> > having problems. I hope the latter. (-;
> 
> Were the hangs with 2.5.x kernel or with 2.4.x kernel?

2.4.x.

	Anton
-- 
Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cantab.net> (replace at with @)
Linux NTFS maintainer / IRC: #ntfs on irc.freenode.net
WWW: http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/ & http://www-stu.christs.cam.ac.uk/~aia21/

Re: [ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[Pawel Kot]

On Mon, 20 Jan 2003 jlnance@unity.ncsu.edu wrote:

> On Sun, Jan 19, 2003 at 04:05:50PM +0100, Pawel Kot wrote:
>
> > There exists a new ntfs driver called NTFS-TNG, which is present already
> > in 2.5.x kernel series and it has its backport to the 2.4.x kernel series
> > (you'll find it at http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/).
> >
> > This driver has no write support yet, but it allows you to overwrite the
> > files, without changing their attributes and size (ie. mmap() the file,
> > change the contents, write() the file). And the overwrite is considered
> > safe.
>
> Is this stable enough to allow you to put an ext2 image on an NTFS
> partition and then mount that image as a r/w loopback mount from
> Linux?

Yes.

pkot
-- 
mailto:pkot@linuxnews.pl :: mailto:pkot@slackware.pl
http://kt.linuxnews.pl/ :: Kernel Traffic po polsku

Re: [ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[Pavel Machek]

Hi!

> This is a massive update featuring an almost complete rewrite of the ntfs
> library (the API should hopefully remain stable from now on) as well as
> several new utilities: ntfslabel, ntfsresize, and ntfsundelete.

So you can resize ntfs but not (safely) write
to it?
-- 
				Pavel
Written on sharp zaurus, because my Velo1 broke. If you have Velo you don't need...

Re: [ANN] ntfsprogs (formerly Linux-NTFS) 1.7.0beta released

[Anton Altaparmakov]

On Fri, 24 Jan 2003, Pavel Machek wrote:
> > This is a massive update featuring an almost complete rewrite of the ntfs
> > library (the API should hopefully remain stable from now on) as well as
> > several new utilities: ntfslabel, ntfsresize, and ntfsundelete.
> 
> So you can resize ntfs but not (safely) write to it?

The library can write to ntfs quite safely indeed as can the new kernel
driver (present in 2.5.x and available as patch for 2.4.x from
http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/download.html.  But the only thing that is
implemented in both is file overwrite, no change of file size is possible
at present. Also it is not possible to create/delete files/hard links/sym
links. Please note this is not due to a lack of knowledge, its just a
matter of having the time to implement it all... I am currently working on
adding truncate support to the library (the code will be later ported to
the kernel of course) and I have my new ntfstruncate utility working for
certain types of inodes and certain cases of truncation. But it is going
to take a while to have it completed. A lot of support code needs to be
written to cope with all cases... E.g. need to be able to allocate/free
clusters and inodes for a start (clusters are pretty much done, inode
freeing is done, too), resize attribute records, work with attribute list
attributes, ... Ntfs is complicated unfortunately...

Best regards,

	Anton
-- 
Anton Altaparmakov <aia21 at cantab.net> (replace at with @)
Linux NTFS maintainer / IRC: #ntfs on irc.freenode.net
WWW: http://linux-ntfs.sf.net/ & http://www-stu.christs.cam.ac.uk/~aia21/