Re: File System conversion -- ideas

Horst von Brand
2003-06-30T03:38:57Z

rmoser <mlmoser@comcast.net> said:
> "Leonard Milcin Jr." <thervoy@post.pl> said:

> >Ok, I forgot about enterprise users with lots of data, and probably
> >lacking free space, so I missed a point.

> Yeppers. Also that the eventual goal (at least in my mind) is to allow
> this to be done on a running r/w filesystem safely, which isn't as tough
> a problem as it sounds.

It is a lot of in-kernel complexity, for a one-shot job once in a blue moon
(or even once per machine, if that much). If it can be done easily (like
ext2 --> ext3), by all means go ahead! If there is the slightest hint of
complexity, forget it. Not worth the kernel code, plus it won't ever be
debugged past "nice toy" stage for people who really care about their data.

"Enterprise users" have backups, and are more than willing to just get a
new disk/machine for migrating data. Data is normally _much_ more valuable
than the media it sits on.

Can we now please drop this sillyness? Either show the astonished world
by coding it up and debugging it that it _is_ doable, or shut up.
--
Dr. Horst H. von Brand User #22616 counter.li.org
Departamento de Informatica Fono: +56 32 654431
Universidad Tecnica Federico Santa Maria +56 32 654239
Casilla 110-V, Valparaiso, Chile Fax: +56 32 797513