Re: reiser4 merging action list

Andrew Morton
2005-06-27T23:25:07Z

Hans Reiser <reiser@namesys.com> wrote:
>
>
> Andrew asked me to put together a list of things that need to be done
> before merging:

Thanks.

As I said to Hans, if we can get a list of bullet-point actions nailed down
and agreed to then we have an uncontroversial path to happiness and a
merge. Let's get down and concentrate on technical specifics.

Hans, please maintain this list and republish it as we work through things.

> * VFS will dispatch directly to the method of the plugin for the
> *_operations methods. This requires duplicating to all plugin methods
> the common code currently used by all reiser4 plugins for a given
> method. It has the desirable side effect of making the methods more
> fully self-contained, which is somethng I had wanted two years ago and
> was a little sad to not get, and the cost of duplicating some code.
> Since not all plugin methods are *_operations, it means we have two
> structures with duplicated data, and duplicate data that must be in sync
> at all times is classical badness in programming technique (see Codd and
> normalization). vs owns this task
>
> * review all sparse complaints, and revise as appropriate.
>
> * panic and code beauty: everyone agrees that having function, file,
> and line added to reiser4_panic output hurts nothing (I hope). Everyone
> agrees that restarting the machine without an error message seems like a
> useless option to allow. Much else was argued, not sure if anything
> was a consensus view. Various detail improvements were suggested by
> Pecca, and I agreed with half of them.
>
>
> * metafiles should be disabled until we can present code that works
> right. Half the list thinks we cannot solve the cycles problem ever.
> Disable metafiles and postpone problem until working code, or the
> failure to produce it, makes it possible to do more than rant at each
> other. This is currently already done in the -mm patches, but is
> mentioned lest someone think it forgotten.
>
> * update the locking documentation
>

There's also the custom list, hash and debug code. We should either

a) remove them or

b) generify them and submit as standalone works or

c) justify them as custom-to-reiser4 and leave them as-is.