Re: [Ext2-devel] [RFC 0/13] extents and 48bit ext3

Jeff Garzik
2006-06-09T21:53:21Z

Michael Poole wrote:
> Jeff Garzik writes:
>
>> Theodore Tso wrote:
>>> And I'd also dispute with your "weren't really suited for the original
>>> ext2-style design" comment. Ext2/3 was always designed to be
>>> extensible from the start, and we've successfully added features quite
>>> successfully for quite a while.
>> Although not the only disk format change, extents are a pretty big
>> one. Will this be the last major on-disk format change?
>
> You keep making "straw that broke the camel's back" type arguments
> without saying why this particular straw (rather than the other
> compatibility-breaking features that are already in ext3) is the one
> that must not be allowed. Is it a matter of taste, or is there some
> objective threshold that extents cross?

Yes, it's not a small change to the on-disk format.

If you write tools that read an ext3 filesystem, you won't be able to
read file data at all, without updating your code.

That's a much bigger deal than say 32-bit uids.

Jeff