Re: Linux 2.6.29

Jörn Engel
2009-03-31T19:28:00Z

On Sat, 28 March 2009 21:18:51 -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
>
> Was the BSD soft-updates idea of FS data-before-metadata a good one?
> Yes. Obviously.
>
> It is the cornerstone of every SANE journalling-esque database or
> filesystem out there -- don't leave a window where your metadata is
> inconsistent. "Duh" :)

Your idea of 'consistent' seems a bit fuzzy. Soft updates, afaiu, leave
plenty of windows and reasons to run fsck. They only guarantee that all
those windows result in lost space - data allocations without any
references. It certainly prevents the worst problems, but I would use a
different word for it. :)

Jörn

--
Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good,
you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
-- Howard Aiken quoted by Ken Iverson quoted by Jim Horning quoted by
Raph Levien, 1979