Linus Torvalds Begins Expressing Regrets Merging Bcachefs

2 years ago by pnutzh4x0r to c/linux

There's been some Friday night kernel drama on the Linux kernel mailing list... Linus Torvalds has expressed regrets for merging the Bcachefs file-system and an ensuing back-and-forth between the file-system maintainer.

load all comments
solrize 95 points 2 years ago

Can someone say why bcachefs is interesting? Btrfs I can sort of understand. I haven't much kept track of most others.

path: 0 11959400, hotness: undefined, score: 95, children: 62
DaPorkchop_ 148 points 2 years ago

bcachefs is way more flexible than btrfs on multi-device filesystems. You can group storage devices together based on performance/capacity/whatever else, and then do funky things like assigning a group of SSDs as a write-through/write-back cache for a bigger array of HDDs. You can also configure a ton of properties for individual files or directories, including the cache+main storage group, amount of data replicas, compression type, and quite a bit more.

So you could have two files in the same folder, one of them stored compressed on an array of HDDs in RAID10 and the other one stored on a different array of HDDs uncompressed in RAID5 with a write-back SSD cache, and wouldn't have to fiddle around with multiple filesystems and bind mounts - everything can be configured by simply setting xattr values. You could even have a third file which is striped across both groups of HDDs without having to partition them up.

path: 0 11959400 11959717, hotness: undefined, score: 148, children: 40
NeoNachtwaechter 16 points 2 years ago

two files in the same folder, one of them stored compressed on an array of HDDs in RAID10 and the other one stored on a different array [...]

Now that's what I call serious over-engineering.

Who in the world wants to use that?

And does that developer maybe have some spare time? /s

path: 0 11959400 11959717 11959856, hotness: undefined, score: 16, children: 11
apt_install_coffee 66 points 2 years ago

This is actually a feature that enterprise SAN solutions have had for a while, being able choose your level of redundancy & performance at a file level is extremely useful for minimising downtime and not replicating ephemeral data.

Most filesystem features are not for the average user who has their data replicated in a cloud service; they're for businesses where this flexibility saves a lot of money.

path: 0 11959400 11959717 11959856 11960755, hotness: undefined, score: 66, children: 1
apt_install_coffee 3 points 2 years ago

I'll also tac on that when you use cloud storage, what do you think your stuff is stored on at the end of the day? Sure as shit not Bcachefs yet, but it's more likely than not on some netapp appliance for the same features that Bcachefs is developing.

path: 0 11959400 11959717 11959856 11960755 11987101, hotness: undefined, score: 3, children: 0
linux
linux

@lemmy.ml

login for more options
67083
9205
4151

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

Rules

  • Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
  • No misinformation
  • No NSFW content
  • No hate speech, bigotry, etc

Related Communities

Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0

go to feed...