Linux Storage News Archives

Less than twenty-four hours after Bcachefs was submitted for Linux 6.7, this new open-source file-system has been successfully merged for this next kernel version.

While we wait to see if Bcachefs will be merged for Linux 6.7, there are other exciting enhancements landing for existing Linux file-systems. With Btrfs in Linux 6.7 comes three new features plus some performance optimizations and other improvements.

Another merge window, another attempt for Bcachefs to be mainlined. This file-system was submitted again today for the now-open Linux 6.7 merge window and it stands better chances this cycle of being upstreamed.

Red Hat engineers continue working on Stratis Storage as a modern Linux storage solution that leverages the Rust programming language and built atop the proven XFS file-system and LVM. Stratis continues to strive for ZFS and Btrfs like functionality although its use in the wild still seems rather limited.

Multi-grain(ed) timestamps had been submitted for Linux 6.6 to better deal with NFS where the once-per-jiffy coarse-grained timestamps aren't enough for (in)validating caches. Multi-grained timestamps sought to address that by optionally allowing for the more fine-grained timestamps when desired but not using that finer granularity everywhere due to the greater overhead costs. This feature though ended up being reverted weeks later due to subtle bugs being uncovered. Now though a new redux patch series has been posted for providing another attempt at multi-grained timestamps.

OpenZFS 2.2 was promoted to stable today as the latest major update to this open-source ZFS file-system implementation for Linux and FreeBSD systems. With OpenZFS 2.2 comes many exciting new features, performance improvements, and other enhancements for this evolution of open-source ZFS.

The OpenZFS 2.2 release candidates are dragging on with the fifth test release having debuted on Saturday to provide some additional fixes and support for the Linux 6.5 stable kernel.

While OpenZFS 2.2 is nearing release, OpenZFS 2.1.13 was released on Wednesday as the latest stable point release for this open-source ZFS file-system implementation for Linux and FreeBSD systems.

Queued up into the Btrfs file-system driver's "for-next" branch ahead of the Linux 6.7 cycle is the Temp-FSID (Same-FSID) feature that is being pursued for use by Valve's Steam Deck game console. The functionality is to overcome a limitation of allowing Btrfs to mount two different devices holding the same file-system image and therefore the same file-system ID.

One of the new features merged for the Linux 6.6 kernel was multi-grained timestamps for the VFS layer and wiring it up for the EXT4, Btrfs, XFS, and Tmpfs file-systems. This alternative though to coarse-grained timestamps ended up exposing some problems and this week ahead of Linux 6.6-rc3, the feature has been stripped entirely from the kernel.

Amid all the recent chatter around Bcachefs working its way toward mainline and all the ongoing improvements to existing Linux file-systems, you may have forgotten about Puzzlefs as the new file-system aiming to be an optimal solution for containers and with a kernel driver written in the Rust programming language.

Since March of 2022 the ReiserFS file-system has been deprecated and with Linux 6.6 ReiserFS is marked outright as "obsolete" with plans to remove the file-system from the mainline kernel code-base in 2025. In stepping toward that eventual milestone, a new kernel patch series begins removing ReiserFS from the default kernel configurations.

While Bcachefs was not merged for the Linux 6.6 cycle with one of the concerns raised by Linus Torvalds being that it hadn't been vetted via the "linux-next" staging area, that process has now begun to raise hopes of potentially seeing the new file-system driver introduced for Linux 6.7.

With Linux 6.6 the KSMBD server is no longer "experimental" while this new kernel on the SMB3 client side also brings a notable addition: the new "dir_cache_timeout" option to control the cache time for directory contents.

Back in 2021 Samsung engineers posted KSMBD as an in-kernel SMB3 server alternative to the likes of the user-space Samba server. KSMBD merged into Linux 5.15 as an experimental SMB server while after two years of fixes and other improvements has now dropped its "experimental" marking.

While we've been looking forward to Bcachefs landing and carrying out a fresh round of performance testing of Bcachefs against other file-system options, it's looking clear now that Bcachefs won't be landing for the Linux 6.6 merge window.

OpenZFS 2.2 has been in the works to provide Linux container support, BLAKE3 checksumming, block cloning and other new features. It's looking like that release will be wrapped up soon while released on Thursday was v2.2-rc4 to help encourage last minute testing of this file-system driver for Linux and FreeBSD systems.

A few days ago Bcachefs was proposed for inclusion to Linux 6.6 after it failed to be pulled for the prior Linux 6.5 kernel cycle. Since then we've been waiting to see what action Linus Torvalds would take with including Bcachefs... He's finally commented on it today but remains to be seen if it will land for this kernel release.

The Ceph changes were submitted today for the ongoing Linux 6.6 merge window and with it comes one big shiny feature addition: support for making use of the FSCRYPT file-system encryption framework.

The Linux 6.6 FUSE driver code for enabling file-systems in user-space is adding support for STATX to the protocol as part of focusing on enabling file birth time "btime" support.

With the EXT4 file-system updates for Linux 6.6 there is mostly some code clean-ups and other bug fixing. But one change in particular stands out for its performance impact.

The Bcachefs file-system code born out of the Linux kernel's block cache code was submitted for Linux 6.5 but ultimately rejected. Bcachefs is now trying again to land for the current Linux 6.6 merge window.

The EROFS read-only file-system and F2FS Flash Friendly File-System were among the FS updates to land this week for Linux 6.6 -- in addition to marking ReiserFS as obsolete.

The tmpfs file-system that keeps all of its data within virtual memory has gained a few new features with Linux 6.6, including the long-awaited quota support to better protect against malicious users that could try to consume all of your system RAM.

In addition to NFSD bringing a thrilling feature for Linux 6.6 in the form of NFSv4 write delegation support, the NFS client code for the in-development Linux 6.6 kernel also has a notable feature change.

Chuck Lever III of Oracle has submitted the NFSD changes for Linux 6.6 for this NFS server of which he is particularly thrilled about one of the new features this cycle.

As part of updates to the older file-system drivers for Linux 6.6, the ReiserFS file-system is no longer marked as "Supported" but is officially treated as "Obsolete" within the Linux kernel.

There are some notable changes around the XFS file-system for the in-development Linux 6.6 kernel, including a new release manager taking over duties.

Among the exciting early pull requests to land in the new Linux 6.6 kernel cycle are some nice improvements to the IOmap code that should yield some substantive I/O benefits with this new kernel.

Btrfs in Linux 6.5 brought various performance improvements and prior to that it was a busy cycle with Linux 6.4 while now with Linux 6.6 the Btrfs file-system driver is mostly centered on delivering fixes.

In addition to the fchmodat2 system call, another early pull request submitted by Microsoft's Christian Brauner even before the Linux 6.5 kernel was released is one to introduce multi-grained timestamps with Linux 6.6. Multi-grained timestamps are intended to address an issue exhibited with NFS around caching and the current coarse-grained timestamp handling used for (in)validating caches.

With the upcoming Linux 6.6 cycle another exciting change was recently queued up within the block subsystem's "for-next" branch: IO_uring futex/futexv support.

The Bcachefs file-system continues to work its way toward the mainline kernel while interestingly this weekend a Valve developer posted patches for implementing case-folding (case insensitive) feature support for this open-source file-system.

The long-in-development Bcachefs file-system driver was submitted for Linux 6.5 but never merged this cycle due to various technical issues and developer in-fighting. Linus Torvalds himself has now gotten around to reviewing the proposed code and chiming in on the situation.

After six years as serving as the XFS file-system maintainer, Darrick Wong announced he'll be stepping down from this role and that really multiple developers need to step up to maintain XFS and help with testing and other responsibilities.

It appears the OpenZFS 2.2 file-system driver for Linux and FreeBSD systems will see its release very soon while out today is the third release candidate.

While the EROFS Linux read-only file-system already supports LZ4 and microLZMA support, Zlib DEFLATE support is also being worked on and could be introduced in the next Linux kernel cycle.

Last month saw the first release candidate of OpenZFS 2.2 that introduces Linux container support, BLAKE3 checksums, and block cloning capabilities. Out this weekend is a second release candidate as OpenZFS 2.2 nears release.

Btrfs has long provided a built-in integrity checker tool into the file-system driver. However, slated for Linux 6.6 is deprecating of this integrity checker.

While IO_uring has been one of the most interesting kernel innovations of recent years and can allow for great speed-ups to async I/O, there have been some security concerns and with the Linux 6.6 kernel it will be easier for Linux administrators to disable it system-wide if so desired.

While the Linux 6.5 kernel merge window just ended days ago and there still is two months to go until that stable release, already the lead developer of the Bcachefs file-system is working to get the code merged for Linux 6.6.

Today the Linux 6.5 merge window is expected to be closed and one of the lingering issues has been whether the BCacheFS file-system driver will be merged following its pull request having been finally sent in.

Konstantin Komarov of Paragon Software has submitted the NTFS(3) file-system driver updates for the nearly-closed Linux 6.5 merge window.

The Flash-Friendly File-System (F2FS) is tacking on a few new features for the Linux 6.5 kernel.

UDisks 2.10 was released last week for this set abstraction layer providing a daemon and tooling around the manipulation of disks and storage devices under Linux.

While OpenZFS 3.0 has been talked about for a few years with macOS support, it doesn't appear to be on the immediate horizon and the OpenZFS 2.2 release is being worked on currently for providing a few new features to this open-source ZFS file-system implementation on Linux and FreeBSD systems.

Ted Ts'o has submitted all the EXT4 feature changes for the Linux 6.5 merge window. EXT4 this round is seeing various clean-ups, bug fixes, and other enhancements but there is one performance optimization worth calling attention to.

Bcachefs hopes to finally merge in Linux 6.5 while for those wanting a mature Linux file-system with all the bells and whistles, Btrfs is a good candidate worth considering. With Linux 6.5 there is a continuation of the recent Btrfs trend around performance improvements.

Capping off an exciting first day of the Linux 6.5 merge window is a pull request seeking to land the long-in-development Bcachefs file-system into this next kernel version.

Among the early pull requests for the now-open Linux 6.5 merge window is the FS-VERITY pull for that support layer enabling file-systems to leverage transparent integrity and authenticity protections fr read-only files. The FS-VERITY updates for Linux 6.5 are helping to ease the upcoming XFS file-system support.