F2FS Experimental Compression Is Ready For Extending Flash Storage Life

[evil_core]

Question is how to install an any linux operating system by using this file system.

like any other filesystem, that's not supported by installer (like Archlinux, PLD, Gentoo)
You don't need to recompile kernel(ext4/btrfs/xfs is usually provided as module, not as kernel buitin). You simply put f2fs kernel module into initrd/initramfs (usually it's done automatically on most distros on initramfs/initrd regenaration, sometimes you need to point f2fs in some /etc/dracut/initrd/initramfs.conf (or simething like that).

Another thing is bootloader supporting f2fs, or you can put /boot on external partition.
and you must rememver that because linux kernel supports some (experimental or not) features of some filesystem, it doesn't mean that GRUB supporting some filesystem will support all features(usually GRUB and other bootloaders supports only some basic and read-only featureset of filesystem. in case of BTRFS you needed to be careful, because at 1st there was no BTRFs support, later gzip compression support and later you needed t owait another year to use ZSTD compression. you even needed few years to get LUKS2 implemented[recently[, and be defaylt cryptsetup created LUKS2 containers(not LUKS1)

[Azrael5]

like any other filesystem, that's not supported by installer (like Archlinux, PLD, Gentoo)
You don't need to recompile kernel(ext4/btrfs/xfs is usually provided as module, not as kernel buitin). You simply put f2fs kernel module into initrd/initramfs (usually it's done automatically on most distros on initramfs/initrd regenaration, sometimes you need to point f2fs in some /etc/dracut/initrd/initramfs.conf (or simething like that).

Another thing is bootloader supporting f2fs, or you can put /boot on external partition.
and you must rememver that because linux kernel supports some (experimental or not) features of some filesystem, it doesn't mean that GRUB supporting some filesystem will support all features(usually GRUB and other bootloaders supports only some basic and read-only featureset of filesystem. in case of BTRFS you needed to be careful, because at 1st there was no BTRFs support, later gzip compression support and later you needed t owait another year to use ZSTD compression. you even needed few years to get LUKS2 implemented[recently[, and be defaylt cryptsetup created LUKS2 containers(not LUKS1)

Ok, but the installation process could not provide the user the possibility to chose the file system during the installation phase? It seems to me the most logical approach. Every day we read about the several file system which are available, though we cannot install the one preferred since the beginning. Is it possible to installa a linux operating system in a device already formatted in F2FS? During the installation, the F2FS fil system persists or it is replaced?

[Azrael5]

1. Install to a secondary disk.
2. Recompile your kernel with F2FS support built in.
3. Partition your primary disk with F2FS as root and /boot on VFAT/EXT4 (or whatever you like that your bootloader supports).
4. Rsync/tar your filesystem over to the primary.
5. Redo your bootloader and enjoy.

The common user is not able to make these operations. The common user can choose the file system more adapt to his necessity during the installation process. What is difficult to understand is the difference between the end-user and the developer. The end-user should not make programmation.

[Azrael5]

Use some distro with F2FS support on install, like Gentoo, Arch, Opensuse (I think)...

Your answer is smart.

[evil_core]

The common user is not able to make these operations. The common user can choose the file system more adapt to his necessity during the installation process. What is difficult to understand is the difference between the end-user and the developer. The end-user should not make programmation.

No, you are totally wrong, especially in this context (expermintal features of niche filesystem.
If user is non-technical and cannot install linux manually creating partitions from command line(or kparted), untar base archive, and arch-chroot and pacman -S basesystem plasma=kde, etc, then it means he doesn't need anything more advanced than ext4 and xfs(it's best performing FS BTW, with COW filesystem you need to be carefull to not fragment them too much, not put some workload on them, etc, especially beause f2fs is log based filesystem, that rewrites some data, and can cause not only degraded performance, but also write amplification to the flash)
Typical Windows user don't even know what's NTFS or FAT32)

[pal666]

2. Recompile your kernel with F2FS support built in.

every modern distro has f2fs module built. this probably should be replaced with "rebuild initrd with f2fs"

[pal666]

Ok, but the installation process could not provide the user the possibility to chose the file system during the installation phase?

it does, for supported filesystems. if your distro doesn't support your filesystem, you are on your own

[skeevy420]

The common user is not able to make these operations. The common user can choose the file system more adapt to his necessity during the installation process. What is difficult to understand is the difference between the end-user and the developer. The end-user should not make programmation.

Because Root on F2FS is no different than Root on ZFS from a technical standpoint -- neither have all tools and infrastructure in place to make it easy, integrated, and safe. That's why Ubuntu is investing heavily into their ZFS tooling -- so the common user doesn't have to know all the ins and outs of ZFS to reap the benefits. Until all the easy-mode tools are in place and other existing tools are updated with (feature) support (like bootloaders), the user is expected to know what they're doing because there be dragons.

[Azrael5]

Because Root on F2FS is no different than Root on ZFS from a technical standpoint -- neither have all tools and infrastructure in place to make it easy, integrated, and safe. That's why Ubuntu is investing heavily into their ZFS tooling -- so the common user doesn't have to know all the ins and outs of ZFS to reap the benefits. Until all the easy-mode tools are in place and other existing tools are updated with (feature) support (like bootloaders), the user is expected to know what they're doing because there be dragons.

Ok I understand the explanation about the risks for the end-user. So the question is why to know about the amazing features of other file system if the end-user is prevented from their implementation. Every time I read articles of incredible improvements which are limited to few ones for many different reasons. As example, consider Wayland, an excellent evolution in terms of efficiency and reliability graphical stack. Only Fedora use Wayand by default since the last release, but Fedora has some limitation in fruition of some video codecs useful to see videos online, and or Tv contents. Other linux operating systems aren't able to integrate Wayland if not penalizing the usability.... So the question is, how can take benefit of all this improvements, if these improvements is not accessible to all the users? I think that is a logical matter much more than an informatics matter.

[Azrael5]

No, you are totally wrong, especially in this context (expermintal features of niche filesystem.
If user is non-technical and cannot install linux manually creating partitions from command line(or kparted), untar base archive, and arch-chroot and pacman -S basesystem plasma=kde, etc, then it means he doesn't need anything more advanced than ext4 and xfs(it's best performing FS BTW, with COW filesystem you need to be carefull to not fragment them too much, not put some workload on them, etc, especially beause f2fs is log based filesystem, that rewrites some data, and can cause not only degraded performance, but also write amplification to the flash)
Typical Windows user don't even know what's NTFS or FAT32)

So, how to get the feature to make longer the lifespan of an SSd, for end-user? The end-user is excluded from this features because ignore or is not able to run the way to integrate F2FS.