XFS Updates Queued For Linux 4.13

[phoronix]

Phoronix: XFS Updates Queued For Linux 4.13

Darrick Wong has sent in the XFS file-system updates slated for the Linux 4.13 kernel...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.13-XFS

[nomadewolf]

Something that bothers me is how 'all' the file systems are constantly getting bugfixes, even after some being around for decades and yet, during all this time, we blindly entrust our data to them as if they were completely bug free... Is it just me that worries about these things?...

[starshipeleven]

Something that bothers me is how 'all' the file systems are constantly getting bugfixes, even after some being around for decades and yet, during all this time, we blindly entrust our data to them as if they were completely bug free... Is it just me that worries about these things?...

That's just one of the less important reasons to have backups (hardware failures and human errors being far more important reasons to have backups).

I'm not worried. I have backups.

[Holograph]

Something that bothers me is how 'all' the file systems are constantly getting bugfixes, even after some being around for decades and yet, during all this time, we blindly entrust our data to them as if they were completely bug free... Is it just me that worries about these things?...

It both worries and annoys me as well, but fortunately with most of the filesystems (i.e. filesystems that aren't BTRFS), the bugs seem to be rather minor and hard to reproduce. I've never encountered any major bug in XFS, meanwhile I've used BTRFS and had it cause major problems that were a pain to recover from when my system would freeze (experimenting with KVM mostly) or the power would go out.

But yes... definitely keep backups is what it comes down to.

[jrch2k8]

Something that bothers me is how 'all' the file systems are constantly getting bugfixes, even after some being around for decades and yet, during all this time, we blindly entrust our data to them as if they were completely bug free... Is it just me that worries about these things?...

there is no such thing as a bug free filesystem or piece of software, even ZFS, NTFS, etc. have bugs fixed every release.

Filesystems in particular are released when enough testing shows the probability to hit that bug is extremely low for the majority of the users usage scenarios but that doesn't mean they are released when they are perfect, just resilient enough.(otherwise there won't be a filesystem today on any OS to be honest)

Additionally a filesystem can be absolutely perfect at release on certain hardware and still get completely broken in a future due to a hardware change, this applies to subsystems changes, new software usage scenarios, etc. hence you will always need updates(aka bug fixes) regardless.

So, always keep your data backed up in a different media to be safe(remember hard drives can simply stop working too regardless of the FS)

[waxhead]

Something that bothers me is how 'all' the file systems are constantly getting bugfixes, even after some being around for decades and yet, during all this time, we blindly entrust our data to them as if they were completely bug free... Is it just me that worries about these things?...

Not only filesystems are getting bugs fixed. All software are getting bugfixes, and constantly receiving bugfixes means people care about the software and are improving it.
You really have to consider what a bug really is. A bug is not always a catastrophic failure. Talking about filesystems it may be as simple as not being able to stuff more than xyz files in a directory. Sure it would be nice to stuff xyz+1 files , but such a bug is not exactly a show stopper.

You must also not confuse feature fixes with bugfixes (even if a missing feature bugs(!!) you). There is always yet another bug regardless of the software , the question is just what impact the bug has (if any). I would be more concerned about bugs in your harddrive / ssd firmware. They can't easily be upgraded unlike other software... and then again even the firmware upgrade tools may have bugs.

When I write software I usually point out that "no bugs where harmed during the making of this software".

[labyrinth153]

I highly recommend XFS for all Linux users. It has great performance and reliability and is constantly developed. All of my vm's and servers use xfs. I used it for quite a long time since 2.x series kernels for sure. To be honest the only file system I ever had trouble with was ext4.

[Leinad]

I highly recommend XFS for all Linux users. It has great performance and reliability and is constantly developed. All of my vm's and servers use xfs. I used it for quite a long time since 2.x series kernels for sure. To be honest the only file system I ever had trouble with was ext4.

I don't recommend XFS for desktop Linux users. Some games (eg. Football Manager 2014) and programs doesn't work there and there is no support for shrinking.

[caligula]

Something that bothers me is how 'all' the file systems are constantly getting bugfixes, even after some being around for decades and yet, during all this time, we blindly entrust our data to them as if they were completely bug free... Is it just me that worries about these things?...

Well, there's always the route with formal methods and very strongly typed languages. Guess what - industry rarely cares about them.

[labyrinth153]

Ive not needed shrinking as a Linux admin, but after switching to Mac, online fsck and resize has been convenient.