Linux 5.14 To Support F2FS Read-Only Feature

With the Linux 5.14 cycle this summer the Flash-Friendly File-System (F2FS) should land its new "RO" feature read-only mode.

Queued up yesterday into the F2FS "dev" code for its kernel driver is the RO feature when marked in a file-system's superblock then allows bypassing the provisioning/reserve spaces and segment summary area (SSA).

Similarly, yesterday was a merge for the RO feature to the f2fs-tools user-space component for this file-system. "This patch adds a readonly feature on small partitions by eliminating on-disk layout for data writes such as provisioning/reserved space and SSA. This requires f2fs updates to understand RO feature in superblock."

The feature can be enabled with the "ro" option when running on a supported kernel (5.14+).