EXT3 Driver Might Not End Up Getting Removed From Linux 4.3

While yesterday it looked like the EXT3 driver would be removed in Linux 4.3 as the pull request was sent in and there were no objections brought up last month when it was proposed, Linus Torvalds has taken issue with removing the driver.

Linus Torvalds responded on Monday:

I really am not ready to just remove ext3 without a lot of good arguments. There might well be people who this use ext3 as ext3, and don't want to update. I want more a rationale for removal than "ext4 can read old ext3 filesystems".

In a later message, he also expressed concern that mounting an EXT3 file-system with the EXT4 driver could end up causing compatibility issues if later trying to mount that file-system on an older kernel. He added, "I could be ok with removing ext3 in theory, but I haven't seen a lot of rationale for it, and I don't know if there are still users who may have their own good reasons to stay with ext3."

So far this mailing list discussion is ongoing with developers expressing perspective now from both sides.