It's Looking Like Bcachefs Won't Be Merged For Linux 6.5

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.

Last week the Bcachefs pull request was submitted with hopes of being mainlined for Linux 6.5. The still-experimental file-system has been in development for years while most features are deemed stable and seeing usage already by those running the out-of-tree file-system driver. Bcachefs has been in development for the better part of a decade after this copy-on-write file-system was born out of the Linux kernel's block cache code.

Unfortunately, while we could always see a last minute decision by Linus Torvalds, it's looking like the Bcachefs driver might not be merged for Linux 6.5. There's been no official comment yet by Torvalds or activity with it in Git, but there's been a rather tense discussion being carried out on the Linux kernel mailing list among developers.

The primary source of tension isn't around the file-system itself but code changes needed to the kernel outside of the kernel module itself as well as the kernel mailing list threads around Bcachefs often becoming heated. There are many messages less than cordial in recent days within the lengthy mailing list thread around the Bcachefs pull request. Additionally, with the common block code changes and other alterations being sent in via this Bcachefs pull request itself rather than through the normal subsystem trees as the standard Linux kernel development approach.

We'll see in the hours ahead if there is any unexpected surprises prior to Linux 6.5-rc1 being released, but it's looking more than likely that Bcachefs will not be accepted this cycle.

Those wishing to read up on Bcachefs itself can do so via the project site at Bcachefs.org.