XFS Aims To Get Online File-System Repair Support Merged Next Year

For years XFS has been working toward online repair capabilities for the file-system and it looks like in 2023 that work may finally come to fruition.

Earlier this year the XFS online repair code was undergoing a massive design review after this yet-to-be-merged code has been in the works for five years. The XFS developers have a goal now to merge the online file-system repair support before the year 2023 Linux LTS (Long Term Support) kernel, which should be the kernel to debut roughly this time next year.

Merged this week for the Linux 6.2 kernel were many fixes around the online metadata checking code as part of the preparations toward merging online repair support next year.

The mature yet robust XFS file-system has long had the xfs_repair utility for offline/unmounted file-system repairs, but in 2023 the XFS file-system will hopefully see online repair capabilities finally merged.

XFS maintainer Darrick Wong wrote of the file-system changes for this new kernel cycle:

"The highlight of this is a batch of fixes for the online metadata checking code as we start the loooong march towards merging online repair. I aim to merge that in time for the 2023 LTS.

There are also a large number of data corruption and race condition fixes in this patchset. Most notably fixed are write() calls to unwritten extents racing with writeback, which required some late(r than I prefer) code changes to iomap to support the necessary revalidations. I don't really like iomap changes going in past -rc4, but Dave and I have been working on it long enough that I chose to push it for 6.2 anyway."

The XFS pull also has various other fixes and improvements for this file-system driver in Linux 6.2.