Reiser4 & ZFS Get Updated For The Linux 4.4 Kernel

Written by Michael Larabel in Linux Storage on 14 January 2016 at 01:37 PM EST. 16 Comments
LINUX STORAGE
For those relying upon the out-of-tree ZFS or Reiser4 file-systems, they have each been updated now to work with this week's release of the Linux 4.4 kernel.

Last weekend ZFS On Linux 0.6.5.4 was released. ZOL v0.6.5.4 brought support for the Linux 4.4 kernel while continuing to support older kernel versions going all the way back to Linux 2.6.32. This ZFS On Linux update also brought a number of stability fixes, better support/stability for NFS-exported snapshots, and a variety of other fixes.

ZFS On Linux support still is left outside of the mainline Linux kernel due to license differences with the dependent code that would need to be mainlined. At least, however, we are seeing more Linux distributions offer their own packages or enabled kernels with support for this advanced file-system. With Ubuntu 16.04 there will also be out-of-the-box ZFS support.

You can download this latest ZFS On Linux release via GitHub.

Meanwhile, released yesterday was an updated patch of the Reiser4 kernel support. From SourceForge you can download the patch to apply against the Linux 4.4.0 stable kernel for enabling support for this file-system. While there aren't any licensing woes with Reiser4, there's been no talk recently about trying to mainline support for this file-system since there are limited developers left working on the project and no backing by any of major companies having a stake in Linux. Most of the Reiser4 work in the past few years has been maintenance with just providing fixes, support for new Linux kernel releases, and few new features.

Who's interested in a fresh Linux 4.4 file-system comparison of the mainline contenders (F2FS, Btrfs, XFS, EXT4), compared to ZFS and Reiser4? Let me know in the forums if you are interested.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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