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An ex-Google engineer is developing a new file system for Linux, with the hopes that it can offer a speedier and more advanced way of storing data on servers.
After a number of years of development, the Bcache File System (Bcachefs) "is more or less feature complete -- nothing critical should be missing," wrote project head Kent Overstreet, in an e-mail to the Linux Kernel Mailing List late Thursday.
Linux currently has plenty of working file systems, though no one file system seems to be best-suited for all uses.
The main goal of Bcachefs is to match the speed of traditional Linux file systems with the advanced scalability and reliability of newer file systems, Overstreet wrote.
Although not a sexy technology, file systems provide the interface to the operating system for storing files on a disk.
The most widely used file system among Linux users is the decades-old Gnu/Linux Extended Filesystem series of filesystems -- Ext4 being the latest release. But many organizations and users have gravitated towards other file systems, such as Btrfs or XFS, to handle very large amounts of data, or to use advanced techniques in ensuring data integrity.
This file system evolved from the work Overstreet did at Google, where he worked as a software engineer for two years from 2011 until 2013 to create caching software.
Bcachefs has all the features of a modern file system, Overstreet wrote, including checksumming to ensure data integrity, compression to save space, caching for quick response, and copy-on-write, which offers the ability for a single file to be accessed by multiple parties at once.
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Overstreet is working on the file system on his own time, without outside funding. He is seeking other administrators and developers to test the system and even contribute to its development.
Nonetheless, the release of Bcachefs seems to have met with cautious optimism by the Linux professionals on the Hacker News online forum, though one contributor did say of Overstreet that "I hope the guy has a large stash in his bank. File systems take notoriously long to stabilize."
(Score: 2) by Marand on Sunday August 23 2015, @10:51PM
Except that there's a distinction here. Linux isn't GNU, and GNU isn't Linux. The GNU/Linux concept is an FSF thing that was created to latch onto the Linux kernel popularity and remind everyone that GNU software is used in distributions by stating that distributions should explicitly name the use of both GNU and Linux. It would have made more sense to write it as GNU+Linux, probably, but it doesn't matter; either way, it's still just an abstraction and only makes sense at high level, such as Debian being called GNU/Linux. The GNU part isn't Linux and the Linux part isn't GNU, because GNU/Linux is combination, not indication of a subset.
It's not a case of "A is in B, B is in C, so A is in C" like you suggest because calling Linux a GNU project because some people call distros GNU/Linux is akin to saying "A and B are used in A+B, so A is part of B". A (Linux) isn't a subset of B (GNU) in this case. Linux filesystems, however are a subset of the Linux kernel, so your counter-argument fails due to being completely different.
Android, by contrast, uses the Linux kernel (which is non-GNU) but isn't considered GNU/Linux due to custom userland. If Linux were part of GNU then it'd be GNU/Android or something.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday August 25 2015, @06:41AM
Linux is under the GPL and the G stands for GNU, so considering it separate seems overkill, anyway I don`t strongly disagree with your opinion. It is GNU/Linux likely because at the time a lot of stuff had xxx/yyy denominations, CP/M for example
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(Score: 2) by Bot on Tuesday August 25 2015, @06:53AM
Oh last nitpicking, the A is part of C still stands after you prove that C is the sum of a thing containing A plus a completely separate stuff. Proof, ext4 is part of `software`.
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(Score: 3, Informative) by Gravis on Tuesday August 25 2015, @12:43PM
Linux is under the GPL and the G stands for GNU
no it doesn't. GPL stands for General Public License.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Bot on Friday September 04 2015, @04:22PM
What does “GPL” stand for? (#WhatDoesGPLStandFor)
“GPL” stands for “General Public License”. The most widespread such license is the GNU General Public License, or GNU GPL for short. This can be further shortened to “GPL”, when it is understood that the GNU GPL is the one intended.
So while I concede the point, the implication following it still valid because GNU is implied. But if there are others general public licenses that you could contextualize here I am all ears.
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