this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by trougnouf@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml
 

I got this email this morning: https://lkml.org/lkml/2023/10/30/1098 πŸ₯³

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[–] tony@lemmy.hoyle.me.uk 24 points 10 months ago (2 children)

What I've read looks good but it's going to need a track record of reliability before I'd trust it.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 31 points 10 months ago

it’s going to need a track record of reliability before I’d trust it.

That's why kernel inclusion is so important: People can start testing it without jumping through hoops of manually patching and compiling the kernel.

[–] PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 10 months ago

Why? BTRFS never did, and it's used by a lot of people.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I only read the wiki article and honestly, I can't tell what makes that different from other "advanced" FSs like BTRFS and ZFS.

Could someone get me up to speed here?

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Compared to ZFS, it's a sideways movement except for being in the kernel. ZFS has a lot more enterprise level features and an excellent track record. Its used widely for some pretty big installations, and still can be used by the homelabber quite nicely. Things like fs send and native encryption are big.

Compared to BTRFS, well, it's definitely an improvement in many areas for a driver that's in the kernel.

[–] woelkchen@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago
[–] mindlight@lemm.ee 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Does Bcachefs come with any guarantees regarding my wife's wellbeing?

If not, I'm definitively sticking with my OpenZFS.

[–] PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 10 months ago

Depends... you didn't write ReiserFS, did you?

[–] massive_bereavement@kbin.social 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The story behind bcachefs development is mildly wild.

[–] Secret300@sh.itjust.works 9 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Where can I find the story behind it? This is the first I've heard of it

[–] massive_bereavement@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Sorry, I don't know if it is documented anywhere, but in summary the project started with bcache (block cache) from a single developer (Kent Overstreet A.K.A Evil Pie Pirate) in 2010 that explained he was building a module for the Linux Kernel.

Bcache is a method of using a fast ssd drive as a caching mechanism for slow but large hdds. As is, the project was quite ambitious but then, when the developer was working in an evolution of bcache (kind-of lessons learned re-implementation), the project grew into a general-purpose POSIX filesystem.

Considering the origins of the most popular file system implementations, expecting a single individual being successful creating a general-purpose one sounded over ambitious.

Then in 2013, out of the blue, Kent left Google to solely work in this project. (In reality though, he spent two years later in Datera as well.)

Then, how do you finance a single developer for a file system from 2013 onwards up to today, when it finally merged into the kernel?

Patreon. The whole thing was financed through it.

That said, there are other collaborators like Daniel Hill, Dave Chinner or Brian Foster, yet what's surprising is how this started as a side project and eventually became the main competitor of corporate-developed file systems by Patreon funding.

Note: A bit of hype-control here, btrfs which would be the main "competitor" was merged into kernel 14 years ago, so bcachefs still has a long way to go before we can trust it with our data.

[–] LaLiLuLuCo@lemmy.ca 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I don't know of anything that documents it as well as reading the literal mailing list responses at each time it became relevant.

But the actual development story isn't that interesting other than when some extremely unprofessional behavior from a lot of parties occurred.

Like actual piss baby anti social nerd shit.

[–] Tobu@lemmy.ml 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Happy happy joy! I've been using it for a year already, as it is simpler to manage than luks + lvm + bcache + whatever FS.

It has been entirely unproblematic through frequent kernel upgrades; caching, background compression and encryption just work.

I'm very glad it made it in; it deserves wider adoption.

[–] QuazarOmega@lemy.lol 7 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Wow, didn't expect it to happen so soon!

[–] intrepid@lemmy.ca 7 points 10 months ago (2 children)

It's going to be a while before 6.7 is released.

[–] EinfachUnersetzlich@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

Two months.

[–] QuazarOmega@lemy.lol 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Well yes, but seeing the history it has, I thought it would go through some more hiccups along the way, so it would actually take way more than that.
I'm glad to see I was wrong!

[–] PseudoSpock@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 10 months ago

The long wait is over!