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Re: large allocation groups fix

To: Alexander Fisher <alexjfisher@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: large allocation groups fix
From: Eric Sandeen <sandeen@xxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 2004 09:22:22 -0600 (CST)
Cc: linux-xfs@xxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <20040224110011.35273.qmail@web25203.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
Sender: linux-xfs-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxx
On Tue, 24 Feb 2004, Alexander Fisher wrote:

> Unfortunately backporting the fix in any sensible time
> period is beyond me.  At least one of the files being
> patched doesn't even exist in the 1.3.1 release.  

page_buf.[ch] turned into xfs_buf.[ch], and moved
from fs/xfs/pagebuf to fs/xfs/linux-2.[46]/
With that, it will be much closer to applying.

> If I
> try to remedy this by applying other updates to the
> xfs code first I'm going to get into the situation
> where other core kernel updates are also required. 
> These will too have their dependencies.  I think it
> really needs somebody who knows the xfs code and
> understands the problem to produce a 1.3.1 fix.

We can't be in the business of applying all new bugfixes
to all past releases, we'd soon run out of time
to do real work, I'm afraid.

> You said that one of my workarounds would be to
> downgrade xfstools (or at least mkfs.xfs).  Wouldn't
> it be better if the latest released version of
> xfstools worked correctly with the latest released
> version of xfs?  

It does; XFS in 2.4.25 + xfsprogs 2.6.3 does not
exhibit this problem.

> Perhaps its possible for mkfs.xfs to
> detect the use of xfs1.3.1 (and earlier?) and not
> create large allocation groups under those conditions.

mkfs is a purely userspace app, it has no knowledge of
(and no need for) any kernelspace code, so that's
not a workable solution.

I'd suggest that you use 2.4.25, downgrade xfsprogs,
specify 4g AG size with later xfsprogs, or work just
a bit more with the patch to get it to apply to
1.3.1 - at least you have a few options.  :)

Thanks,
-Eric



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