Current Status ??

[Greg Freemyer <freemyer@NorcrossGroup.com>]

I've just gotten interested in XFS because of its ACL support in the metadata and via xfsdump/xfsrestore.

I'm trying to figure out what its current status is, and what is likely to happen over the next few months.  

Does the below sound correct:

Current release  (XFS v1.0.2):
    fairly stable, appears to be production quality
    Supports ACLs on disk and with xfsdump/xfsrestore.
    With xfsrestore a single file can be restored complete with its associated ACL metadata.
    Uses a XFS specific interface to the kernel from userland to manipulate ACL.
    Has trouble with LVM snapshots  (maybe this is CVS code only).

XFS v2.0:
    Will be released when the new Linus approved EA interface is added to the kernel.  
    (I can't tell if this is 2.4.18, or 2.5.x)
    The filesystem layout itself will not change, but the userland tools from V2.0 will not be compatible with a V1.0 kernel and vice-versa.

Questions:
Is the new EA API coming out in 2.4.18 the same as the one in 2.5.x?

If so, how long after 2.4.18 is released do you expect XFS V2.0 to be released?  (days, weeks, months??)

The first release of V2.0 will be what quality? (alpha, beta, production??)  

Is the 2.4.18 kernel likely to be of production quality? I have read about a lot of problems in the whole 2.4.x series of kernels, but it sounds like it is all coming together in the most recent kernels.

Because the of the new standard EA interface, will V2.0 userland ACL tools will be able to control both XFS and ext3 with the acl.bestbits.at extensions.

Is star (http://acl.bestbits.at/backup.html) able to support XFS complete with ACLs by using the Posix ACL interface. If not now, what about with XFS V2.0?

What about xfsdump/xfsrestore and ext3 with ACL support?

Does Amanda work well with xfsdump/xfsrestore?   star?

In general, do you think XFS or ext3 with ACL extensions is a more production ready environment.  (I know your biased, but I would still appreciate an answer.)

Thanks for any answers you can give me.

Greg Freemyer
Internet Engineer
Deployment and Integration Specialist
The Norcross Group
www.NorcrossGroup.com