From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [23.128.96.18]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 857F2C433F5 for ; Sun, 20 Feb 2022 12:13:12 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S243690AbiBTMNb (ORCPT ); Sun, 20 Feb 2022 07:13:31 -0500 Received: from mxb-00190b01.gslb.pphosted.com ([23.128.96.19]:54340 "EHLO lindbergh.monkeyblade.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S243668AbiBTMN1 (ORCPT ); Sun, 20 Feb 2022 07:13:27 -0500 Received: from casper.infradead.org (casper.infradead.org [IPv6:2001:8b0:10b:1236::1]) by lindbergh.monkeyblade.net (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4967842A14; Sun, 20 Feb 2022 04:13:06 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=infradead.org; s=casper.20170209; h=Content-Type:MIME-Version:Message-ID: Subject:To:From:Date:Sender:Reply-To:Cc:Content-Transfer-Encoding:Content-ID: Content-Description:In-Reply-To:References; bh=5WMwUY/lejbGy9budx04ZQZ9mYcj4RUjgOOK6LRIrfw=; b=DyHQ+Kv0tpLuE5sDcAwYJGhVUR qAt8z1eS7hx7Y8jIl/rg1raXyiw1G6RRwa1gCQk81UQm36X5bYhkRhqBPdlMGW7I6dWArPn9/7PDs PqBRMWIKpY27/5lHsG6hN3GjIm4+0w1sGoMtcCdb4Utx0P/D6+mokcArWE/B1I7itpylQlvF8heoP CQixsqj80JBYJAsMGEWDILoWC+a9xsAW/6n0yO8Ii5hG2KB5pPr2lHFgjkIqoLWxncHuIRxKTbs86 Bt5UPKXYbfBwjG9aJq8RCbxeAMb7ut+29GIOLwCKuHrOozACXG/DkhQGupWcYJfR+FbPPT38Ydcwn HFIVJm1Q==; Received: from willy by casper.infradead.org with local (Exim 4.94.2 #2 (Red Hat Linux)) id 1nLl5M-000pjI-GH; Sun, 20 Feb 2022 12:13:04 +0000 Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2022 12:13:04 +0000 From: Matthew Wilcox To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, reiserfs-devel@vger.kernel.org, Jan Kara Subject: Is it time to remove reiserfs? Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Keeping reiserfs in the tree has certain costs. For example, I would very much like to remove the 'flags' argument to ->write_begin. We have the infrastructure in place to handle AOP_FLAG_NOFS differently, but AOP_FLAG_CONT_EXPAND is still around, used only by reiserfs. Looking over the patches to reiserfs over the past couple of years, there are fixes for a few syzbot reports and treewide changes. There don't seem to be any fixes for user-spotted bugs since 2019. Does reiserfs still have a large install base that is just very happy with an old stable filesystem? Or have all its users migrated to new and exciting filesystems with active feature development? We've removed support for senescent filesystems before (ext, xiafs), so it's not unprecedented. But while I have a clear idea of the benefits to other developers of removing reiserfs, I don't have enough information to weigh the costs to users. Maybe they're happy with having 5.15 support for their reiserfs filesystems and can migrate to another filesystem before they upgrade their kernel after 5.15. Another possibility beyond outright removal would be to trim the kernel code down to read-only support for reiserfs. Most of the quirks of reiserfs have to do with write support, so this could be a useful way forward. Again, I don't have a clear picture of how people actually use reiserfs, so I don't know whether it is useful or not. NB: Please don't discuss the personalities involved. This is purely a "we have old code using old APIs" discussion.