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Author Topic: Please add btrfs  (Read 1850 times)

Offline domike

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Please add btrfs
« on: March 19, 2014, 08:27:56 AM »
Hi, please consider adding btrfs to Tiny Core. I have read the previous topic (2012: http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,13362.0.html ) but the raised objections do not hold any more:

It is stable as in "does not crash or corrupt data" and as in "will not change on-disk format without user intervention"; backward-incompatible changes must be explicitly enabled via btrfstune or mkfs, and are only introduced if "there are strong reasons to do so" ( https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=25071#Stability_status)

It is designed not to need fsck after an unclean unmount (it uses atomic transactions and copy-on-write, so that the system always sees a consistent state) and fsck is only needed if the fs is corrupted, which is rare with recent kernels ( https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/FAQ#What.27s_the_difference_between_btrfsck_and_fsck.btrfs ).

All the mainstream distributions provide official technical support for btrfs (including the enterprise, SUSE >= 11 SP2, Oracle, Ubuntu) and most of them allow the user to choose it in the installer - the absence of btrfs in Tiny Core does not have any advantage to the end user and is an obstacle. It's not a toy or a fad since a while (in my personal experience it's usable since kernels 3.4 or 3.5) and has a growing user base (see stackexchange or a distro's forum)

It has many unique features ( https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page#Features ), personally I'm using transparent compression, transparent checksumming, multiple-device support, and lightweight snapshotting. While other technologies may also provide these features, it takes more time and effort to learn and set up them.
« Last Edit: March 19, 2014, 08:59:28 AM by domike »

Offline bmarkus

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Re: Please add btrfs
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2014, 09:26:38 AM »
I would not use brtfs with 3.8 kernel :(
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Offline curaga

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Re: Please add btrfs
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2014, 11:48:32 AM »
I agree with bmarkus, I would not consider its use safe in the current kernel version we use.

It's very easy to build a custom kernel though, so that you can use btrfs in your systems. See the wiki and forum posts.
The only barriers that can stop you are the ones you create yourself.