Btrfs In Linux 4.13 Brings Statx Support, Other Improvements

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Btrfs In Linux 4.13 Brings Statx Support, Other Improvements

The Btrfs file-system updates for the Linux 4.13 kernel have been submitted...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Btrfs-Linux-4.13

[jacob]

I've been using BTRFS for a while and love it. But although I personally never had any problems with it, some people have, so it would be better if the changelog for at least one release cycle was all about fixing remaining bugs and corner cases, rather than a zillion new features.

[Konstantin A.]

Will Btrfs replace ext4 in all major distros (RH derived, Debian derived) or it's going to be a special thing ?

I mean do we expect ext5 any time soon?

[pal666]

it would be better if the changelog for at least one release cycle was all about fixing remaining bugs and corner cases, rather than a zillion new features.

lol, you've just invented method to produce bugfree software

[man-walking]

I've been using BTRFS for a while and love it. But although I personally never had any problems with it, some people have, so it would be better if the changelog for at least one release cycle was all about fixing remaining bugs and corner cases, rather than a zillion new features.

I don't see that zilion of features, if I would like something to have in "short time" that would be lz4 / zstd compression support and proper defragmentation without data bloat...

[nbecker]

I've been using btrfs for years, but I do have 1 problem. No file swap. On the few occasions I wished I could add swap on-the-fly, turns out, no you can't.

[s_j_newbury]

I've been using btrfs for years, but I do have 1 problem. No file swap. On the few occasions I wished I could add swap on-the-fly, turns out, no you can't.

You can. Create the swap file, then use losetup to create a loop device and then mkswap/swapon on the loop device. It isn't as fast as swap files directly on other filesystems, but it works.

[starshipeleven]

I've been using btrfs for years, but I do have 1 problem. No file swap. On the few occasions I wished I could add swap on-the-fly, turns out, no you can't.

Only safe and performing way is to resize btrfs volume and add a swap partition. This can be done while the btrfs partitions are mounted too.

[waxhead]

I've been using BTRFS for a while and love it. But although I personally never had any problems with it, some people have, so it would be better if the changelog for at least one release cycle was all about fixing remaining bugs and corner cases, rather than a zillion new features.

If you follow the mailinglist you will find that not many seems to have issues with metadata+data raid1 with more than three disks (because btrfs need to be able to create two copies to avoid a dead end read-only situation). Recently it seems that metadata=raid1 and data=raid5/6 is even worth the risk for the brave. I am however not that brave yet , but getting the extra storage gain is tempting as hell.
Actually the BTRFS devs is all about fixing bugs and improving the existing features these days. Not as fun for us who want raid5/6 functionality , but mdadm is not bad at all (in fact it is pretty fantastic and rock solid).

[waxhead]

Will Btrfs replace ext4 in all major distros (RH derived, Debian derived) or it's going to be a special thing ?

I mean do we expect ext5 any time soon?

Theodore Ts'o (the ext4 author) stated back in 2008 that btrfs is the better direction. BTRFS will probably be just as good if not better when EXT5 (if it ever happens) gets mature enough. XFS is perhaps worth a look if you want to try to see if something else tastes better.