On 28-Jun-2000 Sven Burgener wrote: > Hi debs > > How far is the development of ext3? Today, at linux-conference.ch some > guy from RH said he was using ext3 on his notebook right then. Apparently > the main developer of both ext2 and ext3 works also for RH. > > So, I wanted to know whether anyone knows when ext3 will be widely available > / merged into debian. > Any experiences so far? >
ext3 exists only as a patch against the kernel. Once it is actually in a kernel we ship, we can turn the option on. Until then, it would be irresponsible of us to ship alpha kernel patches. I assume the speaker was Stephen Tweedie. He does indeed work for RH. I work with Ted, and have heard about how ext3 can ruin systems. There are also numerous hacks in place to allow you to use it currently. For instance the journal the FS uses must be created by hand and is an actual file in the OS. This allows them to debug the fs, but also allows an accidental rm to fry all of your journal.