Hi all,
I am now ready to collect some feedback on ZFS support in Sabayon.
The Linux port of ZFS is released under CDDL, which apparently [1]
conflicts with the Linux Kernel license in some legalese way.
However, many people think that the issue is the same with
nvidia/fglrx, even though Oracle is known for its "let's sue
everybody" attitude.
When I started looking at ZFS, I realized I had several ways of
including ZFS in Sabayon:
1) as kernel module, shipped with sys-kernel/linux-{sabayon,server}
2) as part of genkernel initramfs + external package
3) just as external package (no ability to use it as root fs)
Last night I had a look at 1) and started to embed spl and splat
modules (from sys-kernel/spl) into the kernel tree. The procedure is
quite complex because spl build system sucks the hell out of me, but I
eventually made it.
Unfortunately, embedding the zfs modules into the kernel tree, even if
built as external objects, is considered "not-so-legal" by some.
On the other hand, I do think that option 3) would be the safest,
although I'm not sure it is completely, 100% legal.
Moreover, option 1) adds yet another maintenance burden we could avoid
with option 3); I don't think people are going to use ZFS as their
root filesystem anyway.
Thoughts?
[1] http://zfsonlinux.org/faq.html#WhatAboutTheLicensingIssue
--
Fabio Erculiani
