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Andrew Purtell commented on HDFS-5698: -------------------------------------- +1, this would be great > Use protobuf to serialize / deserialize FSImage > ----------------------------------------------- > > Key: HDFS-5698 > URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/HDFS-5698 > Project: Hadoop HDFS > Issue Type: Improvement > Reporter: Haohui Mai > Assignee: Haohui Mai > > Currently, the code serializes FSImage using in-house serialization > mechanisms. There are a couple disadvantages of the current approach: > # Mixing the responsibility of reconstruction and serialization / > deserialization. The current code paths of serialization / deserialization > have spent a lot of effort on maintaining compatibility. What is worse is > that they are mixed with the complex logic of reconstructing the namespace, > making the code difficult to follow. > # Poor documentation of the current FSImage format. The format of the FSImage > is practically defined by the implementation. An bug in implementation means > a bug in the specification. Furthermore, it also makes writing third-party > tools quite difficult. > # Changing schemas is non-trivial. Adding a field in FSImage requires bumping > the layout version every time. Bumping out layout version requires (1) the > users to explicitly upgrade the clusters, and (2) putting new code to > maintain backward compatibility. > This jira proposes to use protobuf to serialize the FSImage. Protobuf has > been used to serialize / deserialize the RPC message in Hadoop. > Protobuf addresses all the above problems. It clearly separates the > responsibility of serialization and reconstructing the namespace. The > protobuf files document the current format of the FSImage. The developers now > can add optional fields with ease, since the old code can always read the new > FSImage. -- This message was sent by Atlassian JIRA (v6.1.5#6160)