Re: Bug#200153: ITP: e2tools -- utilities for manipulating files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem
On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 11:35:29PM +0200, Ralf Treinen wrote: On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 05:24:21PM +0200, Robert Millan wrote: E2tools is a simple set of GPL'ed utilities to read, write, and manipulate files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem. please excuse my ignorance - what would be the advantage of these tools over the core file utilities which use the VFS layer? The problem is that for monolithic kernels the filesystem code lies in kernelspace, hence for security reasons filesystems can only be attached (via mount) by root. (This isn't applicable to the GNU system, though, since Hurd's ext2fs is implemented as a userspace server that normal users can run) With this utils, normal users still can't use standard filesystem C library calls over their custom ext2fs image, but may use commands like e2cp or e2mkdir for basic manipulation. Btw, I need this to integrate grub-disk into the grub package (see #190392). -- Robert Millan
Re: Bug#200153: ITP: e2tools -- utilities for manipulating files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem
On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 11:57:35PM +0200, Falk Hueffner wrote: Ralf Treinen [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: E2tools is a simple set of GPL'ed utilities to read, write, and manipulate files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem. please excuse my ignorance - what would be the advantage of these tools over the core file utilities which use the VFS layer? You don't need root. Useful for example to build rescue floppy images. Actually, you can do this with debugfs. That's how Real Men (tm) build their initial bootstrap images. (i.e., Linus Torvalds, when he was first bootstrapping the Alpha port.) That being said, the e2tools does have an easier to use user interface than debugfs, and reduces the chance that user will harm himself; sort of like the difference between using an Exacto knife and one of those scissors with rounded ends that gets handed out to pre-schoolers. :-) That's not a bad thing, and certainly I'm not saying it shouldn't be packaged. In fact, I think it's a good thing, just as like the mtools suite is useful even though we have the msdos filesystem in the kernel. However, I've taken a quick look at it, and I do have some warnings: *) It looks like upstream hasn't released a new version since July or August 2002. Before that, releases were happening regularly. Is the author Keith Sheffield (cc'ed on this note), still maintaining the package? *) It badly needs to be autoconfiscated. *) Currently it hardcodes the path to static libraries in ../e2fsprogs-1.27/lib/...; it should use the shared version of the libraries. *) It's missing man pages *) It needs testing against a variety of newer versions of ext2fs to make sure the code actually works well with filesystems with htree filesystems and extended attributes. Upon brief inspection, I can see that it's not dropping the refcount on the extended attribute block when deleting a file, and freeing the extended attribute block when the refcount goes to zero. This is no shame; it merely shows the age of the code, and to be honest, the rm function in debugfs doesn't do this correctly either --- I'll put that on my to fix list. However, there is the implicit promise thatuserland packages such as e2tools will work correctly, whereas debugfs sets a much lower level of expectations, since it's assumed to be a wizard-level tool, with sharp pointy edges upon which naive users can hurt themselves if they are not careful. What it *does* show is that e2tools badly needs a test suite, which takes a bunch of filesystems, does various e2tools operations on it, and then runs e2fsck on the filesystem to make sure the resulting filesystem is still valid. I have not run any tests on it, so I can't be sure the extended attribute block handling is the only issue. I *think* it should be just fine with htree directories, since the libext2fs library handles a lot of the issues automatically. But until you run tests --- preferably automated test suites --- you can never be sure. The bottom-line is that e2tools shows a lot of promise, but there's also a lot of work that could be put into it in order to improve its quality. Perhaps upstream could be convinced to tackle some of the work, or at the very least, accept patches that you feed back to him. - Ted
Bug#200153: ITP: e2tools -- utilities for manipulating files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem
Package: wnpp Version: unavailable; reported 2003-07-05 Severity: wishlist * Package name: e2tools Version : 0.0.13 Upstream Author : Keith Sheffield [EMAIL PROTECTED] * URL : http://home.earthlink.net/~k_sheff/sw/e2tools/index.html * License : GPL Description : utilities for manipulating files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem E2tools is a simple set of GPL'ed utilities to read, write, and manipulate files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem. * copy files: e2cp * move files: e2mv * remove files: e2rm * create directory: e2mkdir * create hard links: e2ln * list files/directories: e2ls * output the last part of a file: e2tail -- System Information: Debian Release: testing/unstable Architecture: i386 Kernel: Linux aragorn 2.2.22 #1 dl nov 25 21:59:43 CET 2002 i686 Locale: LANG=ca_ES.ISO-8859-1, LC_CTYPE=ca_ES.ISO-8859-1
Re: Bug#200153: ITP: e2tools -- utilities for manipulating files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem
On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 05:24:21PM +0200, Robert Millan wrote: Package: wnpp Version: unavailable; reported 2003-07-05 Severity: wishlist * Package name: e2tools Version : 0.0.13 Upstream Author : Keith Sheffield [EMAIL PROTECTED] * URL : http://home.earthlink.net/~k_sheff/sw/e2tools/index.html * License : GPL Description : utilities for manipulating files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem E2tools is a simple set of GPL'ed utilities to read, write, and manipulate files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem. please excuse my ignorance - what would be the advantage of these tools over the core file utilities which use the VFS layer? -Ralf. --
Re: Bug#200153: ITP: e2tools -- utilities for manipulating files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem
Ralf Treinen [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: E2tools is a simple set of GPL'ed utilities to read, write, and manipulate files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem. please excuse my ignorance - what would be the advantage of these tools over the core file utilities which use the VFS layer? You don't need root. Useful for example to build rescue floppy images. -- Falk
Re: Bug#200153: ITP: e2tools -- utilities for manipulating files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem
On Sat, Jul 05, 2003 at 11:57:35PM +0200, Falk Hueffner wrote: E2tools is a simple set of GPL'ed utilities to read, write, and manipulate files in an ext2/ext3 filesystem. please excuse my ignorance - what would be the advantage of these tools over the core file utilities which use the VFS layer? You don't need root. Useful for example to build rescue floppy images. Could this be better explicated? Preferably in the package description? -- 2. That which causes joy or happiness.
