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Bcachefs may be headed out of the kernel

(lwn.net)
144 points ksec | 1 comments | 04 Jul 25 13:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.295s | source
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charcircuit ◴[04 Jul 25 17:11 UTC] No.44466214[source]▶
If Linux would add a stable kernel module API this wouldn't be a huge a problem and it would be easy for bcachefs to ship as a kernel module with his own independent release schedule.
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josephcsible ◴[04 Jul 25 17:13 UTC] No.44466240[source]▶
The slight benefit for out-of-tree module authors wouldn't be worth the negative effects on the rest of the kernel to everyone else.
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charcircuit ◴[04 Jul 25 17:20 UTC] No.44466309[source]▶
"slight benefit"? Having a working system after upgrading your kernel is not just a slight benefit. It's table stakes. Especially for something critical like a filesystem it should never break.

>negative effects on the rest of the kernel

Needing to design and support an API is not purely negative for kernel developers. It also gives a change to have a proper interface for drivers to use and follow. Take a look at the Rust for Linux which keeps running into undocumented APIs that make little sense and are just whatever <insert most popular driver> does.

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1. msgodel ◴[04 Jul 25 18:03 UTC] No.44466623[source]▶
Does your system have some critical out of tree driver? That should have been recompiled with the new kernel, that sounds like a failure of whoever maintains the driver/kernel/distro (which may be you if you're building it yourself.)