Re: Ext2 bit rot (was: how to increase space for tmpfs /tmp ... OT question)
On Mon, 26 Mar 2012, Jochen Spieker wrote:
> Henrique de Moraes Holschuh:
> > On Sun, 25 Mar 2012, Paul E Condon wrote:
> >>> I'm sure some/many of you will gasp at that fact I still use EXT2. If
> >>> it ain't broke, don't "fix" it. The /boot and root filesystems are on
> >>> EXT2, with all data storage on XFS. Never had problems with EXT2 in
> >>> this setup, so it lives on, for now.
> >
> > You are, of course, aware of the term "bit rot"?
> >
> > ext2 is mostly unused nowadays, and it gets little attention and testing.
> > It depends heavily on the VFS layer pagecache, and other areas of the kernel
> > to work well. But THOSE areas are not staying put. So, ext2 *will* bit
> > rot.
>
> I was under the impression that at least ext3 (and maybe even ext4)
> shares a lot of code with ext2. Is this wrong?
I am not sure, but it could actually make the bit rot more likely.
People already try hard to not break anything when changing stuff in the
kernel, and update code using old interfaces (otherwise ext2 wouldn't even
build) but corner cases and subtle interactions can get past undetected, and
that's where bit rot starts to set in.
--
"One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
Henrique Holschuh
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