bsdinstall zfsboot: Add an option to edit the ZFS pool creation options
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Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2024 20:13:59 UTC
Noticed a commit added this to FreeBSD stable. Skimming through the commit and screenshots from the differential revision (haven't tested it personally yet) I see that it describes it as changing options to the ZFS pool but is then followed by changing options for datasets within the pool. There is a difference for options that apply to a pool versus options that apply to a dataset. I thought reading and writing properties is only sometimes interchangeable between pool and dataset with ZFS tools doing what is intended instead of what was asked while other times you just get an error. Can this be clarified for adjusting dataset(s) properties instead of pool properties if that is what is being done? Example screenshots form discussion while it was worked on normally showed compression=lz4 and atime=off which is the default for all but 1 dataset last I reviewed what the installer is doing. I figure altering compression, encryption, (ref)reservation/quota would be more likely to be adjusted and away from defaults when adjustments are made by users. Setting options that apply to all datasets on the one pool is a handy quick override. Further expanding how users are prompted to be able to adjust each dataset individually would be more useful than having to change all datasets to use same override. This then opens up options like a read only dataset that won't be used for storage getting refreservation to force a certain amount of space to remain free; this example is a dataset property that is easy to add after the fact but likely more steps for someone wanting to automate an install with it being done during install but some proerties require being set during creation or have limitations and consequences otherwise. It would be useful if the installer gave us disk selection, likely combined with pool(s) creation but both could be separate configuration screens with one feeding to the next; that opens up options for multiple pool creation during install and with different devices, layouts, and options. Then having control of pool specific layout+options which I presume is quite hard to implement in a way giving full control to the user. After that, a list of all partitions/datasets where selecting them allows changing individual partition/dataset properties would be handy; inheriting the properties to other datasets should be part of the user prompt when adjusting datasets that others depend on. Such an installer layout should make adding geli, labels, etc. start to become easier to provide as additional options or entirely new layers between these for the installer's interface.