256-byte inode support

[Wesley Shields]

On Tue, Sep 09, 2008 at 03:37:47PM +0300, Kostik Belousov wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 09, 2008 at 08:29:17AM -0400, Wesley Shields wrote:
> > On Tue, Sep 09, 2008 at 02:53:51PM +0300, Kostik Belousov wrote:
> > > On Sun, Sep 07, 2008 at 11:07:47AM -0400, Wesley Shields wrote:
> > > > On Sat, Sep 06, 2008 at 07:26:27PM -0400, jT wrote:
> > > > > hackers,
> > > > > 
> > > > >     since tytso had updated ext3 -- i've noticed that i can't use my
> > > > > 265-byte inode ext3 drives -- is there any effort to update it?  If
> > > > > not -- if you know where i should attempt to start please let me know
> > > > > so i can start working on support (i have a few other people i know
> > > > > interested in this) -- thanks and hope everyone is well
> > > > 
> > > > There was a PR submitted for it and eventually a patch added to the PR.
> > > > I've tested the patch given in the URL at the port and it works.  We
> > > > will start to see more of this as the newer version becomes more common
> > > > in the wild.
> > > > 
> > > > http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=kern/124621
> > > > 
> > > > Would be nice to see this fixed in 7.1 but it may be too late for that.
> > > 
> > > What was the reason for increasing inode size ? I think it is rather
> > > pointless to increase the size without using newly added space for some
> > > data. Is inode format the same for the first 128 bytes, and does data
> > > at the second 128 bytes should be used to correctly interpret inode ?
> > 
> > I honestly don't know the answer.  Though I do agree that it is
> > pointless to increase the size without using the new space.
> > 
> > All I know is that I was unable to read an ext filesystem made with -I
> > 256 (which is the default when using the most recent
> > sysutils/e2fsprogs).
> 
> I think it is too dangerous for the user data to commit this patch,
> without investigating this first.

I think that's a fair assessment to make.  The patch is certainly simple
enough but I'm not familiar with what it's doing to make an accurate
assessment.  I know it worked for the simple test case I provided in my
previous message.  If I can be of any further assistance please let me
know.

-- WXS