ext3 Bug in 2.4.20

[kwall@kurtwerks.com]

On Tue, Dec 03, 2002 at 07:31:29PM -0500, Jerry McBride wrote:
> ---snip---
> 
> > > > Hmm. I have zero problems with ext3 up to now. In fact, I've had zero
> > > > problems with it at all. Please pay special attention to your "as of
> > > > late" qualification. The problem occurred because of a bug introduced
> > > > extremely late in the 2.4.20-preN series.
> 
> BINGO...
> 
> That's the little hang point that a lot have missed. The bug was introduced
> recently and is still there.

A second patch has been posted that does apear to fix it (a friend saw it
on another FS development list) -- it will go to Marcelo after it's had
a few more eyeballs. The real hang point, rather, my issue with Llama's
argument, was that a newly-introduced bug somehow makes ext3 a 
badly-designed toy FS. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc arguments like that
annoy me. 

The microkernel world, I might remind you, thinks everyone using Linux 
(and traditional UNIX) is using a badly-designed, antiquated, obsolete 
monolithic kernel. Funny thing, though: uptake of badly-designed,
antiquated, obsolete, monolithic kernels outpaces uptake of well-designed,
trendy, cutting edge microkernels by several orders of magnitude. 

> The one big selling point is... you can always go back to ext2 when ever you
> wish, with nothing more than a single command. Try doing that with reiser, xfs,
> jffs, etc...

Precisely. ext3 preserves compatibility with many terrabytes of ext2 data.
XFS, ReiserFS, JFS, AFS, blahFS are replacements that require considerably
more work to implement in existing systems. Moreover, not that this is a
bad thing, you also have to learn new commands and habits for administering
them. 

Kurt
-- 
The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the
law free.
		-- Henry David Thoreau