[WBEL-users] kernel 2.6 and ext3 improvements

[Kirby Bohling]

On Mon, Aug 02, 2004 at 03:26:26PM -0700, Ed wrote:
> Roger D. Vargas wrote:
> >I installed Fedora Core 2 with kernel 2.6. I copied all my home folders
> >to a new ext3 partition. I read that kernel 2.6 implements some changes
> >to ext3. The question is, if i install Whitebox now, kernel 2.4 will be
> >able to read the partition?
> >
> 
> Ext2 is generally backwards compatible.  You should be able to read your 
> partitions.

	Careful there.  If I remember correctly they were talking about
adding H-Tree directories (I might have the name wrong, but
essentially, a more efficient directory stucture so doing an "ls" in
a directory with thousands of dirs/files wouldn't take so long).

	When that codes get is checked in, I believe it's not backwards
compatible.  I know that there are incompatible versions of ext2
over time.  Read the man page on mke2fs specifically the section on
"-O feature".  Sparse superblocks can't be read by older kernels.
So you can create compatible filesystems, but you that might not be
the defaults of the tools.

	Sorry, I didn't reply sooner, but I figured someone who knew the
precise details would respond.  I'm not absolutely sure of my
details, but I thought one of RedHat's goals in for the next RHEL
release was to get the H-Tree stuff in.

	Thanks,
		Kirby

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