Re: Linux-Sparc ext2 compatibility?

Tom Dyas (tdyas@eden.rutgers.edu)
Wed, 21 Aug 96 15:34:36 EDT

> The question now is --- how do we fix this? Are there enough Sparc
> Linux boxes out there that it's too late to do a flag day? Do we need
> to put a lot of complexity into the kernel code and the e2fsprogs
> utilities so that we can recognize different versions of the bitmasks
> and do the appropriate byte swapping on the bitmasks? (This can be
> done, but at some performance cost).

We should have a flag day. There aren't that many Linux/SPARC machines
right now as compared to the Intel port and the people running
existing systems understand that the SPARC port is just coming out of
the "hackers" stage. These people would understand if a major change
had to be instituted. There was a previous problem with ext2 symlinks
that called for a flag day.

If we worried about backward compatibility when something is obviously
broken, then Linux would have not gotten to where it is today (all
ports).

Since this change would be cross-platform, would it go into 2.0.x or
2.1.x? The change could go into the SPARC ports' tree first since it
is the port that needs it.

As a sidenote, how soon to the next development series any ways?

Tom