From 68fb1fa5b236822c56d1e3313db6afc98bb711f7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: gnucode Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2026 02:08:05 +0200 Subject: I added an intro paragraph and documented the ext3 journal. --- hurd/translator/ext2fs.mdwn | 19 ++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/hurd/translator/ext2fs.mdwn b/hurd/translator/ext2fs.mdwn index 3baf6b03..37ec03a4 100644 --- a/hurd/translator/ext2fs.mdwn +++ b/hurd/translator/ext2fs.mdwn @@ -9,6 +9,12 @@ Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled [[GNU Free Documentation License|/fdl]]."]]"""]] +The GNU/Hurd currently uses ext2 as its filesystem, but it can now use a JDB2 +binary journal, which is compatible with ext3 or ext4. While ext3 is not the +world's best filesystem, it does work. A talented developer could add a rump +driver to use one of [NetBSD's filesystems](https://www.netbsd.org/about/interop.html). +A brilliant developer could potentially port [[open_issues/bcachefs]]. + # Implementation @@ -22,6 +28,18 @@ License|/fdl]]."]]"""]] * [[internal_allocator]] +## Journal + +In early June of 2026, Milos Nikic added a JBD2 binary compliant journal, which is compatible +with ext3/ext4. `ext2fs` will continue to read ext2 only filesystems, but if you enable the journal +on an ext2 partition via: + + # tune2fs -j + +Then `ext2fs` will use an "ext3/ext4" journal on that filesystem. This should help the Hurd avoid +so much filesystem corruption. Additionally, GNU/Linux will now recognize that partition as ext3 +or ext4. + ## Current Limitations ### Use 64 bit time by default @@ -98,7 +116,6 @@ incompatibility: `ext2fs` then only supports block sizes of 4096 bytes. Smaller block sizes are commonly automatically selected by `mke2fs` when using small backend stores, like floppy devices. - #### IRC, freenode, #hurd, 2012-06-30 at least having the same api in the debian package and the git -- cgit v1.3.1