Zack's Kernel News
Zack's Kernel News
© Zack Brown
Chronicler Zack Brown reports on the latest news, views, dilemmas, and developments within the Linux kernel community.
Tracking Inode Versioning
Just as the double slit experiment behaves one way when it's being watched, and another when it thinks it can get away with something, Jeff Layton suggested that Linux could get away with incrementing the inode version number only when some other part of the kernel was actually paying attention.
The inode version number (i_version in the inode structure) is generally incremented whenever the inode's metadata changes. Or, as Jeff explained, filesystems increment the version number whenever something happens that they care about. In the case of Btrfs, ext4, and XFS, they increment the version for file data changes as well. The problem with too much version change is that the inode has to be written back to disk each time, which can be slow on write-heavy operations.
Jeff believed he'd discovered that the only time the version number really mattered was when some other bit of code queried the inode. If there was no observer, there would be no need to keep the inode version precisely up to date. And, when an observer came along, that would be a good time for the inode to show it had been paying attention, by updating its version number.
[...]
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Digital Autonomy
• The Answer Was Already on the Shelf
• Changing the Chip Industry: How Public Investment Has Grown Open Silicon
• United Nations Open Source Portal Goes Live
• EU Open Source Strategy Plays Key Role in Tech Sovereignty Package
• France Says “Au Revoir” to Microsoft
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
It’s Time to Test Fedora 45 Beta
Fedora 45 beta has been released with updated Gnome, KDE Plasma, and kernel.
-
Ubuntu Stonking Stingray Gets Even Rustier
Ubuntu 26.10 has completed its migration to the Rust-based coreutils.
-
AI Fixes Linux Bottlenecks Using “Hideous” Code
A Linux developer used AI to fix bottlenecks that caused problems when building the kernel. The resulting AI-generated code needed a lot of work.
-
Advanced Video Coding Still Under Patent
Brazilian patent BRPI0109962B1 has expired, which means that DivX and Xvid are no longer problematic for Linux, but it doesn’t mean that video is all of a sudden fully unleashed.
-
2,000 Vulnerabilities per Linux Release
Thanks to AI bug hunters, the Linux kernel is seeing record numbers of vulnerabilities, and it's overwhelming developers.
-
Linux Exempt from California’s Age Verification Law
So long as Linux is distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses, the OS is exempt from being required to verify the age of its users in California.
-
Roll Out the Cake: Linux Turns 35
35 years ago, a Finnish student began a humble project that would forever change the course of technology.
-
China Switching from Windows to Linux
China has ordered several government agencies to drop a Chinese-developed version of Windows 10 in favor of either KylinOS or UOS.
-
Pine64 Halts Production of Linux Devices
With continued DRAM and eMMC shortages, Pine64 has decided to discontinue production of Linux devices.
-
The Bullet-Proof KDE Software Initiative Is Coming
KDE, Techpaladin, and Kubuntu Focus have announced a new initiative that will provide at least three years of support for KDE Plasma 6.6 LTS and related software.