Alan Cox on the Inclusion of Sun's ZFS in the Kernel
After rumors in May of Suns ZFS filesystem being included in the kernel, kernel developer Alan Cox has now refuted the claims pointing to Sun's licensing policy.
A developer called Fred had pointed out the ZFS support for Grub was now GPL'd. The code could be used to add ZFS support to the kernel.
Alan Cox refuted this option arguing that any further implementation would contravene Sun's licensing policy. Cox had repeatedly asked Sun for permission to use the code, but without receiving a reply. He concluded on the Linux kernel mailing list that Sun wanted to appear to be open, but was not handing ZFS to Linus Torvalds as the filesystem was the only argument for continuing to use Solaris in data centers.
Boot loader expert H. Peter Anvin added that GRUB only supported a rudimentary ZFS read only driver. Kernel developer Christoph Hellwig considers even read only support for ZFS to be a benefit for the kernel. On the list he offered to provide mentoring support for its implementation, if somebody is prepared to implement the project.
Thanks to its competent volume management, Sun's ZFS is regarded as a sophisticated filesystem and it can handle large volumes of data thanks to 128 bit pointers. If needed, the filesystem can be dynamically scaled; it identifies and removes filesystem errors without major performance hits and supports freezing and cloning of sectors. Most of ZFS is still under the Sun Open Source License CDDL.
Comments
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
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.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.
Alan cox and the inclusion of sun zfs in the kernel