linux-ext4 - Re: Why isn't ext2 deprecated over ext4?

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Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2024 12:00:43 +0100
From: Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>
To: Michael Opdenacker <michael.opdenacker@...tlin.com>
Cc: Jan Kara <jack@...e.com>, linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Why isn't ext2 deprecated over ext4?

Hello,

On Wed 21-02-24 10:33:04, Michael Opdenacker wrote:
> I'm wondering why ext2 isn't marked as deprecated yet as it has 32 bit dates
> and dates will rollover in 2038 (in 14 years from now!).
> 
> I'm asking because ext4, when used without a journal, seems to be a worthy
> replacement and has 64 bit dates.
> 
> I'll be happy to send a patch to fs/ext2/Kconfig to warn users.

For all practical purposes I agree we expect users to use ext4 driver on a
filesystem without a journal instead of ext2 driver. We are still keeping
ext2 around mostly as a simple reference filesystem for other fs
developers. I agree we should improve the kconfig text to reference users
to ext4.

Regarding y2038 problem - this is really the matter of on-disk format as
created by mke2fs, not so much of the kernel driver. And the kernel will be
warning about that when you mount ext2 so I don't think special handling is
needed for that.

								Honza
-- 
Jan Kara <jack@...e.com>
SUSE Labs, CR