linux-kernel - RE: NTFS3 driver is orphan already. What we do?

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Date:   Sun, 1 May 2022 17:13:39 +0000
From:   Konstantin Komarov <almaz.alexandrovich@...agon-software.com>
To:     Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Kari Argillander <kari.argillander@...rgateuniverse.net>
CC:     "ntfs3@...ts.linux.dev" <ntfs3@...ts.linux.dev>,
        Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu>, Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>,
        Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>,
        Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...nel.org>,
        "Darrick J. Wong" <djwong@...nel.org>,
        Christian Brauner <christian.brauner@...ntu.com>,
        "Al Viro" <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
        Linux Kernel Mailing List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: RE: NTFS3 driver is orphan already. What we do?

> From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2022 7:47 PM
> To: Kari Argillander <kari.argillander@...rgateuniverse.net>
> Cc: Konstantin Komarov <almaz.alexandrovich@...agon-software.com>; ntfs3@...ts.linux.dev; Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu>;
> Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>; Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>; Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...nel.org>; Darrick J. Wong
> <djwong@...nel.org>; Christian Brauner <christian.brauner@...ntu.com>; Al Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>; Linux Kernel Mailing
> List <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
> Subject: Re: NTFS3 driver is orphan already. What we do?
> 
> [ Sad state of affairs mostly edited out ]
> 
> On Tue, Apr 26, 2022 at 2:22 AM Kari Argillander
> <kari.argillander@...rgateuniverse.net> wrote:
> >
> > I also did suggest that I could co maintain this driver to take burden from
> > Konstantin, but haven't got any replay.
> 
> If you are willing to maintain it (and maybe find other like-minded
> people to help you), I think that would certainly be a thing to try.
> 
> And if we can find *nobody* that ends up caring and maintaining, then
> I guess we should remove it, rather than end up with *two* effectively
> unmaintained copies of NTFS drivers.
> 
> Not that two unmaintained filesystems are much worse than one :-p
> 
>            Linus

Hello Linus, Kari and all.

First and foremost I need to state that active work on NTFS3 driver has never stopped,
and it was never decided to "orphan" NTFS3.  Currently we are still in the middle of the process
of getting the Kernel.org account. We need to sign our PGP key to move forward, but
the process is not so clear (will be grateful to get some process desciption), so it is going quite slow
trying to unravel the topic.

As for now, we can prepare patches/pull requests through the github, 
and submit them right now (we have quite a bunch of fixes
for new Kernels support, bugfixes and fstests fixes) -- if Linus approves this approach
until we set up the proper git.kernel.org repo.

Also, to clarify this explicitly: in addition to the driver, we're working of ntfs3 utilities as well.

Overall, nevertheless the NTFS3 development pace has been slowed down a bit for previous couple
of months, its state is still the same as before: it is fully maintained and being developed.

And finally, we apologize for late reply; I allowed me short vacation after most restrictions because
of covid ended up this month in Germany.

Thanks.