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Message-ID: <CAKYAXd98388-=qOwa++aNuggKrJbOf24BMQZrvm6Gnjp_7qOTQ@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2025 21:17:54 +0900
From: Namjae Jeon <linkinjeon@...nel.org>
To: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@...il.com>
Cc: viro@...iv.linux.org.uk, brauner@...nel.org, hch@...radead.org, hch@....de,
tytso@....edu, willy@...radead.org, jack@...e.cz, djwong@...nel.org,
josef@...icpanda.com, sandeen@...deen.net, rgoldwyn@...e.com,
xiang@...nel.org, dsterba@...e.com, pali@...nel.org, ebiggers@...nel.org,
neil@...wn.name, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
iamjoonsoo.kim@....com, cheol.lee@....com, jay.sim@....com, gunho.lee@....com
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 00/11] ntfsplus: ntfs filesystem remake
On Thu, Nov 27, 2025 at 8:10 PM Amir Goldstein <amir73il@...il.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Nov 27, 2025 at 6:00 AM Namjae Jeon <linkinjeon@...nel.org> wrote:
> >
> > Introduction
> > ============
> >
> > The NTFS filesystem[1] still remains the default filesystem for Windows
> > and The well-maintained NTFS driver in the Linux kernel enhances
> > interoperability with Windows devices, making it easier for Linux users
> > to work with NTFS-formatted drives. Currently, ntfs support in Linux was
> > the long-neglected NTFS Classic (read-only), which has been removed from
> > the Linux kernel, leaving the poorly maintained ntfs3. ntfs3 still has
> > many problems and is poorly maintained, so users and distributions are
> > still using the old legacy ntfs-3g.
>
Hi Amir,
> May I suggest that you add a patch to your series to add a deprecation
> message to ntfs3?
>
> See for example eb103a51640ee ("reiserfs: Deprecate reiserfs")
Okay, I'll add it in the next version, referring to this reiserfs patch.
>
> >
> >
> > What is ntfsplus?
> > =================
> >
> > The remade ntfs called ntfsplus is an implementation that supports write
> > and the essential requirements(iomap, no buffer-head, utilities, xfstests
> > test result) based on read-only classic NTFS.
> > The old read-only ntfs code is much cleaner, with extensive comments,
> > offers readability that makes understanding NTFS easier. This is why
> > ntfsplus was developed on old read-only NTFS base.
> > The target is to provide current trends(iomap, no buffer head, folio),
> > enhanced performance, stable maintenance, utility support including fsck.
> >
>
> You are bringing back the old ntfs driver code from the dead, preserving the
> code and Copyrights and everything to bring it up to speed with modern vfs
> API and to add super nice features. Right?
Yes.
>
> Apart from its history, the new refurbished ntfs driver is also fully backward
> compact to the old read-only driver. Right?
Yes.
>
> Why is the rebranding to ntfsplus useful then?
>
> I can understand that you want a new name for a new ntfsprogs-plus project
> which is a fork of ntfs-3g, but I don't think that the new name for the kernel
> driver is useful or welcome.
Right, I wanted to rebrand ntfsprogs-plus and ntfsplus into a paired
set of names. Also, ntfs3 was already used as an alias for ntfs, so I
couldn't touch ntfs3 driver without consensus from the fs maintainers.
>
> Do you have any objections to leaving its original ntfs name?
I have no objection to using ntfsplus as an alias for ntfs if we add a
deprecation message to ntfs3.
>
> You can also do:
> MODULE_ALIAS_FS("ntfs");
> MODULE_ALIAS_FS("ntfsplus");
I will add this in the next version with ntfs3 deprecation patch.
>
> If that is useful for ntfsprogs-plus somehow.
That is very useful and thanks for your review!
>
> Thanks,
> Amir.
>
> >
> > Key Features
> > ============
> >
> > - Write support:
> > Implement write support on classic read-only NTFS. Additionally,
> > integrate delayed allocation to enhance write performance through
> > multi-cluster allocation and minimized fragmentation of cluster bitmap.
> >
> > - Switch to using iomap:
> > Use iomap for buffered IO writes, reads, direct IO, file extent mapping,
> > readpages, writepages operations.
> >
> > - Stop using the buffer head:
> > The use of buffer head in old ntfs and switched to use folio instead.
> > As a result, CONFIG_BUFFER_HEAD option enable is removed in Kconfig also.
> >
> > - Public utilities include fsck[2]:
> > While ntfs-3g includes ntfsprogs as a component, it notably lacks
> > the fsck implementation. So we have launched a new ntfs utilitiies
> > project called ntfsprogs-plus by forking from ntfs-3g after removing
> > unnecessary ntfs fuse implementation. fsck.ntfs can be used for ntfs
> > testing with xfstests as well as for recovering corrupted NTFS device.
> >
> > - Performance Enhancements:
> >
> > - ntfsplus vs. ntfs3:
> >
> > * Performance was benchmarked using iozone with various chunk size.
> > - In single-thread(1T) write tests, ntfsplus show approximately
> > 3~5% better performance.
> > - In multi-thread(4T) write tests, ntfsplus show approximately
> > 35~110% better performance.
> > - Read throughput is identical for both ntfs implementations.
> >
> > 1GB file size:4096 size:16384 size:65536
> > MB/sec ntfsplus | ntfs3 ntfsplus | ntfs3 ntfsplus | ntfs3
> > ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> > read 399 | 399 426 | 424 429 | 430
> > ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> > write(1T) 291 | 276 325 | 305 333 | 317
> > write(4T) 105 | 50 113 | 78 114 | 99.6
> >
> >
> > * File list browsing performance. (about 12~14% faster)
> >
> > files:100000 files:200000 files:400000
> > Sec ntfsplus | ntfs3 ntfsplus | ntfs3 ntfsplus | ntfs3
> > ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> > ls -lR 7.07 | 8.10 14.03 | 16.35 28.27 | 32.86
> >
> >
> > * mount time.
> >
> > parti_size:1TB parti_size:2TB parti_size:4TB
> > Sec ntfsplus | ntfs3 ntfsplus | ntfs3 ntfsplus | ntfs3
> > ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
> > mount 0.38 | 2.03 0.39 | 2.25 0.70 | 4.51
> >
> > The following are the reasons why ntfsplus performance is higher
> > compared to ntfs3:
> > - Use iomap aops.
> > - Delayed allocation support.
> > - Optimize zero out for newly allocated clusters.
> > - Optimize runlist merge overhead with small chunck size.
> > - pre-load mft(inode) blocks and index(dentry) blocks to improve
> > readdir + stat performance.
> > - Load lcn bitmap on background.
> >
> > - Stability improvement:
> > a. Pass more xfstests tests:
> > ntfsplus passed 287 tests, significantly higher than ntfs3's 218.
> > ntfsplus implement fallocate, idmapped mount and permission, etc,
> > resulting in a significantly high number of xfstests passing compared
> > to ntfs3.
> > b. Bonnie++ issue[3]:
> > The Bonnie++ benchmark fails on ntfs3 with a "Directory not empty"
> > error during file deletion. ntfs3 currently iterates directory
> > entries by reading index blocks one by one. When entries are deleted
> > concurrently, index block merging or entry relocation can cause
> > readdir() to skip some entries, leaving files undeleted in
> > workloads(bonnie++) that mix unlink and directory scans.
> > ntfsplus implement leaf chain traversal in readdir to avoid entry skip
> > on deletion.
> >
> > - Journaling support:
> > ntfs3 does not provide full journaling support. It only implement journal
> > replay[4], which in our testing did not function correctly. My next task
> > after upstreaming will be to add full journal support to ntfsplus.
> >
> >
> > The feature comparison summary
> > ==============================
> >
> > Feature ntfsplus ntfs3
> > =================================== ======== ===========
> > Write support Yes Yes
> > iomap support Yes No
> > No buffer head Yes No
> > Public utilities(mkfs, fsck, etc.) Yes No
> > xfstests passed 287 218
> > Idmapped mount Yes No
> > Delayed allocation Yes No
> > Bonnie++ Pass Fail
> > Journaling Planned Inoperative
> > =================================== ======== ===========
> >
> >
> > References
> > ==========
> > [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS
> > [2] https://github.com/ntfsprogs-plus/ntfsprogs-plus
> > [3] https://lore.kernel.org/ntfs3/CAOZgwEd7NDkGEpdF6UQTcbYuupDavaHBoj4WwTy3Qe4Bqm6V0g@mail.gmail.com/
> > [4] https://marc.info/?l=linux-fsdevel&m=161738417018673&q=mbox
> >
> >
> > Available in the Git repository at:
> > ===================================
> > git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/linkinjeon/ntfs.git ntfs-next
> >
> >
> > v2:
> > - Add ntfs3-compatible mount options(sys_immutable, nohidden,
> > hide_dot_files, nocase, acl, windows_names, disable_sparse, discard).
> > - Add iocharset mount option.
> > - Add ntfs3-compatible dos attribute and ntfs attribute load/store
> > in setxattr/getattr().
> > - Add support for FS_IOC_{GET,SET}FSLABEL ioctl.
> > - Add support for FITRIM ioctl.
> > - Fix the warnings(duplicate symbol, __divdi3, etc) from kernel test robot.
> > - Prefix pr_xxx() with ntfsplus.
> > - Add support for $MFT File extension.
> > - Add Documentation/filesystems/ntfsplus.rst.
> > - Mark experimental.
> > - Remove BUG traps warnings from checkpatch.pl.
> >
> > Namjae Jeon (11):
> > ntfsplus: in-memory, on-disk structures and headers
> > ntfsplus: add super block operations
> > ntfsplus: add inode operations
> > ntfsplus: add directory operations
> > ntfsplus: add file operations
> > ntfsplus: add iomap and address space operations
> > ntfsplus: add attrib operatrions
> > ntfsplus: add runlist handling and cluster allocator
> > ntfsplus: add reparse and ea operations
> > ntfsplus: add misc operations
> > ntfsplus: add Kconfig and Makefile
> >
> > Documentation/filesystems/index.rst | 1 +
> > Documentation/filesystems/ntfsplus.rst | 199 +
> > fs/Kconfig | 1 +
> > fs/Makefile | 1 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/Kconfig | 45 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/Makefile | 18 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/aops.c | 617 +++
> > fs/ntfsplus/aops.h | 92 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/attrib.c | 5377 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/attrib.h | 159 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/attrlist.c | 285 ++
> > fs/ntfsplus/attrlist.h | 21 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/bitmap.c | 290 ++
> > fs/ntfsplus/bitmap.h | 93 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/collate.c | 178 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/collate.h | 37 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/compress.c | 1564 +++++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/dir.c | 1230 ++++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/dir.h | 33 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/ea.c | 931 ++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/ea.h | 25 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/file.c | 1142 +++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/index.c | 2112 ++++++++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/index.h | 127 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/inode.c | 3729 ++++++++++++++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/inode.h | 353 ++
> > fs/ntfsplus/layout.h | 2288 ++++++++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/lcnalloc.c | 1012 +++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/lcnalloc.h | 127 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/logfile.c | 770 ++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/logfile.h | 316 ++
> > fs/ntfsplus/mft.c | 2698 ++++++++++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/mft.h | 92 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/misc.c | 213 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/misc.h | 218 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/mst.c | 195 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/namei.c | 1677 ++++++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/ntfs.h | 180 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/ntfs_iomap.c | 700 +++
> > fs/ntfsplus/ntfs_iomap.h | 22 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/reparse.c | 550 +++
> > fs/ntfsplus/reparse.h | 15 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/runlist.c | 1983 +++++++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/runlist.h | 91 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/super.c | 2865 +++++++++++++
> > fs/ntfsplus/unistr.c | 473 +++
> > fs/ntfsplus/upcase.c | 73 +
> > fs/ntfsplus/volume.h | 254 ++
> > include/uapi/linux/ntfs.h | 23 +
> > 49 files changed, 35495 insertions(+)
> > create mode 100644 Documentation/filesystems/ntfsplus.rst
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/Kconfig
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/Makefile
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/aops.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/aops.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/attrib.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/attrib.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/attrlist.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/attrlist.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/bitmap.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/bitmap.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/collate.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/collate.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/compress.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/dir.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/dir.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/ea.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/ea.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/file.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/index.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/index.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/inode.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/inode.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/layout.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/lcnalloc.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/lcnalloc.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/logfile.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/logfile.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/mft.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/mft.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/misc.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/misc.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/mst.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/namei.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/ntfs.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/ntfs_iomap.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/ntfs_iomap.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/reparse.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/reparse.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/runlist.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/runlist.h
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/super.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/unistr.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/upcase.c
> > create mode 100644 fs/ntfsplus/volume.h
> > create mode 100644 include/uapi/linux/ntfs.h
> >
> > --
> > 2.25.1
> >
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