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Reiser4 Filesystem Released
trixie_czech writes "It's finally arrived. Go to namesys for reasons to use reiser4 as a filesystem and benchmarks. Go here to download. Enjoy!" The Namesys homepage in its current stage reminds me of a cross between The Secret Guide to Computers and the GNU Manifesto -- which is to say, there is a lot to read here, not just a bullet-pointed feature list.
need I say more? head for the mirrors!
Reasons why Reiser4 is great for you:
* Reiser4 is the fastest filesystem, and here are the benchmarks.
* Reiser4 is an atomic filesystem, which means that your filesystem operations either entirely occur, or they entirely don't, and they don't corrupt due to half occuring. We do this without significant performance losses, because we invented algorithms to do it without copying the data twice.
* Reiser4 uses dancing trees, which obsolete the balanced tree algorithms used in databases (see farther down). This makes Reiser4 more space efficient than other filesystems because we squish small files together rather than wasting space due to block alignment like they do. It also means that Reiser4 scales better than any other filesystem. Do you want a million files in a directory, and want to create them fast? No problem.
* Reiser4 is based on plugins, which means that it will attract many outside contributors, and you'll be able to upgrade to their innovations without reformatting your disk. If you like to code, you'll really like plugins....
* Reiser4 is architected for military grade security. You'll find it is easy to audit the code, and that assertions guard the entrance to every function.
V3 of reiserfs is used as the default filesystem for SuSE, Lindows, FTOSX and Gentoo. We don't touch the V3 code except to fix a bug, and as a result we don't get bug reports for the current mainstream kernel version. It shipped before the other journaling filesystems for Linux, and is the most stable of them as a result of having been out the longest. We must caution that just as Linux 2.6 is not yet as stable as Linux 2.4, it will also be some substantial time before V4 is as stable as V3.
Collisons are that frequent? My thinking is that its more likely everyone in Arizona gets malaria in Arizona than a collision on files in a single directory.
members are seeing something, your seeing an ad
Yes, but I can show you existing collisions for MD5. Can you show me any collisions for SHA1? One algorithm has been broken, and it's possible to generate collisions for it. One hasn't been yet.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
Nobody has demonstrated collisions for SHA-1 yet. Nobody has clearly demonstrated that they can generate collisions for the full SHA-1 in less than the 2^160 steps you'd expect it to take.
My point is that people should be discouraged from using algorithms that have been broken for their intended purpose. For example, MD5 can no longer be trusted as a method for verifying downloads. If it's available and its use encouraged, people think that it's good for verifying things. It will still be used for verifying download, and we'll all wake up one day to discover that gcc has been back-doored to put a back door in every ssh implementation out there and in itself.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
2^40 steps is how many it takes to break DES, and everybody thinks it's broken for that reason.
People should stop using MD5 as soon as possible. Algorithms that have been broken for their intended purpose should be abandon and their use discouraged, especially when there are perfectly good alternatives widely available.
Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"