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Tru64 Unix Advanced File System (AdvFS) Now GPL
melios writes "In a move that could help boost the scalability of Linux for grids and other advanced 64-bit multiprocessor applications, HP has released its Tru64 Unix Advanced File System (AdvFS) source code to the open source community. Source code, design documentation, and test suites for AdvFS are available on SourceForge."
Allow me to be the first to say: It's about fucking time.
Kid-proof tablet..
Who?
Is there some reason to pick this file system over any of the other 100 file systems you can get for Linux?
This is my sig.
The last file system I messed around with was absolute murder.
I didn't know any of the details of what AdvFS was, so here is what Wikipedia has: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdvFS
...I hear WinFS will be in Win7...it should be legendary.
I just had a quick glance through the wikipedia page on this filesystem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdvFS
and it seems to share a surprising number of features with ZFS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS
For example, pools, snapshots etc.
Cool, license squabbling aside I look forward to the massively fragmented UNIX codebase slowly coalescing in this area.
...all I can say is that this would have been amazing news about ten years ago. Even five years ago it would have been pretty great.
Now? Well, it sounds like HPaq is just kicking it to the curb so it will probably be another year or two before anyone can beat it into a working filesystem for anything but HPucks. There is already no shortage of file systems that can do what AdvFS could do, so by the time it is ready for prime time prime time will have moved on.
Oh well. 1998 me is still pleased to hear this.
I used ADVFS when I worked at DEC/Compaq. It is a really nice filesystem to use.
If the utilities are GPL's as well that is even better news.
Copying whole filesystems is a breeze as is copying filesystem trees and traversing over volume mount points ( ie not including mount points and all their files.)
It also gives you the ability to add/remove extra space to mounted volumes just like LVM does but IMHO without having to pre allocate it. /S
I would expect that some of the features may well be in EXT4 but I think that some of the Utilities could be made to use EXT4.
Certainly the Linux community doesn't really need to burn energy supporting a half dozen filesystems.
Talk to six linux admins and you'll get at least that many "every filesystem but the one I'm using sucks!" responses.
I'd gladly stand up for a lack of choice on the filesystem front. Pick one, make sure it's absolutely tested, make sure it supports a nice range of features.
Integrating a filesystem into another OS is a decidedly non-trivial task unless you just want to read files.
Thanks, HP, but I don't really want your no-longer-commercially-viable undead zombieware.
. Penguins Surely Ca
Around here it's hard to tell who's serious and who's not anymore. It's amazing some of the things that get asked around here seriously. Just look up the Ask Slashdot section and you'll see tons of it.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
I am totally serious: why does the back of my left ear smell like cheese doodles? I don't store any kind of foodstuffs behind my ear, and I bathe regularly. Please help.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Everyone has been looking at ZFS to provide a whole lot of this same feature set, but the CDDL license has been a significant stumbling block. Releasing AdvFS as GPL could actually put it in the running for real world adoption and use on a large scale. I think Sun already considered this a battle won and may now have to rethink their strategy. If they released Sun as GPL in the next month, I'd be willing to bet AdvFS would probably be largely ignored and become a historical footnote. If Sun waits and lets it gain traction (as they tend to do) it could be they will find themselves with another cool technology they sat on too long and which has been replaced y the OSS community.
I really hope everyone will join me in thanking HP for this and encourage them to release more of the Tru64 OS, HP has been on my $&!â list since they bought and buried this years ago. They are sitting on so much good IP that I really wish that they would only make printers and just the 4000+ series at that.
Lend a hand to the masses Lest It be done incorrectly or woefully worse By those not versed in the ways of the Dogcow
That's not funny! It's wrong! It's wrong to laugh at other people's misery! Stop laughing!
I mean, look at this:
"The last file system I messed around with was absolute murder."
That is clearly meant to poke fun at how EXT3 is gradually replacing EXT2. A lot of people worked very hard on EXT2, it's served the Linux community well for a long time, so I don't think it's right to make fun of it like this!!!
Bow-ties are cool.
Isn't he the antagonist in Hellreiser? The daemonic killer who keeps a journal of its victims.
Ezekiel 23:20
I currently use Tru64 in production at least for another month. One of the issues with this encapsulation type FS process is it sucks. If I had to try and figure out how to merge two File systems by some vote of talking heads, this would be the result. It has some strong and good things it does well, but the way Tru64 merged it's file systems together, makes the final product a huge pain to administer and fix. Learn what you can from the code, and make something better. Do not try and port this crap to something else as is, you wont be happy.
Why do you think HP bought again the newer Veritas File system and didn't use the already payed for version they picked up with Tru64?
It has some good things in it. Pick them out carefully and learn from them. Then think about what is needed to administer your File systems in real life, and implement it.