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A Visual Expedition Inside the Linux File Systems
RazvanM writes "This is an attempt to visualize the relationships among the Linux File Systems through the lens of the external symbols their kernel modules use. We took an initial look a few months back but this time the scope is much broader. This analysis was done on 1377 kernel modules from 2.6.0 to 2.6.29, but there is also a small dip into the BSD world. The most thorough analysis was done on Daniel Phillips's tree, which contains the latest two disk-based file systems for Linux: tux3 and btrfs. The main techniques used to establish relationships among file systems are hierarchical clustering and phylogenetic trees. Also presented are a set of rankings based on various properties related to the evolution of the external symbols from one release to another, and complete timelines of the kernel releases for Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. In all there are 78 figures and 10 animations."
What does it all mean?
Is having a large number of external symbols good because it has more integration points or bad because of bloat? I don't think I have ever RTFA and come away with so little understanding before.
Nothing. The whole point was do create said visualizations. From the "expedition" homepage here:
This is an exercise in visualization and kernel exploration. I'm not an expert in either of them but I like file systems and I also find great pleasure in creating visual representations of the things around me. --RazvanME
He likes file systems and he likes to create visual representation of things. There's your explanation. I suspect the guy is a student with too much free time and a desire to be featured on Slashdot.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Am I the only one not understanding a word nor the point of those graphics, but still going to print them as posters and put them everywhere in my bedroom ?
'cuz dude, it's so beautiful !
Segmentation Fault in "Life, Universe and Everything" at line 42. Don't Panic.
Which is fair enough (unless you happen to have had a quick look at the summary, an even quicker look at the diagrams and thought "d'uh WTF?" to yourself). I think if he'd created a colourful fractal image, or moving dots swirling around then everyone would be saying how great it was. As it is, it looks like dull statistics.
I found the interesting bits to be how closely tux3 kept coming up next to fat or ntfs, whilst btrfs was close to xfs, and ext4 with ext3 and ext2. Maybe there's something in the analysis after all!