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Linux 3.8 Released
diegocg writes "Linux kernel 3.8 has been released. This release includes support in Ext4 for embedding very small files in the inode, which greatly improves the performance for these files and saves some disk space. There is also a new Btrfs feature that allows for quick disk replacement, a new filesystem F2FS optimized for SSDs; support for filesystem mount, UTS, IPC, PID, and network namespaces for unprivileged users; accounting of kernel memory in the memory resource controller; journal checksums in XFS; an improved NUMA policy redesign; and, of course, the removal of support for 386 processors. Many small features and new drivers and fixes are also available. Here's the full list of changes."
let me guess, you're running Debian stable?
Intel's latest generation of desktop i5/i7 CPUs appear to be buggy. People I know working in CFD are finding all sorts of quirks so have gone back to older and slower Xeons. Nothing for the desktop series is documented for bugs as far as I'm aware, I don't think Intel test them as much in design as workstation grade CPUs, and published bugs for Xeons you're not allowed to talk about them.
You'll notice version 1.2 included the short-lived Typo Flux Capacitor, causing it to go back in time to prevent the birth of Bill Gates (Oct 28, 1955) but was ultimately unsuccessful.
ext4 has been altered with added functionalities - I will wait some time before applying the upgrade, just to be sure ext4 is stable again...
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Transtemporal Agent Gates has done sterling work preventing the monolithic IBM from utterly dominating the computing world with VT52 terminals connected to reel-to-reel storage mainframes. Whilst he has failed to facilitate the development of the desired Quantum Hurd Desktop the situation could have been much, much worse. Unfortunately the Balminator droid appears to be defective - it should be running Symbian, not something simian.
They probably store the file data in the same part of the inode that is otherwise used for the block list or extent list. So larger files must use that same space to tell the file system where the rest of the data is on the disk, which makes it difficult to also store data in the same location.
Also, putting a small amount of data into the inode would then mean that the rest of the file would no longer be neatly aligned on block boundaries, which makes doing a memmap of the file painful.