Re: Integrated ZFS for Gentoo - WAS Re: [gentoo-user] Optional /usr merge in Gentoo

[Mark David Dumlao <madumlao@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Sep 1, 2013 at 11:55 AM, Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org> wrote:
>> I usally use ext4 as filesystem.
>>
>> # lsmod|grep ext
>> ext3                  100768  0
>> jbd                    39586  1 ext3
>> ext2                   49572  0
>> ext4                  263621  1
>> crc16                   1255  2 ext4,bluetooth
>> mbcache                 4450  3 ext2,ext3,ext4
>> jbd2                   48679  1 ext4
>>
>> Isn't great what an initramfs can do?
>
>   In this case, initramfs is your root filesystem, from which you load
> another fs and then transfer (pivot root?) to it.  You have to build
> initramfs support into the kernel, to boot an initramfs.  So my argument
> still stands, regardless of whether your *INITIAL* filesystem is ext4fs,
> or ZFS, or initramfs, that *INITIAL* filesystem has to be built into the
> kernel.  Also, I really wonder what the point is in having to use
> initramfs on a system where /usr is part of /.

It allows you to keep some kernel bits in modules. If ever you change your mind
on whether to include / exclude / reconfigure those kernel bits in the
future, your
kernel recompile will take a lot, lot, shorter.

Case in point - do you enable all the ext4 options, like acls and
whatnot? Let's say no.

What if you suddenly have to mount an external hard disk to recover some system
on your server and the hard disk uses those ext4 options? If ext4 is
hard built into your
kernel, your recompile will have to basically redo the whole thing,
whereas if ext4
was a module you would only recompile ext4 itself.
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