Tux3: the other next-generation filesystem

Posted Dec 2, 2008 23:26 UTC (Tue) by Ze (guest, #54182)
In reply to: Tux3: the other next-generation filesystem by jmorris42
Parent article: Tux3: the other next-generation filesystem

Sounds like you are stuck in DOS mode. For an undelete in a real OS, beyond the Windows 'trashcan' desktop GUIs implement, it should be a "Do or Do Not, there is no try." deal. Either have real file versioning, snapshots, etc. or don't bother. Snuffling around on the platters for raw blocks and just blanking out the first letter of file names are bad ideas best left in the dustbin of history.

undelete through versioning is bloody useful. However it's no substitute for a tool that tries to recover data when there has been a failure. When people are writing filesystems they often don't think about how they could make it easier for themselves or others to write a tool to recover corrupted data in the event of various failures (both software and hardware). Personally I don't see the loss of logical volumes as a big deal. I've never understood the point of them when you could just have a fast index in the first place.

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Tux3: the other next-generation filesystem

Posted Dec 3, 2008 9:48 UTC (Wed) by niner (guest, #26151) [Link] (2 responses)

Hardware failures and accidental deletion is what we have backups for.

Tux3: the other next-generation filesystem

Posted Dec 4, 2008 3:54 UTC (Thu) by Ze (guest, #54182) [Link]

>Hardware failures and accidental deletion is what we have backups for I would argue that accidental deletion is one of the things that versioning should handle. Unfortunately backups offer only limited granularity along with people failing to use or test them. When you combine all that you can see why people a clear need for data recovery tools. People clearly feel a need for recovery tools since there are quite a few tools on the market both free and commercial. It makes sense to consider that use case when designing a file system. It can only lead to better documented and designed file system.

Tux3: the other next-generation filesystem

Posted Dec 4, 2008 17:40 UTC (Thu) by lysse (guest, #3190) [Link]

Yes, and you'll still have backups for it in the future. But wouldn't it be nice to have a way out of your last backup having gone up in flames at a really inconvenient time? Is there some reason why it would be desirable to limit the number of ways of thwarting Murphy we permit ourselves? Because honestly, I can't think of one...

Tux3: the other next-generation filesystem

Posted Dec 4, 2008 12:15 UTC (Thu) by smitty_one_each (subscriber, #28989) [Link]

As a side effect, consider that you could end up making real deletion of information (say, credit card numbers) harder.
Amdist all the great work (which is well above my skill level, kudos to all) there are ramifications.