“A number of changes to the block layer promise better data
throughputs and reactivity. There are also several new drivers for
storage hardware.“Linux kernel 2.6.32-rc7 hit the streets late last week, but
when 2.6.32 will finally be released remains anyone’s guess. There
are likely to be at least one, more likely two, further pre-release
versions in this development cycle, a cycle which has been slightly
disrupted by typos and the Kernel Summit. Following on from our
reviews of the changes in the networking and graphics hardware
subsystems, this instalment of the Kernel Log 2.6.32 series looks
at file systems and storage.“Btrfs
“There have been a whole heap of changes to Btrfs. The
experimental “next generation file system for Linux” can now write
at more than 1 GB per second on fast hardware and now matches XFS
for speed on our test system. Btrfs’ previous maximum data transfer
speed was 400 MB per second, as this maxed out CPU usage. Snapshots
and subvolumes can now be renamed in Btrfs and can be deleted much
more rapidly. Thanks to various enhancements, RPM and Yum now also
work faster.”