Three years ago, I introduced to XFS a new experimental “reflink” feature that enables users to share data blocks between files. With this feature, users gain the ability to make fast snapshots of VM images and directory trees; and deduplicate file data for more efficient use of storage hardware. Copy on write is used when necessary to keep file contents intact, but XFS otherwise continues to use direct overwrites to keep metadata overhead low. The filesystem automatically creates speculative preallocations when copy on write is in use to combat fragmentation.
I’m pleased to announce with xfsprogs 5.1, the reflink feature is now production ready and enabled by default on new installations, having graduated from the experimental and stabilization phases. Based on feedback from early adopters of reflink, we also redesigned some of our in-kernel algorithms for better performance, as noted below: