Ext3 users - Feb 2002 - [akpm@zip.com.au: Re: ext3 and chattr +S on postfix spools]

postfix-users seems to be a subscription only list. I'd recommend
incorporating TDMA <http://tdma.sf.net/> to allow for easy discussion by
outsiders

Andrew Morton (of ext3 fame) had sent this message to postfix-users list
I am forwarding so that Wietse can hopefully provide the definitive
answer to the question Andrew Morton/Stephen Tweedie seek

----- Forwarded message from Andrew Morton <akpm@zip.com.au> -----

Message-ID: <3C5F7C79.51EC3341@zip.com.au>
From: Andrew Morton <akpm@zip.com.au>
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.77 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.18-pre7 i686)
To: Yusuf Goolamabbas <yusufg@outblaze.com>
Cc: Wietse Venema <wietse@porcupine.org>, adi <adi@acme.com>,
	ext3-users@redhat.com, postfix-users@postfix.org
Subject: Re: ext3 and chattr +S on postfix spools
Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2002 22:32:25 -0800

Yusuf Goolamabbas wrote:
> 
> Maybe there is an opening for "mtafs" :) which would have the
semantics
> which the MTA authors want and reasonable features which are useful to
> others [journalling,speed,io-clustering,etc]
Queston is: what do the MTA authors want?  We occasionally
see chunks of fuzzily-informed mud come flying over the
wall from MTA lists, but I've yet to see a neat description
of the requirements.

I'd very much like to see such a description, and to have
such a discussion, because we should have a good fit here.
> The question is what precise semantics of ffs does ext3 and
> ffs/softupdate not provide which makes running a MTA on any recent OS
> similar to playing russian roulette with mail
One man's `semantics' is another man's `side-effect' :)
We've never had an objective of retaining side-effect
compatibility with ffs.

In ext3, if you want something sync'ed, you sync it.

Now we do have a useful side-effect, and that is that if
you sync something, you've just synced everything which
preceded it.  That's not a thing which is going to change
in the 2.4 kernel timeframe, and I doubt that it'll ever change,
given that it's the most efficient way of handling any pending
write data.

Still.  Please: what are the requirements for MTAs, and for
postfix?



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----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Yusuf Goolamabbas
yusufg@outblaze.com