Linux 6.0 opens up to NTFS3 kernel driver updates after rc1 merge window

Linux 6.0 opens up to NTFS3 kernel driver updates after rc1 merge window

Linux 6.0 opens up to NTFS3 kernel driver updates after rc1 merge window.

Open sourced by Paragon Software, NTFS3 is the read/write driver for the NFTS filesystem in modern Linux kernels.

With the last Linux merge window wrapping up with the 6.0-rc1 release, we’ve also seen some post-code refactorings and fixes for Linux 6.0.

But in the regular two-week period, Paragon Software did not bring new feature code and other non-strict bug fixes.

Compared to the minor NTFS3 maintenance earlier this year, it’s several days late this time.

Even so, Konstantin Komarov, the NTFS3 maintainer at Paragon Software, submitted a batch of NTFS3 code refactorings and bug fixes a few days after the rc-1 merge window closed.

As seen in the pull request , it fixes several NTFS3 logic bugs, fixes some issues related to xfstests, and removes/refactors some code.

While sooner or later updates are not strictly bug fixes, Linus Torvalds has this to say about Paragon Software’s work :

Yes, there should have been a couple of serious fixes here. But at least, we have seen the newly developed FALLOC_FL_INSERT_RANGE.

As for the rest, it seems to be mostly just refactorings and cleanups – stuff that was supposed to be in the last merge window.

But since these things only involve NTFS3 itself, we think the experiments are pretty solid.

Hopefully by the time the next round – whether it’s a cleanup or actual new code – remember to be punctual.

In summary, at least in Linux 6.0, these minor changes to NTFS3 will still be incorporated to improve the open source read/write kernel driver for the Microsoft -dominated NFTS filesystem.