- Using NTFS volume and stripe sets
- The Device-Mapper driver
- The Software RAID / MD driver
- - Limitiations when using the MD driver
+ - Limitations when using the MD driver
- ChangeLog
========
There is plenty of additional information on the linux-ntfs web site
-at http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/
+at http://www.linux-ntfs.org/
The web site has a lot of additional information, such as a comprehensive
-FAQ, documentation on the NTFS on-disk format, informaiton on the Linux-NTFS
+FAQ, documentation on the NTFS on-disk format, information on the Linux-NTFS
userspace utilities, etc.
Features
========
-- This is a complete rewrite of the NTFS driver that used to be in the kernel.
- This new driver implements NTFS read support and is functionally equivalent
- to the old ntfs driver.
+- This is a complete rewrite of the NTFS driver that used to be in the 2.4 and
+ earlier kernels. This new driver implements NTFS read support and is
+ functionally equivalent to the old ntfs driver and it also implements limited
+ write support. The biggest limitation at present is that files/directories
+ cannot be created or deleted. See below for the list of write features that
+ are so far supported. Another limitation is that writing to compressed files
+ is not implemented at all. Also, neither read nor write access to encrypted
+ files is so far implemented.
- The new driver has full support for sparse files on NTFS 3.x volumes which
the old driver isn't happy with.
- The new driver supports execution of binaries due to mmap() now being
- The new driver supports fsync(2), fdatasync(2), and msync(2).
- The new driver supports readv(2) and writev(2).
- The new driver supports access time updates (including mtime and ctime).
-
+- The new driver supports truncate(2) and open(2) with O_TRUNC. But at present
+ only very limited support for highly fragmented files, i.e. ones which have
+ their data attribute split across multiple extents, is included. Another
+ limitation is that at present truncate(2) will never create sparse files,
+ since to mark a file sparse we need to modify the directory entry for the
+ file and we do not implement directory modifications yet.
+- The new driver supports write(2) which can both overwrite existing data and
+ extend the file size so that you can write beyond the existing data. Also,
+ writing into sparse regions is supported and the holes are filled in with
+ clusters. But at present only limited support for highly fragmented files,
+ i.e. ones which have their data attribute split across multiple extents, is
+ included. Another limitation is that write(2) will never create sparse
+ files, since to mark a file sparse we need to modify the directory entry for
+ the file and we do not implement directory modifications yet.
Supported mount options
=======================
For Win2k and later dynamic disks, you can for example use the ldminfo utility
which is part of the Linux LDM tools (the latest version at the time of
writing is linux-ldm-0.0.8.tar.bz2). You can download it from:
- http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/downloads.html
+ http://www.linux-ntfs.org/
Simply extract the downloaded archive (tar xvjf linux-ldm-0.0.8.tar.bz2), go
into it (cd linux-ldm-0.0.8) and change to the test directory (cd test). You
will find the precompiled (i386) ldminfo utility there. NOTE: You will not be
this (note all values are in 512-byte sectors):
--- cut here ---
-# Ofs Size Raid Log Number Region Should Number Source Start Taget Start
+# Ofs Size Raid Log Number Region Should Number Source Start Target Start
# in of the type type of log size sync? of Device in Device in
# vol volume params mirrors Device Device
0 2056320 mirror core 2 16 nosync 2 /dev/hda1 0 /dev/hdb1 0
Note the "Should sync?" parameter "nosync" means that the two mirrors are
already in sync which will be the case on a clean shutdown of Windows. If the
mirrors are not clean, you can specify the "sync" option instead of "nosync"
-and the Device-Mapper driver will then copy the entirey of the "Source Device"
+and the Device-Mapper driver will then copy the entirety of the "Source Device"
to the "Target Device" or if you specified multipled target devices to all of
them.
appropriately (see man 5 raidtab).
Linear volume sets, i.e. linear raid, as well as stripe sets, i.e. raid level
-0, have been tested and work fine (though see section "Limitiations when using
+0, have been tested and work fine (though see section "Limitations when using
the MD driver with NTFS volumes" especially if you want to use linear raid).
Even though untested, there is no reason why mirrors, i.e. raid level 1, and
stripes with parity, i.e. raid level 5, should not work, too.
You have to use the "persistent-superblock 0" option for each raid-disk in the
NTFS volume/stripe you are configuring in /etc/raidtab as the persistent
-superblock used by the MD driver would damange the NTFS volume.
+superblock used by the MD driver would damage the NTFS volume.
Windows by default uses a stripe chunk size of 64k, so you probably want the
"chunk-size 64k" option for each raid-disk, too.
device /dev/hda5
raid-disk 0
device /dev/hdb1
- raid-disl 1
+ raid-disk 1
For linear raid, just change the raid-level above to "raid-level linear", for
mirrors, change it to "raid-level 1", and for stripe sets with parity, change
ntfs volume.
-Limitiations when using the Software RAID / MD driver
+Limitations when using the Software RAID / MD driver
-----------------------------------------------------
Using the md driver will not work properly if any of your NTFS partitions have
Note, a technical ChangeLog aimed at kernel hackers is in fs/ntfs/ChangeLog.
+2.1.29:
+ - Fix a deadlock when mounting read-write.
+2.1.28:
+ - Fix a deadlock.
+2.1.27:
+ - Implement page migration support so the kernel can move memory used
+ by NTFS files and directories around for management purposes.
+ - Add support for writing to sparse files created with Windows XP SP2.
+ - Many minor improvements and bug fixes.
+2.1.26:
+ - Implement support for sector sizes above 512 bytes (up to the maximum
+ supported by NTFS which is 4096 bytes).
+ - Enhance support for NTFS volumes which were supported by Windows but
+ not by Linux due to invalid attribute list attribute flags.
+ - A few minor updates and bug fixes.
+2.1.25:
+ - Write support is now extended with write(2) being able to both
+ overwrite existing file data and to extend files. Also, if a write
+ to a sparse region occurs, write(2) will fill in the hole. Note,
+ mmap(2) based writes still do not support writing into holes or
+ writing beyond the initialized size.
+ - Write support has a new feature and that is that truncate(2) and
+ open(2) with O_TRUNC are now implemented thus files can be both made
+ smaller and larger.
+ - Note: Both write(2) and truncate(2)/open(2) with O_TRUNC still have
+ limitations in that they
+ - only provide limited support for highly fragmented files.
+ - only work on regular, i.e. uncompressed and unencrypted files.
+ - never create sparse files although this will change once directory
+ operations are implemented.
+ - Lots of bug fixes and enhancements across the board.
+2.1.24:
+ - Support journals ($LogFile) which have been modified by chkdsk. This
+ means users can boot into Windows after we marked the volume dirty.
+ The Windows boot will run chkdsk and then reboot. The user can then
+ immediately boot into Linux rather than having to do a full Windows
+ boot first before rebooting into Linux and we will recognize such a
+ journal and empty it as it is clean by definition.
+ - Support journals ($LogFile) with only one restart page as well as
+ journals with two different restart pages. We sanity check both and
+ either use the only sane one or the more recent one of the two in the
+ case that both are valid.
+ - Lots of bug fixes and enhancements across the board.
2.1.23:
- Stamp the user space journal, aka transaction log, aka $UsnJrnl, if
it is present and active thus telling Windows and applications using
- Implement extension of resident files using the normal file write
code paths, i.e. most very small files can be extended to be a little
bit bigger but not by much.
+ - Add new mount option "disable_sparse". (See list of mount options
+ above for details.)
- Improve handling of ntfs volumes with errors and strange boot sectors
in particular.
- - Fix various bugs.
+ - Fix various bugs including a nasty deadlock that appeared in recent
+ kernels (around 2.6.11-2.6.12 timeframe).
2.1.22:
- Improve handling of ntfs volumes with errors.
- Fix various bugs and race conditions.
- Major bug fixes for reading files and volumes in corner cases which
were being hit by Windows 2k/XP users.
2.1.2:
- - Major bug fixes aleviating the hangs in statfs experienced by some
+ - Major bug fixes alleviating the hangs in statfs experienced by some
users.
2.1.1:
- Update handling of compressed files so people no longer get the
git://ftp.safe.ca / safe / jmp / linux-2.6 / blobdiff