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- Hacker News
- I have been running GEFS for a number of days and it hasnt crashed
248 ├gefs [ctl.1]
249 ├gefs [mutate.2]
250 ├gefs [sweep.3]
251 ├gefs [tasks.-1]
252 ├gefs [readio.4]
253 ├gefs [syncio.5]
254 ├gefs [srvio.-1]
255 ├gefs [stdio.-1]
up 13 days, 15:34:25
send it to production!!
- > The git repo is hidden on shithub
Heh :)
by geoffbp - Is this classic 9front tomfoolery?by irusensei
- >Error handling is largely commented out.
First we do the first 90%, and then we do the last 90%.
- It's done on 9front. The mechanical work of translating it to OpenBSD is not yet done.by oridb
- Is there any chance of proving a filesystem is correct?
Is this one simple enough that it won’t have bugs??
Given the issues with well-known filesystems like ZFS and BetterFS, why shouldn’t I expect data-losing bugs in this one?
by fn-mote - I think the premise is basically yes, you should assume there will be data-losing bugs, but:
1. The filesystem should be reasonably good at detecting an error/corruption state and informing you, and
2. You should have backups of said data stored elsewhere, and backups should be tested (e.g. to verify that data can be read back)
by spijdar - What well known data-losing bugs are there in zfs? It can be slow, and resource hungry, but afaik it's about as safe as they come (and I've been using it in prod since solaris 10)by cyberpunk
- GEFS: A Good Enough File System https://orib.dev/gefs.pdf
- Talk at EuroBSDCon 2026: https://exquisite.tube/w/3QQimMdswWJxrsPaJtak2uby dchest
- I've always wondered why HAMMER2 from DragonFlyBSD hasn't gotten more attention from other OSes?by limagnolia
- I think its the way their kernel architecture has diverged to this point in time.Seeing as it depends on structures/primitives in DRagonfly that dont exist in the other BSDs. Making a port a bit of a challenge.by rzerowan
- From NYC*BUG† May 2023, "GEFS, A Good Enough File System" By Ori Bernstein:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juFndFy72gI
September 2026 EuroBSDCon presentation from Sunday:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPoU4QEv_u8&t=49m43s
† BSD User Group
by throw0101a - I've been following (and helping test) gefs on 9front for a while now. 9front's nightly builder has been running off of it for quite a while. Ori's done a fantastic job.by moody__
- Oh my gosh, while I may have heard of 9front in passing I had a little look today and it's super cool! also shithub what an amazing alternative forge, it feels like one of those days when I'm part of the 10,000!by sellmesoap
- All respect to the author on their work, but for me personally - I'm be more interested in Hammer2 (from Dragonfly BSD) to come to OpenBSD.by tiffanyh
- There was a recent presentation on this at EuroBSDCon for those interested.by g0xA52A2A
- From https://orib.dev/gefs.pdf -
> While snapshot consistency is useful to keep data consistent, disks often fail over time. In order to detect corruption, block pointers contain a hash of the data that they point at. If corrupted data is returned by the underlying storage medium, this is detected via block hashes. And if a programmer error causes the file system to write garbage to disk, this can often be caught early. The corruption is reported, and the damaged data may then be recovered from backups, RAID restoration, or some other means.
Okay! It's got CoW, snapshots, and data checksums. Therefore, it's good enough to compete with ZFS while being way smaller and permissively licensed. Now I just want it ported to Linux and the other BSDs:)
by yjftsjthsd-h - I've always wondered about similar designs: Doesn't calculating a hash of every block, on every read and every write, create lots of overhead? Why isn't that a problem?
Some systems have dedicated crypto co-processors for confidentiality (encryption) - e.g., I think drives with FDE, and I think Apple Silicon SoCs might have them. Can those be repurposed for hash calculation? What about systems that lack them?
by mmooss - I don't think it will compete with ZFS or BTRFS (e.g. I don't think ppl will use GEFS over ZFS or BTRFS for a storage server), but it's a modern, much needed FFS replacement.by atmosx
- > It's got CoW, snapshots, and data checksums. Therefore, it's good enough to compete with ZFS while being way smaller and permissively licensed.
Does it have a built-in RAID layer? Because if it doesn't, then it can't compete with ZFS in many use cases. For example, what does "data may then be recovered from […] RAID restoration" mean?
With ZFS, if you have a (e.g.) mirrored/RAID-1 configuration, and you fetch some data from one drive and the checksum is wrong, ZFS can check the other drive, and if that checksum is good it can (a) pass the good data up, and (b) use the good data to fix the bad data. Most mirroring systems can't do that both-drives checking: ZFS is self-healing.
(This isn't to say that GEFS won't be useful in many other situations.)
by throw0101a