Subject: Re: [bug#40236] [PATCH] doc: Suggest Btrfs with compression instead of ext4 for root partition.

From: Ludovic Courtès <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 31 May 2020 23:07:08 +0200

Hi Pierre,

Pierre Neidhardt <[email-masked]> skribis:

> Now that 37305 is merged, we can revisit this issue.
>
> 1. This patch only includes a documentation update.
> 2. We could make Btrfs the default in the graphical installer.
> 3. We would probably need to update the tests, at least for the latter.
>
> As mentioned above, I think it's safe to enable Btrfs without subvolume,
> with Zstd compression.
>
> For subvolumes, we would need to implement the corresponding tests.
>
> Thoughts?

Like I wrote earlier, ext4 is better tested configuration.  For the
people who take care of the release, believe me, it’s reassuring to have
one less moving piece.

So the question is not whether Btrfs is “better”, it’s more about the
confidence and peace of mind of those responsible for the release and
subsequent maintenance.

Now, contributions that make Btrfs well-supported in the installer (is
anything missing there?) and in system tests would be welcome I guess.

In the manual, it’s also fine IMO to mention something like:

  Some file systems, such as Btrfs, support compression, which is
  reported to nicely complement file deduplication that the daemon
  performs independently of the file system (@pxref{Invoking
  guix-daemon}).

So a hint for savvy people rather than a recommendation.

Ludo’.