#530 F33 System-Wide Change: Make btrfs the default file system for desktop variants
Closed 3 years ago by pbokoc. Opened 3 years ago by bcotton.

This issue tracks the release note for the following Fedora Change:

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/BtrfsByDefault

If you own this change, please add additional information here that we should communicate to Fedora users. Specifically, please consider:

  • New features available because of this change - pick 2 or 3 that are important
  • Considerations for users of previous releases of Fedora (upgrade issues, format changes, etc.)
  • Links to any upstream Release Notes
  • If this helps Fedora be a superior environment for our target audiences, please explain how so that we can emphasize this.

Your notes to us do not need to be formally written. We will edit them and add details as needed. This is a way for you to ensure that we know what is critical about your change.

If you want to write this release note, then:

  • Assign this issue to yourself
  • Check the wiki page linked above, find out what the change is about
  • Determine whether the change actually made it into the release or not[0]
  • Write a draft release note using that information against the correct branch here, in Pagure. (or see below)
  • Get in touch with the contact person/people listed on the wiki page, either through IRC or e-mail, and ask them to check your draft for technical accuracy
  • Submit your Release Note as a PR to this repository.

Once you're done with the above, make sure to either commit the relnote to an appropriate section of the Release Notes book, or, if you're not familiar with Git, AsciiDoc, or whatever else, just add it to this issue as a comment and let pbokoc[1] know that you're done with this one and you'd like the note included. Be sure to do this at least one day before the final release (October 29 according to the current schedule). Also make sure to do this even for relnotes that haven't been checked by the change owner.

[0] You can do that by asking the change owner listed on the wiki page; alternatively you can infer it by checking the tracker bug (linked in Wiki) in Bugzilla and looking at its status; see bug comments for details. Ask someone on the mailing list or on IRC if you're not sure.
[1] In #fedora-docs on FreeNode (UTC+1 timezone, online mostly during the day on weekdays), or pbokoc @redhat.com if you can't get a hold of me on IRC.


@mattdm @catanzaro @ngompa @dcavalca
What do folks want to do here? One of the fun things about Btrfs is asking ten people for their favorite feature/benefit and get ten answers. :) Today I like the 1st and 5th bullets in the feature's Benefit to Fedora list.

Or even, what do folks not want to do here?

The release notes could split out user types: e.g. Everyday User Benefits and Advanced User Benefits and list 2-3 items for each (4-6 features total). Everyday users: no longer run into the free space competition problem; always-on integrity checking; reflink a.k.a. efficient copies (both cp and Shell by default, not sure about other DE's but checking into it). Advanced users: subvolumes for namespace isolation, cheap snapshots, send/receive for replication.

There might be a bigger conversation about prioritizing the docs we want to have, and then reference some of them in the release notes? Some of those ideas so far:

Turn this into a quick doc and then have the wiki point to the quick doc.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Btrfs

fedora-workstation#158 has three bullets at the top that look like a useful start point but need both fleshing out (substance) and flushing out (things currently are a bit obscured behind a rat's nest of Google search results of questionable value).

  • getting started:
    There's this no man's land between "transparent change for most users, you don't need to learn anything" and the "getting your feet wet without jumping into the deep end". But figuring out that entry point and logical flow and the venue is a question. Quick docs? Twitch?

  • problems and recovery:
    The most difficult message to get across might be that the best chance for recovery is do not even try to fix it, but go straight to btrfs restore (the offline scrape tool). And also the messaging will change come kernel 5.10 when we get a new highly tolerant read-only rescue mount option that should obviate much of the need for restore.

  • QA has a testcase for reusing /home that can form the basis of a quick doc. @sumantrom might be up for doing that.

@mattdm @catanzaro @ngompa @dcavalca
What do folks want to do here? One of the fun things about Btrfs is asking ten people for their favorite feature/benefit and get ten answers. :) Today I like the 1st and 5th bullets in the feature's Benefit to Fedora list.

We should talk about bullet 2 as well to promote the message "btrfs is the safest way to store your data" everywhere we can.

Do you have an example of previous release notes for a comparable feature that I can look at to get a sense of the style/depth we're looking for here?

Features wise, checksumming is probably worth mentioning, especially wrt the data integrity angle. Send/receive is cool, but it might be too advanced/niche for a general audience (and stuff like seed devices is definitely out of the question). Also, feel free to crib stuff from the gdoc linked in fedora-workstation#158 as you see fit (I still need to finish cleaning this up and sending a PR for it).

I don't know if comments like these are appreciated here, but I would love to see this feature coming through in Fedora 33 (and hopefully RH later on)!

Draft (mostly asciidoc I think so it might look weird in pagure; edit to grab the raw asciidoc)

== Btrfs by default

Btrfs is a native Linux copy-on-write file system. It provides advanced features including error detection, fault tolerance, recovery, transparent compression, cheap snapshots, integrated volume management, and easier administration. Btrfs will be the file system used for new desktop installations.

=== Applies to

  • Fedora Workstation edition, and all Fedora desktop spins

=== Does not apply to

  • Fedora Server, Cloud, IoT, or CoreOS.
  • Upgrades of any Fedora edition or spin.

=== What's changing

=== Always-on features

  • Copy-on-write means data is never overwritten, and the file system stays consistent even in the case of power failures.
  • Data integrity: Checksumming for all data and metadata ensures corruptions do not propagate.
  • Efficient copies, also known as filing cloning or efficient copies.

=== Opt-in features

=== And also...

  • It's still possible to choose other file system layouts in Custom partitioning, including the LVM+ext4 layout.
  • The "Everything" netinstaller will use Btrfs by default. It's advised that headless and PXE installation use cases should use the Fedora Server netinstaller.
  • https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Btrfs[Fedora Btrfs landing page]

Fixed in #595.

I added a few bits - links from other relevant locations in the relnotes and a couple of links at the end. Thank you for the draft, Chris!

Metadata Update from @pbokoc:
- Issue status updated to: Closed (was: Open)

3 years ago

Login to comment on this ticket.

Metadata
Related Pull Requests
  • #595 Merged 3 years ago