LINUX Unplugged 644: The People's Filesystem
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Dec 8, 2025 Kent Overstreet, the creator and lead developer of bcachefs, dives into exciting updates surrounding this advanced Linux filesystem. He discusses the recent release of bcachefs 1.33, emphasizing its new reconcile feature and stabilization efforts. Kent shares unexpected benefits from being out of the mainline kernel, how community contributions are shaping development, and plans for future enhancements like Rust integration. He also provides practical advice for home lab users and outlines the importance of a reliable GPL filesystem in today's tech landscape.
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Reconcile Adds Strict Metadata Correctness
- The reconcile feature refactors metadata to enforce strict correctness across stored data and IO path options.
- Kent says this was the biggest new feature in two years and required wide-ranging internal changes.
Allow Mount-Time Upgrade To Finish
- Expect an on-mount metadata upgrade when moving to the new bcachefs version and allow time for it to complete.
- If systemd times out during mount, wait for the kernel log to show the upgrade finished or reboot after it completes.
Stability Improved; Experimental Label Nearing End
- Stability has noticeably improved since mid-2024 with fewer severe regressions and a calmer bug flow.
- Kent expects to drop the 'experimental' label soon and targeted Christmas as a milestone.