I got some questions on ffs2 in 6.7. This is to set the record
straight, feel free to share on forums like reddit that I do not read,
let alone post on.
1. Using 6.7, the *installer* defaults to ffs2 for new filesystems for
almost all platforms.
2. Using 6.7, a newfs "by hand" still gets you ffs1, unless you use the
-O2 flag or the partition > 1TB.
3. In -current, newfs defaults to ffs2 for all platforms.
4. ffs2 is faster than ffs2 when creating filesystems and almost always when
fscking them.
5. ffs2 uses 64-bit timestamps and block numbers. So it handles dates
after 2038 and much larger partitions. This does not mean that super
large partitions are always a good idea, there are still drawbacks:
e.g. they do need lots of memory to fsck, especially when many inodes
are in use.
6. I have no plans for writing a conversion tool. You can convert an
ffs1 filesystem to ffs2 using single user mode: umount; dump; newfs
-O2; restore; mount. Or see it as an opportunity to reinstall and
get a nice clean system without cruft collected over the years.
Hope this help in clearing up some of questions people have,
-Otto
