Re:The State of ZFS on Linux
by ryao on Friday September 12, 2014 @12:49AM
(#8306634)
I am working on tearing down barriers to this. Expect to see the fruit of that effort later this year.
That said, I do not consider absence from Linus' tree to be a barrier because being in Linus' tree limits the ability of end users to obtain bug fixes. That is a problem other filesystems have that I am happy to see ZFSOnLinux avoid.
Also, Linus Torvalds and I discussed the possibility of merging ZFS into his tree because of feedback like yours. In short, Linus has no interest in merging ZFS into his tree. Linus thinks that it might enable Oracle might sue people unless they provide a signed-off to confirm that the code is under the CDDL. He also thinks that the kernel signed off keeps Oracle from suing people over btrfs when software patents are a likely loophole.
Lastly, I realize that my statement about the signed off confirming that the code is under the CDDL might sound strange. However, there are two cases to consider. The first case involves source code. The GPL does not restrict the redistribution of source code, so there would be no problem. The second case is binaries, which the GPL does restrict in situations in which a court of law would consider to be a derived work. Being a module only option should be sufficient to deal with that. Linus did not seem to have any problem with that idea. However, he insists on Oracle's signed off with the preference that it be Larry Elison.
That said, I do not consider absence from Linus' tree to be a barrier because being in Linus' tree limits the ability of end users to obtain bug fixes. That is a problem other filesystems have that I am happy to see ZFSOnLinux avoid.
Also, Linus Torvalds and I discussed the possibility of merging ZFS into his tree because of feedback like yours. In short, Linus has no interest in merging ZFS into his tree. Linus thinks that it might enable Oracle might sue people unless they provide a signed-off to confirm that the code is under the CDDL. He also thinks that the kernel signed off keeps Oracle from suing people over btrfs when software patents are a likely loophole.
Lastly, I realize that my statement about the signed off confirming that the code is under the CDDL might sound strange. However, there are two cases to consider. The first case involves source code. The GPL does not restrict the redistribution of source code, so there would be no problem. The second case is binaries, which the GPL does restrict in situations in which a court of law would consider to be a derived work. Being a module only option should be sufficient to deal with that. Linus did not seem to have any problem with that idea. However, he insists on Oracle's signed off with the preference that it be Larry Elison.