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Date:      Tue, 03 Feb 1998 18:21:37 -0800
From:      Julian Elischer <julian@whistle.com>
To:        hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   kirk's soft-update integration..
Message-ID:  <34D7D0B0.500F9F30@whistle.com>

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Kirk's soft update code has a poison pill license for 
commercial use, (he gives the license on a case by case basis) but
it greatly speeds up FS access, and is freely usable for private
use. The patches, when added to FreeBSD actually do yield a slight
improvement even when used with the dummy stub module that can be
used to make the system still work for commercial uses.
The slight improvement is due to his replacement syncer.

While the copyrighted file cannot be used in every situation, the 
system as modified to use it seems to not have any bad side effects,
and as the file itself can be distributed freely with a source
available OS, there would be no problem with even distributing
the files to allow private users to make use of this. 

The effect is to make the speed of a filesystem approach that of 
an async FS while maintaining the safety of a sync FS.
(It may even be faster than our async FS).

What I want to get from the readership here, and more importantly,
CORE members, is whether the changes for this should be integrated
back into FreeBSD-current, and when.

I'm not SURE yet whether I CAN put the changes back (OpenBSD did)
but I'd like some sort of a reading of the acceptance of it..

An indication of how useful this is is:

multiple compiles, copies, rms etc.

With soft updates: writes: 6 sync, 1,113,686 async; run time 19hr, 50min
Normal filesystem: writes: 1,459,147 sync, 487,031 async; run time 27hr,
15min

The upshot is 42% less I/O and 28% shorter running time.
----------------------------

the license is:

/*
 * Copyright 1997 Marshall Kirk McKusick. All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * The soft updates code is derived from the appendix of a University
 * of Michigan technical report (Gregory R. Ganger and Yale N. Patt,
 * "Soft Updates: A Solution to the Metadata Update Problem in File
 * Systems", CSE-TR-254-95, August 1995).
 *
 * The following are the copyrights and redistribution conditions that
 * apply to this copy of the soft update software. For a license
 * to use, redistribute or sell the soft update software under
 * conditions other than those described here, please contact the
 * author at one of the following addresses:
 *
 *      Marshall Kirk McKusick          mckusick@mckusick.com
 *      1614 Oxford Street              +1-510-843-9542
 *      Berkeley, CA 94709-1608
 *      USA
 *
 * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
 * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
 * are met:
 *
 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
 * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
 *    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in
the
 *    documentation and/or other materials provided with the
distribution.
 * 3. None of the names of McKusick, Ganger, Patt, or the University of
 *    Michigan may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
 *    this software without specific prior written permission.
 * 4. Redistributions in any form must be accompanied by information on
 *    how to obtain complete source code for any accompanying software
 *    that uses the this software. This source code must either be
included
 *    in the distribution or be available for no more than the cost of
 *    distribution plus a nominal fee, and must be freely
redistributable
 *    under reasonable conditions. For an executable file, complete
 *    source code means the source code for all modules it contains.
 *    It does not mean source code for modules or files that typically
 *    accompany the operating system on which the executable file runs,
 *    e.g., standard library modules or system header files.
 *
 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY MARSHALL KIRK MCKUSICK ``AS IS'' AND ANY
 * EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
IMPLIED
 * WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
ARE
 * DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL MARSHALL KIRK MCKUSICK BE LIABLE FOR
 * ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR
CONSEQUENTIAL
 * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE
GOODS
 * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
 * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT,
STRICT
 * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY
WAY
 * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY
OF
 * SUCH DAMAGE.
 *
 *      @(#)ffs_softdep.c       9.12 (McKusick) 12/2/97
 */



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