On Sun, Aug 10, 2025 at 12:05:28AM -0400, Sasha Levin wrote: > On Sat, Aug 09, 2025 at 11:17:44PM -0400, Kent Overstreet wrote: > > On Sat, Aug 09, 2025 at 10:24:36PM -0400, Theodore Ts'o wrote: > > > And how did you respond? By criticizing another file system, and > > > talking about how wonderful you believe bcachefs to be, all of which > > > is beside the point. In fact, you once again demonstrated exactly why > > > a very large number of kernel deevlopers have decided you are > > > extremely toxic, and have been clamoring that your code be ejected > > > from the kernel. Not because of the code, but because your behavior. > > > > I would dearly love to have not opened that up, but "let's now delete > > bcachefs from the kernel" opened up that discussion, because our first > > priority has to be doing right by users - and a decision like that > > should absolutely be discussed publicly, well in advance, with all > > technical arguments put forth. > > Kent, > > You say our first priority has to be doing right by users, and I agree - > but doing right by users means maintaining a healthy, functioning > development community. A toxic community that drives away contributors > fails its users far more severely than the absence of any single > filesystem ever could. > > Look at this thread again. Really look at it. Neither Ted nor Josef > raised a single technical argument against bcachefs. They didn't > criticize your code, your design decisions, or your engineering. Josef > explicitly praised your technical work. Ted has repeatedly shown respect > for your code. The discussions about potentially dropping bcachefs > aren't happening because it's technically inferior to ext4, xfs, or > btrfs. They're happening because your personal interactions are > undermining the health of the community that maintains all of these > filesystems. > > > "Work as service to others" is something I think worth thinking about. > > We're not supposed to be in this for ourselves; I don't write code to > > stroke my own ego, I do it to be useful. > > Service to others includes maintaining professional relationships with > your colleagues. It includes building rather than tearing down. It > includes recognizing that a healthy community serves users better in the > long run than any individual contribution, no matter how technically > excellent. > > The kernel has thrived for over 30 years not just because of technical > excellence, but because it has (mostly) maintained a collaborative > environment where developers can work together despite disagreements. > That collaborative environment IS doing right by users. > > No filesystem is worth destroying that. Then can we please drop all this madness? I do hereby solomnly swear that I will refrain from critizing btrfs ever again, or any other code anywhere in the kernel (if that is the wish) - as long as Linus stops trying to dictate on patches internal to fs/bcachefs/. If it affects the rest of the kernel, that's fair game; I just want to be able to get work done.
