XFS and gentoo-sources-2.4.19 r8 and r9

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UPDATE: This post was originally written when 2.4.19-gentoo-r9 was the most current kernel version. XFS has been reintegrated into gentoo-sources in -r10, and so this post is now largely of only historical interest. If anyone is still having trouble enabling XFS in the gentoo kernel sources, make sure you have at least version 2.4.19-r10.

In version 2.4.19-r10, in order to enable the XFS patch, you must add the USE variable "xfs".

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Despite the version numbering, gentoo-sources up to and including 2.4.19-r7 are actually based off of a 2.4.18 kernel, so it might help to consider them "pre-2.4.19" kernels. Beginning with 2.4.19-r8, the base kernel for gentoo-sources is 2.4.19.

Among other things, this means that the SGI 1.1 release XFS patches no longer apply cleanly, and they have been removed from gentoo-sources. Even though XFS was included in gentoo-sources-2.4.19-r7, it is not included in 2.4.19-r8 and 2.4.19-r9.

The xfs-sources tree uses a CVS snapshot of XFS development as of 2.4.19. If this is what you want, use xfs-sources (2.4.19-r1 is current as of this post). If you want to continue using XFS 1.1, you are best sticking with kernel 2.4.18 and the 1.1 XFS patches, either as xfs-sources-2.4.18, patched by hand from vanilla-sources, or with gentoo-sources-2.4.19-r7, if you prefer that tree.

If you allow emerge to update gentoo-sources from 2.4.19-r7 to 2.4.19-r8 or 2.4.19-r9, you will end up with kernel sources that do not support XFS.

Since kernel sources in Gentoo are a rapidly moving target, if anyone becomes aware that any part of this post is incorrect or outdated, please send a private message to me or any other moderator you see online.
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