From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: MIME-Version: 1.0 From: Amir Goldstein Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2020 09:27:12 +0200 Message-ID: Subject: Re: OverlaysFS offline tools Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" To: Vivek Goyal Cc: overlayfs , StuartIanNaylor , Linux Containers , kmxz , "zhangyi (F)" , Miklos Szeredi List-ID: [-fsdevel,+containers] > On Thu, Apr 18, 2019 at 1:58 PM StuartIanNaylor wrote: > > > > Apols to ask here but are there any tools for overlayFS? > > > > https://github.com/kmxz/overlayfs-tools is just about the only thing I > > can find. > > There is also https://github.com/hisilicon/overlayfs-progs which > can check and fix overlay layers, but it hasn't been updated in a while. > Hi Vivek (and containers folks), Stuart has pinged me on https://github.com/StuartIanNaylor/zram-config/issues/4 to ask about the status of overlayfs offline tools. Quoting my answer here for visibility to more container developers: I have been involved with implementing many overlayfs features in the kernel in the past couple of years (redirect_dir,index,nfs_export,xino,metacopy). All of these features bring benefits to end users, but AFAIK, they are all still disabled by default in containers runtimes (?) because lack of tools support (e.g. migration /import/export). I cannot force anyone to use the new overlayfs features nor to write offline tools support for them. So how can we improve this situation? If the problem is development resources then I've had great experience in the past with OSS internship programs like Google summer of code (GSoC): Organizations, such as Redhat or mobyproject.org, can participate in the program by posting proposals for open source projects. Developers, such as myself, volunteer to mentors projects and students apply to work on them. IIRC, the timeline for GSoC for project proposals in around April. Applying as an organization could be before that. Vivek, since you are the only developer I know involved in containers runtime projects I am asking you, but really its a question for all container developers out there. Are you aware of missing features in containers that could be met by filling the gaps with overlayfs offline tools? Are you a part of an organization that could consider posting this sort of project proposals to GSoC or other internship programs? Thanks, Amir.