Linux: Reiser4 and the Mainline Kernel

Hans Reiser [interview] sent an email to thelkml titled, "I request inclusion of reiser4 in the mainline kernel". He provided a list of objections raised earlier, noting that all had been addressed. Among the listed issues, Reiser4 now works with 4k stacks. "There have been no bug reports concerning the new code," Hans added.

The request was followed with some suggestions by Christoph Hellwig, including general comments about the coding style. This was one of many issues that led to debate in which Hans commented, "most of my customers remark that Namesys code is head and shoulders above the rest of the kernel code. So yes, it is different." Alan Cox [interview] replied that while the kernel coding style isn't his own style, he tries to follow it when working on the kernel, "one big reason we jump up and down so much about the coding style is that its the one thing that ensures someone else can maintain and fix code that the author has abandoned, doesn't have time to fix or that needs access to specific hardware the authors may not have." Much of the rest of the thread was less friendly, leaving the question of merging Reiser4 into the mainline kernel still up in the air.