ext4 metadata_csum and backwards compatibility

[Robie Basak]

On Mon, Mar 19, 2018 at 02:36:05PM +0100, Julian Andres Klode wrote:
> I think it might be useful to snap e2fsprogs, so we have a solution
> for all older releases. Not to replace the package, but as a backport
> that does not conflict with the system binaries.

A snap wouldn't be a bad thing, but I think there would be more to it
than "just" publishing a snap in order to maintain parity against an
SRU:

0. A user hitting the issue probably wouldn't have the snap installed,
so would see e2fsck fail instead of it Just Working via an SRU.

1. While the snap would make a workaround available, I'm concerned that
there would be no discoverability. How would a user, upon hitting a
problem with e2fsck on Xenial fscking a Bionic system, find out about
the snap solution?

2. What about maintenance? Right now, the Ubuntu security team is
committed to maintaining e2fsprogs in the "deb archive" for security in
Xenial, and Ubuntu as a whole for bugfixes, and an SRU wouldn't change
that. A prudent sysadmin would want to avoid losing this support. So
what kind of support commitment would come with that snap, and is anyone
proposing to commit to the additional maintenance of this extra thing?
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