The Linux NETFS code as a network file-system helper library is seeing patches to help enhance the read performance for solutions like CIFS as well as adding single blob object support.

A set of 31 NETFS patches were posted on Friday to help with improving read performance after some performance loss was spotted in the likes of CIFS as well as AFS. CIFS, of course, being the file sharing network protocol built atop SMB that is commonly used with Windows systems. AFS as a reminder is the Andrew File System distributed file-system. No benchmark numbers were provided as part of these NETFS patches for indicating the level of read performance improvement to expect from this round of patches.

In addition to the patches working to enhance read performance, the other function of the patch series is introducing "single blob" support for single-blob objects that need to be read/written as such. With single blob objects the contents of the file need to be read/written in a single operation to avoid potentially inconsistent results.

Those wanting to learn more about these pending NETFS improvements can see [1]this patch series for all the details.



[1] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20241025204008.4076565-1-dhowells@redhat.com/