Linus Torvalds recently [1]marked Bcachefs as "externally maintained" and [2]isn't merging any new Bcachefs code for the time being but for now at least is keeping the existing Bcachefs code in-tree for anyone that has been relying on this experimental CoW file-system from prior kernel versions. OpenSUSE announced today though they are resorting to disabling the kernel driver in their Linux 6.17+ builds.

Due to the "externally maintained" position of Bcachefs and that code being maintained out-of-tree for now at least, openSUSE engineers at SUSE have decided to disable Bcachefs for Linux 6.17 and future kernel builds. For existing pre-6.17 kernel builds, the Bcachefs kernel module will remain.

The [3]announcement by SUSE's Jiri Slaby concludes with:

"Once the BCacheFS maintainer behaves and the code is maintained upstream again, we will re-enable... (As IMO, it is a useful feature.)"



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Bcachefs-Externally-Maintained

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/Bcachefs-Linux-6.18-Waits

[3] https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/factory@lists.opensuse.org/thread/TOXF7FZXDRFPR356WO37DXZLMVVPMVHW/