The Modern NTFS Linux Driver Adds Read Support For Windows System Compression (WOF)
([Linux Storage] 3 Hours Ago
Transparent WOF)
- Reference: 0001654094
- News link: https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.3-NTFS-Driver-WOF
- Source link:
The pull requests for the existing Paragon NTFS3 kernel driver as well as the new modern "NTFS" drivers have been submitted for the ongoing [1]Linux 7.3 kernel cycle. Besides bug fixes, most notable among these NTFS file-system drivers are Windows System Compression "WOF" read support for the modern NTFS driver.
Sent out last week from Paragon Software was the [2]NTFS3 changes for Linux 7.3. This work includes basic support for alternative data streams, validation improvements, loading ATTR_BITMAP run extents from $MFT extension records, and a variety of bug fixes. There are many NTFS3 bug fixes from dealing with memory leaks, integer overflows, and out-of-bounds reads/writes to various other code fixes. Nothing too exciting there with NTFS3 continuing to see mostly bug fixes since its upstreaming to the Linux kernel back in 2021.
For the modern NTFS driver upstreamed earlier this year to the Linux kernel, Namjae Jeon continues pushing along that read/write driver well. The main new feature there is optional read support for Windows System Compression (WOF / Windows Overlay Filter). When the driver is built with the new CONFIG_NTFS_FS_WOF_COMPRESSION Kconfig option, there is now read support for WOF-compressed files through the NTFS page-read path. This includes kernel-side XPRESS 4K/8K/16K and LZX 32K decompressors. Again this is read-only support at this point for compressed files and not any write support in Linux 7.3 for WOF files.
Windows System Compression was added to Windows 10 for optionally compressing files and folders with transparent decompression to the user/applications.
The [3]NTFS driver updates for Linux 7.3 also include hardening against malformed file-system handling and error paths, improved compressed file I/O path, validation improvements, and various other fixes.
[1] https://www.phoronix.com/search/Linux+7.3
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20260818122105.24094-1-almaz.alexandrovich@paragon-software.com/
[3] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAKYAXd-VtzBzOGeX7QJrPVxee4Pxs+uZF_2jV2B5xKAUZXzFYA@mail.gmail.com/
Sent out last week from Paragon Software was the [2]NTFS3 changes for Linux 7.3. This work includes basic support for alternative data streams, validation improvements, loading ATTR_BITMAP run extents from $MFT extension records, and a variety of bug fixes. There are many NTFS3 bug fixes from dealing with memory leaks, integer overflows, and out-of-bounds reads/writes to various other code fixes. Nothing too exciting there with NTFS3 continuing to see mostly bug fixes since its upstreaming to the Linux kernel back in 2021.
For the modern NTFS driver upstreamed earlier this year to the Linux kernel, Namjae Jeon continues pushing along that read/write driver well. The main new feature there is optional read support for Windows System Compression (WOF / Windows Overlay Filter). When the driver is built with the new CONFIG_NTFS_FS_WOF_COMPRESSION Kconfig option, there is now read support for WOF-compressed files through the NTFS page-read path. This includes kernel-side XPRESS 4K/8K/16K and LZX 32K decompressors. Again this is read-only support at this point for compressed files and not any write support in Linux 7.3 for WOF files.
Windows System Compression was added to Windows 10 for optionally compressing files and folders with transparent decompression to the user/applications.
The [3]NTFS driver updates for Linux 7.3 also include hardening against malformed file-system handling and error paths, improved compressed file I/O path, validation improvements, and various other fixes.
[1] https://www.phoronix.com/search/Linux+7.3
[2] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20260818122105.24094-1-almaz.alexandrovich@paragon-software.com/
[3] https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAKYAXd-VtzBzOGeX7QJrPVxee4Pxs+uZF_2jV2B5xKAUZXzFYA@mail.gmail.com/