The recent articles on ZFS made me wonder if MS had anything planned for Windows. I was curious so I checked and they apparently have ReFS[1] in Windows 8 Server.
I think it's separate from the BaseFS referenced here though. ReFS is not likely to be in the client release until the next version of the OS.
What I can't fathom is that ReFS drops very useful (and commonly used) features: transactions, sparse files, hard-links, extended attributes, and quotas.
Sparse files are used extensively by Hyper-V for disk images. You really want them--especially on Windows Server, which is the only platform with ReFS right now.
The base Windows install uses symbolic links to unify things like "Documents"/"My Documents" and other key areas, without which legacy programs will not work properly. I cannot comment on other Windows deploys, but I'll add that my team uses symbolic links heavily on NTFS both in development and production, and that the plethora of articles on adding a link command back to PowerShell seems to imply we're not that weird.
And at least SQL Server uses NTFS transactions for its magic.
Maybe ReFS2 adds these back, but they will absolutely be missed.
That's still NTFS territory. ReFS seems more appropriate for large scale file serving and/or volume flexibility.
As for all the symbolic links, they all still work. They're only there for compatibility reasons and will disappear at some point (WinSxS is a worry though).
Unless I'm really mistaken, NTFS, as a file system, can delete an open file; Windows' Win32 subsystem simply forbids it. You should get the same behavior when mounting ext2 from Windows, and you should be able to delete open files when mounting NTFS from Linux. It was a design choice that I personally think is idiotic, but it's at the Windows subsystem later, not the file system. For that reason, no, I assume ReFS does not let you delete an open file.
In terms of functionality: ReFS is a subset of ZFS-like system. That's not been available on Unix for decades, and since ZFS is patented and both that and Btrfs are controlled by a competitor, I don't fault them for making their own format. What I am nonplussed on is why ReFS is missing old Windows features like links, which (despite another poster's claim) are used rather heavily, by the default Windows install, no less.
> NTFS, as a file system, can delete an open file; Windows' Win32 subsystem simply forbids it.
I agree with you this is really brain-dead.
> I don't fault them for making their own format.
I only wonder why, with all of the resources they have available to devote to it, all they have to show is a subset of something that has been available for the better part of the last decade.
> What I am nonplussed on is why ReFS is missing old Windows features like links
Considering links an "old Windows feature" nonplusses me. First time I heard about them was with MULTICS. ;-) Not having them 40 years after that pioneering work is inexcusable.
I think it's separate from the BaseFS referenced here though. ReFS is not likely to be in the client release until the next version of the OS.
[1] - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/b8/archive/2012/01/16/building-the-n...