ext4plus

This repository provides a Rust crate that allows access and modification to an ext4 filesystem. It also works with ext2 and ext3 filesystems. The crate is no_std, so it can be used in embedded or osdev contexts. However, it does require alloc.

This project is a hard fork of ext4-view-rs, which is a read-only ext4 library. The goal of this fork was to add write and async support, which required some significant changes to the API and internal design.

Additionally, due to the need for more low-level access to the filesystem, this crate exposes a greater API surface.

The two APIs that are exposed are the "raw" API, which is intended for OS drivers, and the "std::fs" API, which replicates the standard library's std::fs API as closely as possible.

Sync vs Async

While this library is async-first, sync APIs are provided via the sync feature. This has known limitations due to features needing to be additive, but it should be sufficient for most use cases.

Limitations

• Lack of write support for journaling, although journaling can be read. It is recommended to disable journaling when using this library.
• Limited extended attribute (xattr) support. Small xattrs can be read and written when they fit in the inode body. Writing external xattr blocks is not supported yet.

Everything else should be fully supported, minus the features listed in the compatibility section below.

Compatibility

incompatible:

• filetype: required
• recover, extents, 64bit, bg_meta_csum, flex_bg: yes
• compression, journal_dev, meta_bg, mmp, ea_inode, dirdata, largedir, inline_data: no

compatible:

• has_journal, ext_attr, dir_index: yes
• dir_prealloc, imagic_inodes, resize_inode: no

read-only:

• sparse_super, large_file, huge_file, dir_nlink, extra_isize, metadata_csum: yes
• btree_dir, gdt_csum, quota, project_quotas, bigalloc: no

Roadmap

Near-term goals (pre-0.1.0):

• stability/more testing

Goals that are also being worked on, but are not necessarily pre-0.1.0:

• fuller extended attribute support (external xattr block writes)
• inline data support
• journaling write support
• gdt checksum support

Future goals:

• quota support
• journal device support
• mmp support
• compression support

Non-goals:

• Support for undocumented features or ones that are not widely used, such as the "imagic inodes" feature.
• no_alloc support

License

Licensed under either of Apache License, Version 2.0 or MIT license at your option.