Smolt RFC: File System Information

Eric Sandeen sandeen at redhat.com
Thu Jan 31 03:36:14 UTC 2008


Yaakov Nemoy wrote:
> Hey list,
> 
> I'm looking to get some input on a feature that was requested of
> Smolt.  One file system engineer wants to collect some basic data
> about file systems in use, for fine tuning the default settings in
> Fedora and RHEL.  This is something that we can all benefit by, and
> the greater participation we give, the better the results are going to
> be for everyone.  To hilight the information to be collected, actions
> speak louder than words:
> 
> yankee at dao:~$ sudo stat -f /dev/main/fedora8
>   File: "/dev/main/fedora8"
>     ID: 0        Namelen: 255     Type: tmpfs
> Block size: 4096       Fundamental block size: 4096
> Blocks: Total: 258215     Free: 258199     Available: 258199
> Inodes: Total: 223935     Free: 222932
> 
> (Actually I think something might be broken, that data doesn't look
> correct for me)

I think you sorted it out, but: stat the mountpoint not the dev... :)

> In short, it will collect a list of file systems + types, and their usage stats.
> 
> For the time being the stats won't be published on the web site.
> We're having some reporting issues, and I don't want to add another
> long running SQL query into the mix.  However, anyone will be free to
> ask one of us to report on that information. Furthermore, this
> information will be enabled by default, for the time being, until we
> have thing set up to allow fine grained information hiding.  Remember,
> all profiles will be anonymous as usual.
> 
> Are there any underlying security or privacy issues here that would be
> a clear reason not to do this?  Any other comments, or refinements?

The only thing I can think of is that while you'd like to report any
filesystems in use (so as not to pre-select what you're interested in,
and potentially filter out, say, a large unknown community of befs
users...) you run the risk of possibly reporting a "secret" filesystem
name; for example if suddenly 500 HP machines start reporting that "zfs"
is in use, it might make you go "hmmm...." - but, I assume that other
things reported by smolt after grepping around the bios run similar
risks, and you're not worried about sending out those strings?

So ideally I guess I'd like to see essentially df & df -i information
for any real (non-loop?) devices in /dev.

(well actually I can think of a lot more fs-specific things that would
be cool, but I'll be happy with type/size/utilization for now) :)

Thanks!
-Eric




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