NTFS in GENERIC: opt-in or opt-out?

[Maxim Sobolev]

Erich Dollansky wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> On Sun, 2009-01-18 at 23:25 -0800, Maxim Sobolev wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I am reviewing differences between amd64 and i386 GENERIC kernels and 
>> noticed that for some unclear reason we ship amd64 GENERIC with NTFS 
>> module compiled in, while i386 without it. IMHO both should match. The 
>> question is whether NTFS should be i386 way (opt in) or amd64 way (opt 
> 
> the Windows file system?
> 
> I would use opt-in as most people will not need it.

Any particular reason why not? Memory is cheap, 100-200KB of extra 
kernel code doesn't really matter today, while NTFS is probably the most 
widespread filesystem after MSDOS. Therefore supporting it in the 
GENERIC out of the box even in the read-only mode (our NTFS driver is 
read-only AFAIK) could benefit many users.

-Maxim