Linux 7.3 Expected To Drop The FreeVxFS File-System Driver

It looks like Linux 7.3 will end up dropping FreeVxFS as the read-only Linux kernel driver for the Veritas VxFS file-system used formerly by HP-UX and SCO UnixWare.

Christian Brauner has queued a patch by Christoph Hellwig into a VFS Git branch for removing the FreeVxFS file-system driver. Hellwig maintained the aging driver up to this point but finds little value in its continued existence in the mainline Linux kernel.

The patch in the "vfs-7.3.freevxfs" Git branch argues for its removal with the rationale:

"Providing compatibility to various old-school Unix systems from the 1990s was fun 25 years ago, but today it just attracts automated bug checkers that have no point in something like this used for retro-computing.

As there as only one known users (and contributor) in the last 15 years, drop it. Anyone who needs to access such a file system can stay on an older kernel, or maintain the code out of tree as it doesn't require anything fancy."

Yet more old Linux kernel code being ushered out of the source tree in part by the increase of automated bug checkers / AI LLM coding agents reporting bugs and generating noise in the seldom maintained code with little to no active users.

This FreeVxFS file-system driver removal is slated for the upcoming Linux 7.3 merge window barring any last minute objections.