Torvalds: don’t use ZFS

Linus Torvalds has again voiced his dislike of the ZFS filesystem but not all agree…

Linus Torvalds, the somewhat outspoken (we hadn’t noticed – Ed) creator of Linux, has taken to a mailing list (http://bit.ly/lxf260linuszfs) to moan about the ZFS filesystem, saying, “Don’t use ZFS. It’s that simple. It was always more of a buzzword than anything else, I feel, and the licensing issues just make it a nonstarter for me.”

The licencing issues Torvalds is referring to is the fact that ZFS uses Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) 1.0, while the Linux kernel is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) 2.0 – and these are not fully compatible with each other. If ZFS is included with the Linux kernel, this would mean that it is a derivative work of the original Linux kernel. What seems to be particularly troubling for Torvalds is Oracle’s involvement with the ZFS filesystem. “Considering Oracle’s litigious nature,” Torvalds explains to the mailing list, “and the questions over licensing, there’s no way I can feel safe in [merging ZFS code into the kernel].”

Will Torvalds ever feel comfortable with ZFS in Linux? “There is no way I can merge any of the ZFS efforts until I get an official letter from Oracle that is signed by their main legal counsel or preferably by Larry Ellison himself that says that yes, it’s ok to do so and treat the end result as GPL’D.” So probably not, then.

If distros do go ahead and implement ZFS, as Canonical has done with Ubuntu 19.10, then Torvalds states, “They are on their own. I can’t maintain it, and I can not be bound by other people’s kernel changes.”