Is it easier to write filesystem drivers in userspace than in kernel space?

Posted by Jack on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Jack
Published on 2010-05-10T23:02:38Z Indexed on 2010/05/10 23:04 UTC
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Filed under:

filesystems

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ntfs

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kernel-programming

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kernel

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linux

I will use the Linux NTFS driver as an example.

The Linux kernel NTFS driver only has very limited write support in the kernel, and after 5 years it is still considered experimental.

The same development team creates the ntfsmount userspace driver, which has almost perfect write support.

Likewise, the NTFS-3G project which is written by a different team also has almost perfect write support.

Why has the kernel drive taken so much longer? Is it much harder to develop for?

Saying that there already exists a decent userspace application is not a reason why the kernel driver is not compelte.

NOTE: Do not migrate this to superuser.com. I want a programing heavy answer, from a programming perspective, not a practical use answer. If the question is not appropriate for SO, please advise me as to why so I can edit it so it is.

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