Equivalent of IBM Spectrum Archive SDE 2.4.6.1 (10511)

IBM released IBM Storage Archive 2.4.6.1 (10511) at fd41c66. So the LTFS project releases new version 2.4.6.1.

Change Log:

• For problem fixes that were reported in the previous versions:
  • See 9ab1dc5..2273268

Equivalent of IBM Spectrum Archive SDE 2.4.6.0 (10507)

IBM released IBM Storage Archive 2.4.6.0 (10507) at 9ab1dc5. So the LTFS project releases new version 2.4.6.0.

Change Log:

• For problem fixes that were reported in the previous versions:
  • See 486ce60..7d5c5af

Equivalent of IBM Spectrum Archive SDE 2.4.5.0 (10502)

IBM released IBM Spectrum Archive 2.4.5.0 (10502) at 19c3fd3. So the LTFS project releases new version 2.4.5.0.

Change Log:

• For problem fixes that were reported in the previous versions:
  • See 3287850..3b26f03

Equivalent of IBM Spectrum Archive SDE 2.4.4.0 (10470)

IBM released IBM Spectrum Archive 2.4.4.0 (10470) at 3287850. So the LTFS project releases new version 2.4.4.0.

Change Log:

• Support LTO9 drive
• Fixed and improved MAM handling in cases where MAM might not update correctly during write errors,
  so that LTFS correctly searches for the latest index position of the tape for these cases.
• For problem fixes that were reported in the previous versions:
  • See cdf782f..872c18a

Equivalent of IBM Spectrum Archive SDE 2.4.3.1 (10461)

IBM released IBM Spectrum Archive 2.4.3.1 (10461) at aa181ad. So the LTFS project releases new version 2.4.3.1.

Critical fix

IMPORTANT Notice

For the users of LTFS version 2.4.0 or above, it is highly recommended to upgrade the software to version 2.4.3.1 immediately. The problem was fixed into (#233, 303ca43). When the LTFS would truncate the files ion tape unexpectedly when LTFS receives a permanent write error at SCSI LOCATE command before SCSI WRITE command.

The scenario is

1. LTFS tries to write a data block of a file at the end of tape
2. LTFS issues LOCATE command to seek to the end of tape
3. LTFS receives a permanent write error against LOCATE command
4. LTFS looks this permanent write error as a a permanent write error against WRITE command and make error recovery
5. LTFS fetches the current position on the tape (the position is as same as the position before LOCATE command is issued because it fails)
6. LTFS clear all extents larger than current position
7. LTFS tries to seek to the append position of the index partition
8. The file truncation would be completed when this seek is successfully done (At the most cases this seek wouldn't success but we have a few possibility)
9. LTFS would write the current cleaned index on the index partition and the file truncation is completed

Change Log:

• Fix exceeded extent cleaning when a write perm returns against LOCATE before write operation
• For problem fixes that were reported in the previous versions:
  • See aa181ad..1121daa

Equivalent of IBM Spectrum Archive SDE 2.4.3.0 (10450)

IBM released IBM Spectrum Archive 2.4.3.0 (10450) at aa181ad. So the LTFS project releases new version 2.4.3.0.

Change Log:

• For problem fixes that were reported in the previous versions:
  • See 7eed987..aa181ad

Equivalent of IBM Spectrum Archive SDE 2.4.2.0 (10418)

IBM released IBM Spectrum Archive 2.4.2.0 (10418) at c861306. So the LTFS project releases new version 2.4.2.0.

Change Log:

• Backend I/F enhancement
• Introduce port load balancing on the sg backend.
  • Handle the SCSI address in the sg backend.
• Enhance path failover on the sg backend.
• For problem fixes that were reported in the previous versions:
  • See e3021cd..c861306

Equivalent of IBM Spectrum Archive SDE 2.4.1.2 (10254)

IBM released IBM Spectrum Archive 2.4.1.2 (10254) at 725912b. So the LTFS project releases new version 2.4.1.2.

Change Log:

• Problem fixes reported in the previous versions
  • Fix a bug in actual read length handling
  • Fix WORM tape support for IBM Enterprise drives
  • Improve TS1160 tape drive handling
  • Improve error message when unknown sense is received
  • Handle device connection lost correctly
  • See in detail 1b33d9a..725912b

LTFS 2.4.2.0 (Pre0)

This is a pre-release of LTFS 2.4.2.0. (This is not related into IBM's release)

The purpose of this release is to support 3rd party backend collection (LTFS backends 0.1 in https://github.com/LinearTapeFileSystem/ltfs-backends).

LTFS backends 0.1 shall work file under this release at least.

Equivalent of IBM Spectrum Archive SDE 2.4.1.1 (10227)

IBM released IBM Spectrum Archive 2.4.1.1 (10227) at 6adff9f. So the LTFS project releases new version 2.4.1.1.

Change Log:

• Fix the percent encoder
• ltfsck writes down new index at the end of data stream

Detail description of

• The percent encoder patch
  • Fix a percent encoder bug for '%' in the filename, fixed encoder can encode '%' '%25' correctly
  • Relax the index reader for indices written by previous buggy encoder
  • Do not follow previous index backward when an index is unpersable because of invalid name at ltfsck
  • ltfsck writes down new index at the end of data stream (not the end of previous good index) to keep data salvage possibility

Symptom of new index parser against bad encoding in the previous index generator

0-0. No percent encode triggers in the all filenames and directories on a tape

Mountable and recoverable

0-1. There is percent triggers but no '%' in the all filenames and directories on a tape

Mountable and recoverable

1. There is percent triggers and '%XX' which can be decoded to correct ASCII characters expect '/' or UNIT SEPARATOR

Mountable and recoverable.

The index is corrupted but LTFS can mount the tape. Some file name or directory name may be modified automatically.

For example, file "aaa:%20" is written and unmount the tape. After that the tape is mounted, the file name may be "aaa: " instead of "aaa:%20"

The same thing happens "%XX%XX%XX" sequence is valid UTF-8 characters.

2. There is percent triggers and '%1f' or '%2f'

Mountable and recoverable.

'%2f' is encoded to '%2f', so '%2f' is decoded to '/'. And '%2f' is encoded to '%2f', so '%2f' is decoded to a UNIT SEPARATOR.

Both '/' and UNIT SEPARATOR is invalid character for file name and directory name. So new index reader revert them to '%2f' or '%1f'.

3. There is percent triggers and '%XX%XX%XX' which can't be decoded to correct UTF-8 characters

Mount fail and recovery fail.

Invalid UTF-8 character is not valid for file name or directory name. So mount failure happens. At recovery process, index seeking is stopped when this type of error happens, so this kind of tape cannot be recovered in this version. (We will handle this on a future release.)