[ANNOUNCE] erofs-utils: release 1.6

From: Gao Xiang
Date: Sat Mar 11 2023 - 12:18:19 EST


Hi folks,

A new version erofs-utils 1.6 is available at:
git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/xiang/erofs-utils.git tags/v1.6

It mainly includes the following changes:

- support fragments by using `-Efragments` (Yue Hu);
- support compressed data deduplication by using `-Ededupe` (Ziyang Zhang);
- (erofsfuse) support extended attributes (Huang Jianan);
- (mkfs.erofs) support multiple algorithms in a single image (Gao Xiang);
- (mkfs.erofs) support chunk-based sparse files (Gao Xiang);
- (mkfs.erofs) add volume-label setting support (Naoto Yamaguchi);
- (mkfs.erofs) add uid/gid offsetting support (Naoto Yamaguchi);
- (mkfs.erofs) pack files entirely by using `-Eall-fragments` (Gao Xiang);
- various bugfixes and cleanups.

This new version supports global compressed data deduplication
(`-Ededupe`) and fragments (`-Efragments`, `-Eall-fragments`), which
can be used to minimize image sizes further (Linux 6.1+). In addition,
mkfs.erofs now supports per-file alternative algorithms, thus different
configurations can be applied in a per-file basis (Linux 5.16+).

There are also other improvements and bugfixes as always. Kindly read
README before trying it out. Recently I've got many useful inputs, so
it's time to release erofs-utils 1.6 as soon as possible and move on
to focus on those new stuffs (e.g. negative xattr lookup improvement
with bloom filters, shared xattr names and tarball reference) then.

Finally, as a community-driven open source software, feedback and/or
contribution is always welcomed.

Thanks,
Gao Xiang