Required Programs to use NILFS

NILFS consists of a kernel module and utility programs (nilfs-utils or nilfs-tools). To use NILFS, both are needed.

The kernel module of NILFS (referred to as "nilfs2") is included in the Linux kernel. Please use the one included in your Linux distribution, or download and build the source code of an upstream kernel, which is available at https://www.kernel.org/. For the upstream kernel, using a recent stable kernel or a longterm kernel is recommended.

For CentOS or other RHEL clones, we recommend using the standalone nilfs2 module described below.

For the utilities, please use the one included in the distribution, or download and build the latest source package available below. For instructions on how to build the source package of utilities, please see the enclosed README file.

License

NILFS is Open Source software, released under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 2 (GPLv2). Part of programs such as libraries are released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License Version 2.1 (LGPL v2.1).

This software is provided without support and without any obligation on the part of NTT Laboratories to assist in its use, correction, modification or enhancement. There is no guarantee that this software will be included in future software releases, and it probably will not be included.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITH NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF DESIGN, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE OR TRADE PRACTICE.

Distribution Packages

Click distribution name to view download instructions.

DistributionDescription
Debian NILFS is available in Debian.
Ubuntu NILFS is available in Ubuntu.
CentOS The BaseOS of CentOS does not include NILFS. We provide the source package of the utilities below, and list repositories of kernel module source code tuned for RHEL 9 clones, RHEL 8 clones, CentOS Stream 9, CentOS Stream 8, and CentOS 7 further down this page.
Fedora NILFS is available in Fedora.
openSUSE NILFS utility is available on openSUSE, but the filesystem body binaries are no longer provided in the kernel package.
Gentoo NILFS is available in Gentoo Linux. A boot-cd with NILFS is available on PrRescue. (thanks)
Arch NILFS is available in Arch Linux.
Linux Mint NILFS is available in Linux Mint.
Raspbian NILFS is available in Raspbian, a free OS based on customized Debian for the raspberry Pi hardware.
NixOS NILFS is available in NixOS, a purely functional Linux Distribution.
GParted NILFS is available in GNOME Partition Editor.

Source Code of NILFS Utilities

Latest Release

Userland utilities nilfs-utils-2.2.10.tar.bz2  [pgp]  Mar 4, 2024 JST.

A maintenance release that includes a wide variety of bug and issue fixes, such as a bug that some segments are not reclaimed by GC after roll forward recovery, an issue of nilfs-resize failing to shrinking nearly empty file systems, unmount failure after remount, and so forth. For details, please see nilfs-utils 2.2.10 release (or commits).

For the change history, please see Release list or ChangeLog.

Source file archive

PGP signatures

Software released via this site has corresponding PGP signatures. Please see Verifying PGP signatures of NILFS releases for details.

Source Code for Standalone Kernel Module

The standalone (aka out-of-tree) kernel modules for nilfs2 that we maintain ourselves are:

Name Supported OSes/kernels Git tree Reference
nilfs2-kmod9
  • AlmaLinux 9, Rocky Linux 9, or other RHEL 9 clones
  • CentOS Stream 9
nilfs2-kmod9.git (GitHub)
nilfs2-kmod8
  • AlmaLinux 8, Rocky Linux 8, or other RHEL 8 clones
  • CentOS Stream 8
nilfs2-kmod8.git (GitHub)
nilfs2-kmod7
  • CentOS 7
  • Other RHEL 7 clones (Scientific Linux 7, etc)
  • Vanilla kernel (3.6.y ~ 4.0.y)
nilfs2-kmod7.git (GitHub)

The source code for the module is available on GitHub. For example, the latest source code for nilfs2-kmod9 can be obtained with:

$ git clone https://github.com/nilfs-dev/nilfs2-kmod9.git
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