MooseFS 4.58.0 Released – Faster, Smarter, More Reliable
We’re excited to announce the release of MooseFS 4.58.0. This version introduces important fixes, optimizations, and usability improvements designed to make the system faster, more reliable, and easier to work with at scale.
Smarter Directory Handling
One of the areas of focus in this release is directory handling. Previous support for partial directory reads caused unnecessary strain when working with directories containing millions of files. In MooseFS 4.58.0, this functionality has been enhanced. The Master Server now supports efficient partial reads, while the client has been updated to read directories piece by piece. This means that even extremely large directories can be browsed without overwhelming the system. To complement this, directory caching has been completely redesigned, and a new mfsreaddirplusminto option was introduced to optimize commands like ls -al when working with massive file sets. Together, these changes make directory browsing significantly faster and more responsive.
Performance Optimizations
Another area of improvement is performance optimization. Extended attribute listings now benefit from a listxattr cache, which delivers smoother performance in scenarios such as Samba mounts. On the hardware compatibility side, a long-standing CRC calculation issue affecting CPUs with unaligned memory access restrictions – such as certain ARM architectures – has been fixed, allowing MooseFS to compile and run reliably on a broader range of systems. Chunkservers also gained an important efficiency update: unnecessary checksum reads before scrub decisions were eliminated, allowing disks with very few chunks to spin down properly when idle. This reduces both power consumption and wear on hardware.
Packaging, Tools, and Service Management
There are also several improvements aimed at packaging, tools, and service management. Debian users will appreciate that postinstall scripts have been corrected to avoid permission conflicts when reinstalling MooseFS on systems that already have the mfs user configured. The mfscli tool now correctly displays chart data in interactive mode, fixing a bug that previously limited visibility even though the JSON output was unaffected. For environments running under systemd, Chunkserver service startup scripts’ definitions now include proper start and stop timeouts. This ensures cleaner shutdowns, particularly on systems with many disks where writing out .chunkdb files can take longer.
Network Block Device Fix
Finally, this release addresses a community-reported issue with Network Block Device (NBD). Users had experienced problems restoring NBD devices after sleep or hibernate, but MooseFS 4.58.0 resolves this issue and restores expected behavior.
Conclusion
Altogether, MooseFS 4.58.0 brings meaningful improvements to scalability, performance, and day-to-day usability. Faster directory operations, smarter caching, extended hardware support, and smoother service management make this an upgrade well worth applying. We strongly encourage all users to update to this version and benefit from these enhancements.
As always, we want to thank the MooseFS Community for the valuable feedback, bug reports, and contributions that help us improve the system with every release.
You can find more details about this release – and previous releases – in our changelog.