Linux has maintained a default 4MB minimum writeback chunk size but with the in-development Linux 6.19 kernel it will allow file-systems to override that minimum value. This in turn can help avoid fragmentation and yield a better experience for zoned rotation media and other uses.
Merged yesterday alongside other pull requests submitted by Microsoft engineer Christian Brauner was the feature of allowing file-systems to increase the minimum writeback chunk size.
Interesting. I’m assuming an engineer found a specific use-case for a major performance gain that makes this permanent change a benefit for all.
Guessing this is dimensional database or vector related for some “AI” applications because this is a fairly normal tweak for enterprise backend DB machines to implement.