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With the Linux 6.2 kernel the NFSD code is taking another step closer to removing the older NFSv2 support.
NFSv4 and even NFSv3 are much superior to NFSv2 for the Network File System with a number of distributions no longer even supporting NFSv2 but the code remains within the Linux kernel source tree. NFSv2 these days is only of relevance for dealing with ancient platforms. With NFSv2 being around since the late 80’s and even NFSv3 since the mid-90’s, Linux kernel developers have been taking steps toward ultimately removing it.
Earlier this year with Linux 5.18, NFSD made NFSv3 always supported as the new always-there baseline in acknowledging the day is coming to remove NFSv2 support. The rpc.nfsd program also no longer supports NFSv2. The next step in the transition is Linux 6.2 adding a Kconfig option to allow the server-side NFSv2 support to be left out of the kernel build. The plan is still for a future kernel release to drop the NFSv2 support entirely.
The new kernel switch is NFSD_V2 for allowing your Linux 6.2+ kernel to be built without the admittedly ancient NFSv2 support.
In addition to making it optional now building the NFSv2 server code, the NFSD changes for Linux 6.2 add CB_RECALL_ANY support for low-memory scenarios and other cases along with various other NFS server code enhancements.
The NFSD updates for Linux 6.2 can be found via this pull request.
