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Luchesar ILIEV edited this page Jul 12, 2026 · 51 revisions

ArchZFS

ArchZFS provides ZFS packages for Arch Linux. It is an independent community project and is not endorsed by Arch Linux or OpenZFS.

Important

The supported public repository is hosted in the archzfs/archzfs GitHub release. The older archzfs.com repository is legacy and should not be used for current package updates.

News

Users configured before 2025-06-19 may need to update the package repository URL.

Packages

The current repository publishes:

  • zfs-utils, the shared userspace utilities.
  • zfs-dkms, which builds modules locally for installed kernels.
  • zfs-linux, zfs-linux-lts, zfs-linux-hardened, and zfs-linux-zen, prebuilt for exact versions of the corresponding official Arch kernels.
  • Matching headers and debug packages produced by those package bases.

Git and release-candidate variants remain in the source tree but are not part of the current public release.

Kernel Compatibility

Kernel-specific packages depend on the exact Arch kernel version for which they were built. Arch kernels can advance beyond the range supported by the latest released OpenZFS, temporarily preventing an upgrade of that kernel family. A successful module build is not by itself proof that the combination is inside the support range declared by OpenZFS.

The LTS kernel often remains compatible longer. zfs-dkms is another option, but it builds modules on the user's system and does not make an unsupported kernel/OpenZFS combination supported.

Avoid partial upgrades. If a compatible kernel must be retained or restored, follow the ArchWiki's Downgrading packages guidance and keep the kernel, matching headers, and affected kernel modules at compatible versions. Use the Pacman cache or Arch Linux Archive as described there.

Using the Repository

Current repository configuration, signing policy, release-key fingerprint, and key-import instructions are maintained on the rendered experimental release page. Follow that page's current instructions for this channel. Disabling signature verification is an explicit security tradeoff rather than an equivalent trust configuration.

The current public Pacman repository is published through the fixed-name experimental release. Despite the name, it currently packages the released OpenZFS version selected by ArchZFS and attempts to track current official Arch kernel packages. OpenZFS updates require a maintainer version and hash update. If a kernel-module build fails, the release workflow attempts to reuse a matching signed ArchZFS module package from the failover release. That fallback is not guaranteed and does not retain or distribute the corresponding official Arch kernel and headers. Package versions may therefore lag, or a matching package may be unavailable. Check the release assets before upgrading a kernel-specific installation.

An installable archzfs-keyring package is in development. The release page describes the current manual trust procedure and the implications of using the repository without verification.

Mirrors

The GitHub release URL above is the authoritative current source. A public mirror is hosted by the Computer-Assisted Research and Teaching Laboratory at the University of Plovdiv, but its replacement synchronization tooling is unfinished and not deployed. The mirror is not currently refreshed automatically and must not be assumed current.

Getting Help and Contributing

Note

The contribution guide below is proposed in archzfs/.github#1 and will remain unavailable at its final URL until that pull request merges.

The old Packer/QEMU scripts under testing/ are historical, destructive, and incomplete. The current GitHub Actions checks build packages but do not yet run a full OpenZFS runtime or data-integrity suite. See the Testing page for the current boundary.

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