Linux Kernel 7.1 Merges New NTFS Driver With Full Write Support

Linux kernel 7.1 introduces a new NTFS driver that significantly enhances support for Microsoft’s widely used file system. While the new code has been merged for the 7.1 development cycle, the existing read-only NTFS driver and the separate NTFS3 driver will remain in the kernel tree.

The new driver was submitted by kernel developer Namjae Jeon and has now been merged into Linus Torvalds’ tree. According to Jeon, the work represents four years of development focused on enabling full write support, modernizing kernel integration, improving stability, and expanding NTFS tooling on Linux.

Previously, in-kernel NTFS support was limited to read-only access. This new implementation changes that by adding full write capabilities and extending functionality with features like delayed allocation, iomap support, folio conversion, and removal of the older buffer_head dependency.

The driver also aligns with modern kernel infrastructure, supporting buffered and direct I/O, extent mapping, and advanced read/write operations via iomap. It removes the CONFIG_BUFFER_HEAD requirement and shows strong testing results, passing 326 xfstests compared to 273 for NTFS3.

Beyond core read/write functionality, the update introduces additional features such as fallocate support, idmapped mounts, and improved permissions handling. It also brings a new userspace toolkit, ntfsprogs-plus, which includes fsck-style utilities for maintaining NTFS file systems.

This advancement is particularly important because NTFS remains widely used in dual-boot setups, external drives, and mixed Linux–Windows environments. Reliable native support for both reading and writing NTFS volumes is essential for seamless data exchange.

Looking ahead, Linux kernel 7.0 was released on April 12, and if the typical release cadence holds, version 7.1 is expected to arrive around mid-to-late June 2026.