GSoC ( Ajay Rajera ): Support generating filesystems from manifests with mkfs.erofs

[Ajay]

I previously submitted my two contributions as GitHub Pull Requests,
but I have now familiarized myself with the git send-email patch
workflow and plan to submit all future patches directly to the mailing
list.

On Mon, 16 Mar 2026 at 08:12, Ajay <newajay.11r at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello EROFS Maintainers and Mentors,
>
> My name is Ajay Rajera, and I am here to express my interest in
> participating in Google Summer of Code with EROFS, specifically for
> the project: "Support generating filesystems from manifests with
> mkfs.erofs" mentored by Chengyu Zhu and Gao Xiang.
>
> Over the past few weeks, I have been actively exploring and
> contributing to the EROFS ecosystem to familiarize myself with the
> codebase. Some of my recent contributions include:
>
> 1. Addressing the excessive default verbosity in mkfs.erofs by
> suppressing per-file processing messages (Issue #14 in erofs-utils). I
> actually did it but couldn't submit the pr as it is restricted there.
> 2. Improving and updating documentation within erofs-utils to fix
> grammatical errors and outdated information. (
> https://github.com/erofs/docs/pull/25#issue-4078189227 )
> 3. Implementing support for EROFS device tables in the go-erofs
> library, which involved parsing device tables from the superblock and
> mapping block addresses. (
> https://github.com/erofs/go-erofs/pull/18#issue-4078327809 )
> I am looking forward to contributing more and keep learning from it.
> I am drawn to this GSoC project because I have experience with file
> system concepts and C programming, and I recognize the limitations of
> currently generating images strictly from source directories or
> tarballs. Implementing support for manifest files (like
> composefs-dump(5), modified unix proto files, or BSD mtree(5)) will be
> a highly valuable addition, providing better metadata control,
> ordering control, and better performance for large filesystem trees.
>
> I have started drafting my proposal so I also have a few initial
> questions regarding the project:
>
> 1. As I detail my implementation timeline and architecture in the
> proposal, are there any specific edge cases or phases of the project
> you recommend I focus on the most?
> 2. The project mentions supporting at least two common manifest
> formats. Is there a preferred format (e.g., composefs-dump vs. BSD
> mtree) that you would recommend I target first for the initial
> prototype?
> Thank you for your time and for maintaining such a great project. I
> look forward to your guidance and the opportunity to contribute
> further during GSoC.
>
> Best regards,
> Ajay Rajera