On Fri, 2017-05-05 at 22:52 +0100, Sam Kuper wrote: > If so, is there > any reason in principle why that installer could not in future be > distributed with the capability to (download and) compile and run ZFS, > and to provide the user with the option to install Debian onto a ZFS > root partition?
There is no build toolchain (gcc et al) available for the installer environment itself, nor are kernel headers provided there. It would in theory be possible to arrange build and install modules during installation using the in-progress target installation (where the normal toolchain packages could be installed) such that they are available during the latter parts of the install procedure -- that is clearly of limited use for any modules which are required for the filesystems which you want to install to (certainly the root fs and perhaps any separate /usr or /var partition(s)). For most other partitions it would probably be just as easy to format them post- install anyway. Ian.