Google is planning to include the Enhanced Read-Only File System (EROFS) in Android 13, making it the default read-only file system. This file system was created by Huawei and offers significant advantages over existing file systems, such as compression and speed. Huawei developed EROFS to include it in the Linux kernel, and it has been used in millions of Huawei and non-Huawei devices. Now Google plans to make it the default file system for read-only partitions, like the ones used by the core Android system. Since the system partition is usually read-only, compressing it is interesting to save space on files that only change when a system update is performed. However, most compression systems have significant performance issues. This is a limitation that EROFS specifically addresses. The change will only affect devices that launch with Android 13 by default and only those with Google services built-in. This means that devices with AOSP (Android Open Source Project) will not use EROFS.
