status of dir_index in 2.4 kernels ?

[Jakob Curdes]

Hi,

I stumbled on the dir_index option of recent ext2 implementation which 
would be interesting for our mailservers (running dovecot with maildir) 
and found out that the newer ext2progs are able to cope with it; the 2.6 
kernels do also but for the 2.4 kernels I still require a patch. Is that 
correct? Which patch would be the correct one to apply to the current 
2.4.27 kernel ? Can anybody comment on the stability of 
dir_index-enabled filesystems ?

Thank you for hints,

Jakob Curdes