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Diffstat (limited to 'kernel/Documentation/filesystems/nfs/Exporting')
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diff --git a/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/nfs/Exporting b/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/nfs/Exporting new file mode 100644 index 000000000..520a4becb --- /dev/null +++ b/kernel/Documentation/filesystems/nfs/Exporting @@ -0,0 +1,149 @@ + +Making Filesystems Exportable +============================= + +Overview +-------- + +All filesystem operations require a dentry (or two) as a starting +point. Local applications have a reference-counted hold on suitable +dentries via open file descriptors or cwd/root. However remote +applications that access a filesystem via a remote filesystem protocol +such as NFS may not be able to hold such a reference, and so need a +different way to refer to a particular dentry. As the alternative +form of reference needs to be stable across renames, truncates, and +server-reboot (among other things, though these tend to be the most +problematic), there is no simple answer like 'filename'. + +The mechanism discussed here allows each filesystem implementation to +specify how to generate an opaque (outside of the filesystem) byte +string for any dentry, and how to find an appropriate dentry for any +given opaque byte string. +This byte string will be called a "filehandle fragment" as it +corresponds to part of an NFS filehandle. + +A filesystem which supports the mapping between filehandle fragments +and dentries will be termed "exportable". + + + +Dcache Issues +------------- + +The dcache normally contains a proper prefix of any given filesystem +tree. This means that if any filesystem object is in the dcache, then +all of the ancestors of that filesystem object are also in the dcache. +As normal access is by filename this prefix is created naturally and +maintained easily (by each object maintaining a reference count on +its parent). + +However when objects are included into the dcache by interpreting a +filehandle fragment, there is no automatic creation of a path prefix +for the object. This leads to two related but distinct features of +the dcache that are not needed for normal filesystem access. + +1/ The dcache must sometimes contain objects that are not part of the + proper prefix. i.e that are not connected to the root. +2/ The dcache must be prepared for a newly found (via ->lookup) directory + to already have a (non-connected) dentry, and must be able to move + that dentry into place (based on the parent and name in the + ->lookup). This is particularly needed for directories as + it is a dcache invariant that directories only have one dentry. + +To implement these features, the dcache has: + +a/ A dentry flag DCACHE_DISCONNECTED which is set on + any dentry that might not be part of the proper prefix. + This is set when anonymous dentries are created, and cleared when a + dentry is noticed to be a child of a dentry which is in the proper + prefix. + +b/ A per-superblock list "s_anon" of dentries which are the roots of + subtrees that are not in the proper prefix. These dentries, as + well as the proper prefix, need to be released at unmount time. As + these dentries will not be hashed, they are linked together on the + d_hash list_head. + +c/ Helper routines to allocate anonymous dentries, and to help attach + loose directory dentries at lookup time. They are: + d_obtain_alias(inode) will return a dentry for the given inode. + If the inode already has a dentry, one of those is returned. + If it doesn't, a new anonymous (IS_ROOT and + DCACHE_DISCONNECTED) dentry is allocated and attached. + In the case of a directory, care is taken that only one dentry + can ever be attached. + d_splice_alias(inode, dentry) will introduce a new dentry into the tree; + either the passed-in dentry or a preexisting alias for the given inode + (such as an anonymous one created by d_obtain_alias), if appropriate. + It returns NULL when the passed-in dentry is used, following the calling + convention of ->lookup. + + +Filesystem Issues +----------------- + +For a filesystem to be exportable it must: + + 1/ provide the filehandle fragment routines described below. + 2/ make sure that d_splice_alias is used rather than d_add + when ->lookup finds an inode for a given parent and name. + + If inode is NULL, d_splice_alias(inode, dentry) is equivalent to + + d_add(dentry, inode), NULL + + Similarly, d_splice_alias(ERR_PTR(err), dentry) = ERR_PTR(err) + + Typically the ->lookup routine will simply end with a: + + return d_splice_alias(inode, dentry); + } + + + + A file system implementation declares that instances of the filesystem +are exportable by setting the s_export_op field in the struct +super_block. This field must point to a "struct export_operations" +struct which has the following members: + + encode_fh (optional) + Takes a dentry and creates a filehandle fragment which can later be used + to find or create a dentry for the same object. The default + implementation creates a filehandle fragment that encodes a 32bit inode + and generation number for the inode encoded, and if necessary the + same information for the parent. + + fh_to_dentry (mandatory) + Given a filehandle fragment, this should find the implied object and + create a dentry for it (possibly with d_obtain_alias). + + fh_to_parent (optional but strongly recommended) + Given a filehandle fragment, this should find the parent of the + implied object and create a dentry for it (possibly with + d_obtain_alias). May fail if the filehandle fragment is too small. + + get_parent (optional but strongly recommended) + When given a dentry for a directory, this should return a dentry for + the parent. Quite possibly the parent dentry will have been allocated + by d_alloc_anon. The default get_parent function just returns an error + so any filehandle lookup that requires finding a parent will fail. + ->lookup("..") is *not* used as a default as it can leave ".." entries + in the dcache which are too messy to work with. + + get_name (optional) + When given a parent dentry and a child dentry, this should find a name + in the directory identified by the parent dentry, which leads to the + object identified by the child dentry. If no get_name function is + supplied, a default implementation is provided which uses vfs_readdir + to find potential names, and matches inode numbers to find the correct + match. + + +A filehandle fragment consists of an array of 1 or more 4byte words, +together with a one byte "type". +The decode_fh routine should not depend on the stated size that is +passed to it. This size may be larger than the original filehandle +generated by encode_fh, in which case it will have been padded with +nuls. Rather, the encode_fh routine should choose a "type" which +indicates the decode_fh how much of the filehandle is valid, and how +it should be interpreted. |