linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v3 1/1] vfs: iversion truncate bug fix

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Date:	Thu, 5 Jan 2012 13:14:01 -0500
From:	Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>
To:	Dave Chinner <david@...morbit.com>
Cc:	Mimi Zohar <zohar@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>, Greg KH <greg@...ah.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Dmitry Kasatkin <dmitry.kasatkin@...el.com>,
	linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-security-module@...r.kernel.org, viro@...iv.linux.org.uk,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 1/1] vfs: iversion truncate bug fix

On Thu, Jan 05, 2012 at 03:53:54PM +1100, Dave Chinner wrote:
> That's seems like a rather unreliable way of detecting that a file
> has changed to me.  I mean, only ext4 uses inode_inc_version() when
> it internally dirties an inode, and only ext4 sets the MS_I_VERSION
> so that inode_inc_version is only called for ext4 inodes when
> timestamps change.

And even ext4 only does it when using the non-default "i_version"
mount option.

> Hence just adding an increment to the truncate case doesn't seem to
> be sufficient to me. e.g. what about the equivalent case of having a
> hole punched in the file via fallocate? The file has definitely
> changed, but i_version won't change....
> 
> Perhaps bumping i_version in __mark_inode_dirty() might be the best
> way to capture all changes (other than timestamp updates) to any
> inode regardless of the filesystem type?

It has the same problem as the timestamp updates doing that right now -
the fs can't do locking around it, and it can't return errors.  That's
something affecting at least btrfs, xfs and IIRC ubifs, and probably
the cluster filesystems as well.  The right answer is to replace the
timestmap updates which are the only places doing that with a method
as Josef had planned to do, and then we can include the i_version
updates in there.

That assumes we figure out a coherent way to do it - except for the
conditional abuse in file_updates_times it's currently entirely under
fs control.  So the best way to fix it would be to:

 - move the fs-private use into those filesystems actually using it.
   Note that a lot less actually check for it rather than just updating
   it based on some cargo cult, and most only do so for directories.
 - figure a why what exact change count semantics NFS (and IMA) want
   and find a way to implement them so that the fs can tell the callers
   that they don't exist.

Btw, does IMA care about these beeing persistent?
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