linux-ext4 - Re: [PATCH 09/16] fsverity: constify the vi pointer in fsverity_verification

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Message-ID: <20260128034102.GC2718@sol>
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2026 19:41:02 -0800
From: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...nel.org>
To: Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>
Cc: Al Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
	Christian Brauner <brauner@...nel.org>, Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>,
	David Sterba <dsterba@...e.com>, Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu>,
	Jaegeuk Kim <jaegeuk@...nel.org>, Chao Yu <chao@...nel.org>,
	Andrey Albershteyn <aalbersh@...hat.com>,
	Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-btrfs@...r.kernel.org, linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-f2fs-devel@...ts.sourceforge.net, fsverity@...ts.linux.dev
Subject: Re: [PATCH 09/16] fsverity: constify the vi pointer in
 fsverity_verification_context

On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 04:32:42AM +0100, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 27, 2026 at 07:22:03PM -0800, Eric Biggers wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 26, 2026 at 05:50:55AM +0100, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> > > struct fsverity_info contains information that is only read in the
> > > verification path.  Apply the const qualifier to match various explicitly
> > > passed arguments.
> > > 
> > > Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>
> > > ---
> > >  fs/verity/verify.c | 15 ++++++++-------
> > >  1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)
> > 
> > Did you consider that fsverity_info::hash_block_verified is written to?
> > It's a pointer to an array, so the 'const' doesn't apply to its
> > contents.  But logically it's still part of the fsverity information.
> 
> Well, it doesn't apply by the type rules.  But if you don't like the
> const here just let me know and I'll drop it.

It just seems that the motivation is a bit weak.  It works only because
hash_block_verified happens to be a dynamic array, and also because the
spinlock that used to be there got removed.  And the very next patch
removes const from the inode, so it kind of feels like we're going in
two different directions.  Maybe just drop this patch for now?

- Eric