Message-ID: <87sk5w1fcb.fsf@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Date:	Thu, 13 May 2010 12:02:52 +0530
From:	"Aneesh Kumar K. V" <aneesh.kumar@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
To:	Dave Chinner <david@...morbit.com>
Cc:	hch@...radead.org, viro@...iv.linux.org.uk, adilger@....com,
	corbet@....net, serue@...ibm.com, neilb@...e.de,
	linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, sfrench@...ibm.com,
	philippe.deniel@....FR, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH -V7 6/9] ext4: Add get_fsid callback

On Thu, 13 May 2010 13:11:33 +1000, Dave Chinner <david@...morbit.com> wrote:
> On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 09:20:41PM +0530, Aneesh Kumar K.V wrote:
> > Acked-by: Serge Hallyn <serue@...ibm.com>
> > Signed-off-by: Aneesh Kumar K.V <aneesh.kumar@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>
> > ---
> >  fs/ext4/super.c |   15 +++++++++++++++
> >  1 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
> > 
> > diff --git a/fs/ext4/super.c b/fs/ext4/super.c
> > index e14d22c..fc7d464 100644
> > --- a/fs/ext4/super.c
> > +++ b/fs/ext4/super.c
> > @@ -1049,6 +1049,19 @@ static int bdev_try_to_free_page(struct super_block *sb, struct page *page,
> >  	return try_to_free_buffers(page);
> >  }
> >  
> > +static int ext4_get_fsid(struct super_block *sb, struct uuid *fsid)
> > +{
> > +	struct ext4_sb_info *sbi = EXT4_SB(sb);
> > +	struct ext4_super_block *es = sbi->s_es;
> > +
> > +	memcpy(fsid->uuid, es->s_uuid, sizeof(fsid->uuid));
> > +	/*
> > +	 * We may want to make sure we return error if the s_uuid is not
> > +	 * exactly unique
> > +	 */
> > +	return 0;
> > +}
> > +
> >  #ifdef CONFIG_QUOTA
> >  #define QTYPE2NAME(t) ((t) == USRQUOTA ? "user" : "group")
> >  #define QTYPE2MOPT(on, t) ((t) == USRQUOTA?((on)##USRJQUOTA):((on)##GRPJQUOTA))
> > @@ -1109,6 +1122,7 @@ static const struct super_operations ext4_sops = {
> >  	.quota_write	= ext4_quota_write,
> >  #endif
> >  	.bdev_try_to_free_page = bdev_try_to_free_page,
> > +	.get_fsid	= ext4_get_fsid,
> >  };
> >  
> >  static const struct super_operations ext4_nojournal_sops = {
> > @@ -1128,6 +1142,7 @@ static const struct super_operations ext4_nojournal_sops = {
> >  	.quota_write	= ext4_quota_write,
> >  #endif
> >  	.bdev_try_to_free_page = bdev_try_to_free_page,
> > +	.get_fsid	= ext4_get_fsid,
> >  };
> 
> This all looks pretty simple - can you add XFS support to this
> interface (uuid is in XFS_M(sb)->m_sb.sb_uuid) so that it can be
> tested to work on multiple filesystems.
> 
> FWIW, I didn't get patch 0 of this series, so I'll comment on
> one line of it right here because it is definitely relevant:
> 
> > I am also looking at getting xfsprogs libhandle.so on top of these
> > syscalls.
> 
> If you plan to modify libhandle to use these syscalls, then you need
> to guarantee:
> 
> 	1. XFS support for the syscalls
> 	2. the handle format, lifecycle and protections for XFS
> 	   handles are *exactly* the same as the current XFS
> 	   handles.  i.e. there's a fixed userspace API that
> 	   cannot be broken.
> 	3. you don't break any of the other XFS specific handle
> 	   interfaces that aren't implemented by the new syscalls
> 	3. You don't break and existing XFS utilites - dump/restore,
> 	   and fsr come to mind immediately.
> 	4. that you'll fix the xfstests that may break because of the
> 	   change
> 	5. that you'll write new tests for xfstests that validates
> 	   that the libhandle API works correctly and that handle
> 	   formats and lifecycles do not get accidentally changed in
> 	   future.
> 
> That's a lot of work and, IMO, is completely pointless. All we'd get
> out of it is more complexity, bloat, scope for regressions and a
> biger test matrix, and we wouldn't have any new functionality to
> speak of.

getting libhandle.so to work with the syscall is something that is
suggested on the list. The goal is to see if syscall achieve everything
that XFS ioctl does


> 
> However, this leads to the bigger question: what's the point of a
> new interface if all it ends up getting used for is to re-implement
> part of an existing library?
> 
> I know this goes against the severe ext4 NIH syndrome that seems to
> pervade anything that XFS has already implemented, but lets be
> realistic here. If you want applications to use libhandle then there
> is no need for a new kernel API - it already has a perfectly
> funtional one that has stood the test of time, and all it requires
> is moving the  XFS ioctl handler up into the VFS and modifying the
> implementation to use existing filesystem callouts.
> 
> FWIW, there really isn't anything XFS specific to these handle
> functions, so moving it to the VFS should be pretty easy, and that
> will result in a full libhandle support for all filesystems that
> provide NFS support. That, IMO, is a far superior result than having
> two different handle interfaces that have different functionality and
> semantics, neither of which have wide fs support...

That is more or less what i am doing. I started with xfs ioctls, But
instead of moving them as ioctls to the VFS layer what I did was to do a
syscall around the same functionality.

> 
> So please make up your mind - either the handle interface is a
> completely new interface with new userspace and kernel APIs,
> or it uses the existing userspace and kernel APIs. Anything else
> does not make sense.
> 

The goal was to get functionality similar to XFS ioctl in a file system
independent manner. That is why my first patch (v1) used a mountdir fd
similar to ioctl. But review feedback on the list suggested changes to
the interface. 


-aneesh
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