linux-kernel - Re: [RFC PATCH] getting misc stats/attributes via xattr API

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Message-ID: <YnmK0VJhQ4sf8AMI@redhat.com>
Date:   Mon, 9 May 2022 17:42:41 -0400
From:   Vivek Goyal <vgoyal@...hat.com>
To:     Christian Brauner <brauner@...nel.org>
Cc:     Amir Goldstein <amir73il@...il.com>,
        Miklos Szeredi <miklos@...redi.hu>,
        linux-fsdevel <linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Dave Chinner <david@...morbit.com>,
        Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu>, Karel Zak <kzak@...hat.com>,
        Greg KH <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        linux-kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        Linux API <linux-api@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-man <linux-man@...r.kernel.org>,
        LSM <linux-security-module@...r.kernel.org>,
        Ian Kent <raven@...maw.net>,
        David Howells <dhowells@...hat.com>,
        Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>,
        Al Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
        Christian Brauner <christian@...uner.io>,
        James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@...senpartnership.com>
Subject: Re: [RFC PATCH] getting misc stats/attributes via xattr API

On Mon, May 09, 2022 at 05:08:56PM +0200, Christian Brauner wrote:

[..]
> Having "xattr" in the system call name is just confusing. These are
> fundamentally not "real" xattrs and we shouldn't mix semantics. There
> should be a clear distinction between traditional xattrs and this vfs
> and potentially fs information providing interface.
> 
> Just thinking about what the manpage would look like. We would need to
> add a paragraph to xattr(7) explaining that in addition to the system.*,
> security.*, user.* and other namespaces we now also have a set of
> namespaces that function as ways to get information about mounts or
> other things instead of information attached to specific inodes.
> 
> That's super random imho. If I were to be presented with this manpage
> I'd wonder if someone was too lazy to add a proper new system call with
> it's own semantics for this and just stuffed it into an existing API
> because it provided matching system call arguments. We can add a new
> system call. It's not that we're running out of them.

FWIW, I also felt that using xattr API to get some sort of mount info felt
very non-intutive.

Thanks
Vivek