linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v5 09/17] vfs: clean up argument list for vfs

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Message-id: <176237805165.634289.1849067298194355086@noble.neil.brown.name>
Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2025 08:27:31 +1100
From: NeilBrown <neilb@...mail.net>
To: "Jeff Layton" <jlayton@...nel.org>
Cc: "Miklos Szeredi" <miklos@...redi.hu>,
 "Alexander Viro" <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
 "Christian Brauner" <brauner@...nel.org>, "Jan Kara" <jack@...e.cz>,
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 linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
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 "Jeff Layton" <jlayton@...nel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v5 09/17] vfs: clean up argument list for vfs_create()

On Thu, 06 Nov 2025, Jeff Layton wrote:
> As Neil points out:
> 
> "I would be in favour of dropping the "dir" arg because it is always
> d_inode(dentry->d_parent) which is stable."
> 
> ...and...
> 
> "Also *every* caller of vfs_create() passes ".excl = true".  So maybe we
> don't need that arg at all."
> 
> Drop both arguments from vfs_create() and fix up the callers.
> 
> Suggested-by: NeilBrown <neilb@...mail.net>
> Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@...nel.org>

This I like.

Reviewed-by: NeilBrown <neil@...wn.name>

It would be consistent to also remove the 'dir' arg from vfs_mkdir(),
vfs_mknod(), etc.  I wouldn't do that until we find out what other
people think of the change.

Thanks,
NeilBrown