linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v6 00/15] Create and use APIs to centralise locking for directory ops

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Message-id: <176424161356.634289.1248496397204103747@noble.neil.brown.name>
Date: Thu, 27 Nov 2025 22:06:53 +1100
From: NeilBrown <neilb@...mail.net>
To: "Christian Brauner" <brauner@...nel.org>
Cc: "Alexander Viro" <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
 "Amir Goldstein" <amir73il@...il.com>, "Jan Kara" <jack@...e.cz>,
 linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, "Jeff Layton" <jlayton@...nel.org>,
 "Chris Mason" <clm@...com>, "David Sterba" <dsterba@...e.com>,
 "David Howells" <dhowells@...hat.com>,
 "Greg Kroah-Hartman" <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
 "Rafael J. Wysocki" <rafael@...nel.org>,
 "Danilo Krummrich" <dakr@...nel.org>, "Tyler Hicks" <code@...icks.com>,
 "Miklos Szeredi" <miklos@...redi.hu>,
 "Chuck Lever" <chuck.lever@...cle.com>,
 "Olga Kornievskaia" <okorniev@...hat.com>,
 "Dai Ngo" <Dai.Ngo@...cle.com>, "Namjae Jeon" <linkinjeon@...nel.org>,
 "Steve French" <smfrench@...il.com>,
 "Sergey Senozhatsky" <senozhatsky@...omium.org>,
 "Carlos Maiolino" <cem@...nel.org>,
 "John Johansen" <john.johansen@...onical.com>,
 "Paul Moore" <paul@...l-moore.com>, "James Morris" <jmorris@...ei.org>,
 "Serge E. Hallyn" <serge@...lyn.com>,
 "Stephen Smalley" <stephen.smalley.work@...il.com>,
 "Ondrej Mosnacek" <omosnace@...hat.com>,
 "Mateusz Guzik" <mjguzik@...il.com>,
 "Lorenzo Stoakes" <lorenzo.stoakes@...cle.com>,
 "Stefan Berger" <stefanb@...ux.ibm.com>,
 "Darrick J. Wong" <djwong@...nel.org>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
 netfs@...ts.linux.dev, ecryptfs@...r.kernel.org,
 linux-nfs@...r.kernel.org, linux-unionfs@...r.kernel.org,
 linux-cifs@...r.kernel.org, linux-xfs@...r.kernel.org,
 linux-security-module@...r.kernel.org, selinux@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v6 00/15] Create and use APIs to centralise locking for
 directory ops

On Fri, 14 Nov 2025, Christian Brauner wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 13, 2025 at 11:18:23AM +1100, NeilBrown wrote:
> > Following is a new version of this series:
> >  - fixed a bug found by syzbot
> >  - cleanup suggested by Stephen Smalley
> >  - added patch for missing updates in smb/server - thanks Jeff Layton
> 
> The codeflow right now is very very gnarly in a lot of places which
> obviously isn't your fault. But start_creating() and end_creating()
> would very naturally lend themselves to be CLASS() guards.

I agree that using guards would be nice.  One of my earlier versions did
that but Al wants the change to use guards to be separate from other
changes.  I'll suggest something at some stage if no-one else does it first.

> 
> Unrelated: I'm very inclined to slap a patch on top that renames
> start_creating()/end_creating() and start_dirop()/end_dirop() to
> vfs_start_creating()/vfs_end_creating() and
> vfs_start_dirop()/vfs_end_dirop(). After all they are VFS level
> maintained helpers and I try to be consistent with the naming in the
> codebase making it very easy to grep.
> 

I don't object to adding a vfs_ prefix.
(What would be really nice is of the vfs_ code was in a separate vfs/
directory, but that is probably too intrusive to be worth it).

Thanks,
NeilBrown