Re: [PATCH v3 00/24] Convert vfs.txt to vfs.rst

From: Tobin C. Harding
Date: Wed Apr 03 2019 - 17:00:15 EST


On Wed, Apr 03, 2019 at 08:47:21PM +0100, Al Viro wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 03, 2019 at 06:25:20AM +1100, Tobin C. Harding wrote:
> > On Tue, Apr 02, 2019 at 05:48:24PM +0100, Al Viro wrote:
> > > On Tue, Apr 02, 2019 at 09:49:34AM -0600, Jonathan Corbet wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 27 Mar 2019 16:16:53 +1100
> > > > "Tobin C. Harding" <tobin@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Hi Al,
> > > > >
> > > > > This series converts the VFS file Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt to
> > > > > reStructuredText format. Please consider taking this series through
> > > > > your tree as apposed to Jon's tree because this set makes a fair amount
> > > > > of changes to VFS files (and also the VFS tree and docs tree are out of
> > > > > sync right now with the recent work by Mauro and Neil).
> > > >
> > > > Al, do you have any thoughts on how you want to handle this? I was about
> > > > to apply Jeff Layton's vfs.txt update, but would rather not create
> > > > conflicts unnecessarily. Let me know if you'd like me to pick this work
> > > > up.
> > >
> > > Frankly, I would rather see that file be eventually replaced by something
> > > saner, and I'm not talking about the format.
> >
> > Are you able to extrapolate on this comment please? Is this something
> > someone new to the VFS (me) can do with a little nudge in the right
> > direction or is this something that needs thorough knowledge of the VFS?
>
> Put it that way - IMO the best way to do it is not a list of methods with
> explanations what each does, but a bunch of per-data structure documents
> describing their life cycles. The fundamental ones for VFS would be
> * inode
> * dentry
> * super_block
> * (vfs)mount
> * file
> * files_struct
> Having a list of methods is nice, but those would be better off with short
> description along with "see <document> for details, including the locking,
> etc."; said short descriptions make little sense without the background...

Ok, got it. Thanks.

Tobin