Re: [PATCH v6 05/15] ubifs: Rename whiteout atomically

From: Richard Weinberger
Date: Mon Jan 10 2022 - 05:14:24 EST


----- Ursprüngliche Mail -----
> Von: "chengzhihao1" <chengzhihao1@xxxxxxxxxx>
> An: "richard" <richard@xxxxxx>
> CC: "Miquel Raynal" <miquel.raynal@xxxxxxxxxxx>, "Vignesh Raghavendra" <vigneshr@xxxxxx>, "mcoquelin stm32"
> <mcoquelin.stm32@xxxxxxxxx>, "kirill shutemov" <kirill.shutemov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Sascha Hauer"
> <s.hauer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "linux-mtd" <linux-mtd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "linux-kernel" <linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Gesendet: Montag, 10. Januar 2022 10:35:02
> Betreff: Re: [PATCH v6 05/15] ubifs: Rename whiteout atomically

> Hi, Richard
>>
>> How do you make sure the the whiteout is never written to disk (by writeback)
>> before ubifs_jnl_rename() linked
>> it? That's the reason why other filesystems use the tmpfile mechanism for
>> whiteouts too.
>>
>
> The whiteout inode is clean after creation from create_whiteout(), and
> it can't be marked dirty until ubifs_jnl_rename() finished. So, I think
> there is no chance for whiteout being written on disk. Then,
> 'ubifs_assert(c, !whiteout_ui->dirty)' never fails in ubifs_jnl_rename()
> during my local stress tests. You may add some delay executions after
> whiteout creation to make sure that whiteout won't be written back
> before ubifs_jnl_rename().

>From UBIFS point of view I fully agree with you. I'm just a little puzzled why
other filesystems use the tmpfile approach. My fear is that VFS can do things
to the inode we don't have in mind right now.

Thanks,
//richard