Changes since 2.5.0: --- [recommended] New helpers: sb_bread(), sb_getblk(), sb_find_get_block(), set_bh(), sb_set_blocksize() and sb_min_blocksize(). Use them. (sb_find_get_block() replaces 2.4's get_hash_table()) --- [recommended] New methods: ->alloc_inode() and ->destroy_inode(). Remove inode->u.foo_inode_i Declare struct foo_inode_info { /* fs-private stuff */ struct inode vfs_inode; }; static inline struct foo_inode_info *FOO_I(struct inode *inode) { return list_entry(inode, struct foo_inode_info, vfs_inode); } Use FOO_I(inode) instead of &inode->u.foo_inode_i; Add foo_alloc_inode() and foo_destroy_inode() - the former should allocate foo_inode_info and return the address of ->vfs_inode, the latter should free FOO_I(inode) (see in-tree filesystems for examples). Make them ->alloc_inode and ->destroy_inode in your super_operations. Keep in mind that now you need explicit initialization of private data typically between calling iget_locked() and unlocking the inode. At some point that will become mandatory. --- [mandatory] Change of file_system_type method (->read_super to ->get_sb) ->read_super() is no more. Ditto for DECLARE_FSTYPE and DECLARE_FSTYPE_DEV. Turn your foo_read_super() into a function that would return 0 in case of success and negative number in case of error (-EINVAL unless you have more informative error value to report). Call it foo_fill_super(). Now declare int foo_get_sb(struct file_system_type *fs_type, int flags, const char *dev_name, void *data, struct vfsmount *mnt) { return get_sb_bdev(fs_type, flags, dev_name, data, foo_fill_super, mnt); } (or similar with s/bdev/nodev/ or s/bdev/single/, depending on the kind of filesystem). Replace DECLARE_FSTYPE... with explicit initializer and have ->get_sb set as foo_get_sb. --- [mandatory] Locking change: ->s_vfs_rename_sem is taken only by cross-directory renames. Most likely there is no need to change anything, but if you relied on global exclusion between renames for some internal purpose - you need to change your internal locking. Otherwise exclusion warranties remain the same (i.e. parents and victim are locked, etc.). --- [informational] Now we have the exclusion between ->lookup() and directory removal (by ->rmdir() and ->rename()). If you used to need that exclusion and do it by internal locking (most of filesystems couldn't care less) - you can relax your locking. --- [mandatory] ->lookup(), ->truncate(), ->create(), ->unlink(), ->mknod(), ->mkdir(), ->rmdir(), ->link(), ->lseek(), ->symlink(), ->rename() and ->readdir() are called without BKL now. Grab it on entry, drop upon return - that will guarantee the same locking you used to have. If your method or its parts do not need BKL - better yet, now you can shift lock_kernel() and unlock_kernel() so that they would protect exactly what needs to be protected. --- [mandatory] BKL is also moved from around sb operations. ->write_super() Is now called without BKL held. BKL should have been shifted into individual fs sb_op functions. If you don't need it, remove it. --- [informational] check for ->link() target not being a directory is done by callers. Feel free to drop it... --- [informational] ->link() callers hold ->i_mutex on the object we are linking to. Some of your problems might be over... --- [mandatory] new file_system_type method - kill_sb(superblock). If you are converting an existing filesystem, set it according to ->fs_flags: FS_REQUIRES_DEV - kill_block_super FS_LITTER - kill_litter_super neither - kill_anon_super FS_LITTER is gone - just remove it from fs_flags. --- [mandatory] FS_SINGLE is gone (actually, that had happened back when ->get_sb() went in - and hadn't been documented ;-/). Just remove it from fs_flags (and see ->get_sb() entry for other actions). --- [mandatory] ->setattr() is called without BKL now. Caller _always_ holds ->i_mutex, so watch for ->i_mutex-grabbing code that might be used by your ->setattr(). Callers of notify_change() need ->i_mutex now. --- [recommended] New super_block field "struct export_operations *s_export_op" for explicit support for exporting, e.g. via NFS. The structure is fully documented at its declaration in include/linux/fs.h, and in Documentation/filesystems/nfs/Exporting. Briefly it allows for the definition of decode_fh and encode_fh operations to encode and decode filehandles, and allows the filesystem to use a standard helper function for decode_fh, and provide file-system specific support for this helper, particularly get_parent. It is planned that this will be required for exporting once the code settles down a bit. [mandatory] s_export_op is now required for exporting a filesystem. isofs, ext2, ext3, resierfs, fat can be used as examples of very different filesystems. --- [mandatory] iget4() and the read_inode2 callback have been superseded by iget5_locked() which has the following prototype, struct inode *iget5_locked(struct super_block *sb, unsigned long ino, int (*test)(struct inode *, void *), int (*set)(struct inode *, void *), void *data); 'test' is an additional function that can be used when the inode number is not sufficient to identify the actual file object. 'set' should be a non-blocking function that initializes those parts of a newly created inode to allow the test function to succeed. 'data' is passed as an opaque value to both test and set functions. When the inode has been created by iget5_locked(), it will be returned with the I_NEW flag set and will still be locked. The filesystem then needs to finalize the initialization. Once the inode is initialized it must be unlocked by calling unlock_new_inode(). The filesystem is responsible for setting (and possibly testing) i_ino when appropriate. There is also a simpler iget_locked function that just takes the superblock and inode number as arguments and does the test and set for you. e.g. inode = iget_locked(sb, ino); if (inode->i_state & I_NEW) { err = read_inode_from_disk(inode); if (err < 0) { iget_failed(inode); return err; } unlock_new_inode(inode); } Note that if the process of setting up a new inode fails, then iget_failed() should be called on the inode to render it dead, and an appropriate error should be passed back to the caller. --- [recommended] ->getattr() finally getting used. See instances in nfs, minix, etc. --- [mandatory] ->revalidate() is gone. If your filesystem had it - provide ->getattr() and let it call whatever you had as ->revlidate() + (for symlinks that had ->revalidate()) add calls in ->follow_link()/->readlink(). --- [mandatory] ->d_parent changes are not protected by BKL anymore. Read access is safe if at least one of the following is true: * filesystem has no cross-directory rename() * dcache_lock is held * we know that parent had been locked (e.g. we are looking at ->d_parent of ->lookup() argument). * we are called from ->rename(). * the child's ->d_lock is held Audit your code and add locking if needed. Notice that any place that is not protected by the conditions above is risky even in the old tree - you had been relying on BKL and that's prone to screwups. Old tree had quite a few holes of that kind - unprotected access to ->d_parent leading to anything from oops to silent memory corruption. --- [mandatory] FS_NOMOUNT is gone. If you use it - just set MS_NOUSER in flags (see rootfs for one kind of solution and bdev/socket/pipe for another). --- [recommended] Use bdev_read_only(bdev) instead of is_read_only(kdev). The latter is still alive, but only because of the mess in drivers/s390/block/dasd.c. As soon as it gets fixed is_read_only() will die. --- [mandatory] ->permission() is called without BKL now. Grab it on entry, drop upon return - that will guarantee the same locking you used to have. If your method or its parts do not need BKL - better yet, now you can shift lock_kernel() and unlock_kernel() so that they would protect exactly what needs to be protected. --- [mandatory] ->statfs() is now called without BKL held. BKL should have been shifted into individual fs sb_op functions where it's not clear that it's safe to remove it. If you don't need it, remove it. --- [mandatory] is_read_only() is gone; use bdev_read_only() instead. --- [mandatory] destroy_buffers() is gone; use invalidate_bdev(). --- [mandatory] fsync_dev() is gone; use fsync_bdev(). NOTE: lvm breakage is deliberate; as soon as struct block_device * is propagated in a reasonable way by that code fixing will become trivial; until then nothing can be done. [mandatory] block truncatation on error exit from ->write_begin, and ->direct_IO moved from generic methods (block_write_begin, cont_write_begin, nobh_write_begin, blockdev_direct_IO*) to callers. Take a look at ext2_write_failed and callers for an example. [mandatory] ->truncate is going away. The whole truncate sequence needs to be implemented in ->setattr, which is now mandatory for filesystems implementing on-disk size changes. Start with a copy of the old inode_setattr and vmtruncate, and the reorder the vmtruncate + foofs_vmtruncate sequence to be in order of zeroing blocks using block_truncate_page or similar helpers, size update and on finally on-disk truncation which should not fail. inode_change_ok now includes the size checks for ATTR_SIZE and must be called in the beginning of ->setattr unconditionally. [mandatory] ->clear_inode() and ->delete_inode() are gone; ->evict_inode() should be used instead. It gets called whenever the inode is evicted, whether it has remaining links or not. Caller does *not* evict the pagecache or inode-associated metadata buffers; getting rid of those is responsibility of method, as it had been for ->delete_inode(). ->drop_inode() returns int now; it's called on final iput() with inode_lock held and it returns true if filesystems wants the inode to be dropped. As before, generic_drop_inode() is still the default and it's been updated appropriately. generic_delete_inode() is also alive and it consists simply of return 1. Note that all actual eviction work is done by caller after ->drop_inode() returns. clear_inode() is gone; use end_writeback() instead. As before, it must be called exactly once on each call of ->evict_inode() (as it used to be for each call of ->delete_inode()). Unlike before, if you are using inode-associated metadata buffers (i.e. mark_buffer_dirty_inode()), it's your responsibility to call invalidate_inode_buffers() before end_writeback(). No async writeback (and thus no calls of ->write_inode()) will happen after end_writeback() returns, so actions that should not overlap with ->write_inode() (e.g. freeing on-disk inode if i_nlink is 0) ought to be done after that call. NOTE: checking i_nlink in the beginning of ->write_inode() and bailing out if it's zero is not *and* *never* *had* *been* enough. Final unlink() and iput() may happen while the inode is in the middle of ->write_inode(); e.g. if you blindly free the on-disk inode, you may end up doing that while ->write_inode() is writing to it. --- [mandatory] .d_delete() now only advises the dcache as to whether or not to cache unreferenced dentries, and is now only called when the dentry refcount goes to 0. Even on 0 refcount transition, it must be able to tolerate being called 0, 1, or more times (eg. constant, idempotent).