diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt | 106 |
1 files changed, 103 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt index e6a5f4912b6d..6ea1e64d1464 100644 --- a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt @@ -190,6 +190,20 @@ Mount options: Redirects are not created and not followed (equivalent to "redirect_dir=off" if "redirect_always_follow" feature is not enabled). +When the NFS export feature is enabled, every copied up directory is +indexed by the file handle of the lower inode and a file handle of the +upper directory is stored in a "trusted.overlay.upper" extended attribute +on the index entry. On lookup of a merged directory, if the upper +directory does not match the file handle stores in the index, that is an +indication that multiple upper directories may be redirected to the same +lower directory. In that case, lookup returns an error and warns about +a possible inconsistency. + +Because lower layer redirects cannot be verified with the index, enabling +NFS export support on an overlay filesystem with no upper layer requires +turning off redirect follow (e.g. "redirect_dir=nofollow"). + + Non-directories --------------- @@ -281,9 +295,9 @@ filesystem, so both st_dev and st_ino of the file may change. Any open files referring to this inode will access the old data. -If a file with multiple hard links is copied up, then this will -"break" the link. Changes will not be propagated to other names -referring to the same inode. +Unless "inode index" feature is enabled, if a file with multiple hard +links is copied up, then this will "break" the link. Changes will not be +propagated to other names referring to the same inode. Unless "redirect_dir" feature is enabled, rename(2) on a lower or merged directory will fail with EXDEV. @@ -299,6 +313,92 @@ filesystem are not allowed. If the underlying filesystem is changed, the behavior of the overlay is undefined, though it will not result in a crash or deadlock. +When the overlay NFS export feature is enabled, overlay filesystems +behavior on offline changes of the underlying lower layer is different +than the behavior when NFS export is disabled. + +On every copy_up, an NFS file handle of the lower inode, along with the +UUID of the lower filesystem, are encoded and stored in an extended +attribute "trusted.overlay.origin" on the upper inode. + +When the NFS export feature is enabled, a lookup of a merged directory, +that found a lower directory at the lookup path or at the path pointed +to by the "trusted.overlay.redirect" extended attribute, will verify +that the found lower directory file handle and lower filesystem UUID +match the origin file handle that was stored at copy_up time. If a +found lower directory does not match the stored origin, that directory +will not be merged with the upper directory. + + + +NFS export +---------- + +When the underlying filesystems supports NFS export and the "nfs_export" +feature is enabled, an overlay filesystem may be exported to NFS. + +With the "nfs_export" feature, on copy_up of any lower object, an index +entry is created under the index directory. The index entry name is the +hexadecimal representation of the copy up origin file handle. For a +non-directory object, the index entry is a hard link to the upper inode. +For a directory object, the index entry has an extended attribute +"trusted.overlay.upper" with an encoded file handle of the upper +directory inode. + +When encoding a file handle from an overlay filesystem object, the +following rules apply: + +1. For a non-upper object, encode a lower file handle from lower inode +2. For an indexed object, encode a lower file handle from copy_up origin +3. For a pure-upper object and for an existing non-indexed upper object, + encode an upper file handle from upper inode + +The encoded overlay file handle includes: + - Header including path type information (e.g. lower/upper) + - UUID of the underlying filesystem + - Underlying filesystem encoding of underlying inode + +This encoding format is identical to the encoding format file handles that +are stored in extended attribute "trusted.overlay.origin". + +When decoding an overlay file handle, the following steps are followed: + +1. Find underlying layer by UUID and path type information. +2. Decode the underlying filesystem file handle to underlying dentry. +3. For a lower file handle, lookup the handle in index directory by name. +4. If a whiteout is found in index, return ESTALE. This represents an + overlay object that was deleted after its file handle was encoded. +5. For a non-directory, instantiate a disconnected overlay dentry from the + decoded underlying dentry, the path type and index inode, if found. +6. For a directory, use the connected underlying decoded dentry, path type + and index, to lookup a connected overlay dentry. + +Decoding a non-directory file handle may return a disconnected dentry. +copy_up of that disconnected dentry will create an upper index entry with +no upper alias. + +When overlay filesystem has multiple lower layers, a middle layer +directory may have a "redirect" to lower directory. Because middle layer +"redirects" are not indexed, a lower file handle that was encoded from the +"redirect" origin directory, cannot be used to find the middle or upper +layer directory. Similarly, a lower file handle that was encoded from a +descendant of the "redirect" origin directory, cannot be used to +reconstruct a connected overlay path. To mitigate the cases of +directories that cannot be decoded from a lower file handle, these +directories are copied up on encode and encoded as an upper file handle. +On an overlay filesystem with no upper layer this mitigation cannot be +used NFS export in this setup requires turning off redirect follow (e.g. +"redirect_dir=nofollow"). + +The overlay filesystem does not support non-directory connectable file +handles, so exporting with the 'subtree_check' exportfs configuration will +cause failures to lookup files over NFS. + +When the NFS export feature is enabled, all directory index entries are +verified on mount time to check that upper file handles are not stale. +This verification may cause significant overhead in some cases. + + Testsuite --------- |