2 Overview of the Linux Virtual File System
4 Original author: Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.csiro.au>
6 Last updated on June 24, 2007.
8 Copyright (C) 1999 Richard Gooch
9 Copyright (C) 2005 Pekka Enberg
11 This file is released under the GPLv2.
17 The Virtual File System (also known as the Virtual Filesystem Switch)
18 is the software layer in the kernel that provides the filesystem
19 interface to userspace programs. It also provides an abstraction
20 within the kernel which allows different filesystem implementations to
23 VFS system calls open(2), stat(2), read(2), write(2), chmod(2) and so
24 on are called from a process context. Filesystem locking is described
25 in the document Documentation/filesystems/Locking.
28 Directory Entry Cache (dcache)
29 ------------------------------
31 The VFS implements the open(2), stat(2), chmod(2), and similar system
32 calls. The pathname argument that is passed to them is used by the VFS
33 to search through the directory entry cache (also known as the dentry
34 cache or dcache). This provides a very fast look-up mechanism to
35 translate a pathname (filename) into a specific dentry. Dentries live
36 in RAM and are never saved to disc: they exist only for performance.
38 The dentry cache is meant to be a view into your entire filespace. As
39 most computers cannot fit all dentries in the RAM at the same time,
40 some bits of the cache are missing. In order to resolve your pathname
41 into a dentry, the VFS may have to resort to creating dentries along
42 the way, and then loading the inode. This is done by looking up the
49 An individual dentry usually has a pointer to an inode. Inodes are
50 filesystem objects such as regular files, directories, FIFOs and other
51 beasts. They live either on the disc (for block device filesystems)
52 or in the memory (for pseudo filesystems). Inodes that live on the
53 disc are copied into the memory when required and changes to the inode
54 are written back to disc. A single inode can be pointed to by multiple
55 dentries (hard links, for example, do this).
57 To look up an inode requires that the VFS calls the lookup() method of
58 the parent directory inode. This method is installed by the specific
59 filesystem implementation that the inode lives in. Once the VFS has
60 the required dentry (and hence the inode), we can do all those boring
61 things like open(2) the file, or stat(2) it to peek at the inode
62 data. The stat(2) operation is fairly simple: once the VFS has the
63 dentry, it peeks at the inode data and passes some of it back to
70 Opening a file requires another operation: allocation of a file
71 structure (this is the kernel-side implementation of file
72 descriptors). The freshly allocated file structure is initialized with
73 a pointer to the dentry and a set of file operation member functions.
74 These are taken from the inode data. The open() file method is then
75 called so the specific filesystem implementation can do its work. You
76 can see that this is another switch performed by the VFS. The file
77 structure is placed into the file descriptor table for the process.
79 Reading, writing and closing files (and other assorted VFS operations)
80 is done by using the userspace file descriptor to grab the appropriate
81 file structure, and then calling the required file structure method to
82 do whatever is required. For as long as the file is open, it keeps the
83 dentry in use, which in turn means that the VFS inode is still in use.
86 Registering and Mounting a Filesystem
87 =====================================
89 To register and unregister a filesystem, use the following API
94 extern int register_filesystem(struct file_system_type *);
95 extern int unregister_filesystem(struct file_system_type *);
97 The passed struct file_system_type describes your filesystem. When a
98 request is made to mount a filesystem onto a directory in your namespace,
99 the VFS will call the appropriate mount() method for the specific
100 filesystem. New vfsmount referring to the tree returned by ->mount()
101 will be attached to the mountpoint, so that when pathname resolution
102 reaches the mountpoint it will jump into the root of that vfsmount.
104 You can see all filesystems that are registered to the kernel in the
105 file /proc/filesystems.
108 struct file_system_type
109 -----------------------
111 This describes the filesystem. As of kernel 2.6.39, the following
114 struct file_system_type {
117 struct dentry *(*mount) (struct file_system_type *, int,
118 const char *, void *);
119 void (*kill_sb) (struct super_block *);
120 struct module *owner;
121 struct file_system_type * next;
122 struct list_head fs_supers;
123 struct lock_class_key s_lock_key;
124 struct lock_class_key s_umount_key;
127 name: the name of the filesystem type, such as "ext2", "iso9660",
130 fs_flags: various flags (i.e. FS_REQUIRES_DEV, FS_NO_DCACHE, etc.)
132 mount: the method to call when a new instance of this
133 filesystem should be mounted
135 kill_sb: the method to call when an instance of this filesystem
138 owner: for internal VFS use: you should initialize this to THIS_MODULE in
141 next: for internal VFS use: you should initialize this to NULL
143 s_lock_key, s_umount_key: lockdep-specific
145 The mount() method has the following arguments:
147 struct file_system_type *fs_type: describes the filesystem, partly initialized
148 by the specific filesystem code
150 int flags: mount flags
152 const char *dev_name: the device name we are mounting.
154 void *data: arbitrary mount options, usually comes as an ASCII
155 string (see "Mount Options" section)
157 The mount() method must return the root dentry of the tree requested by
158 caller. An active reference to its superblock must be grabbed and the
159 superblock must be locked. On failure it should return ERR_PTR(error).
161 The arguments match those of mount(2) and their interpretation
162 depends on filesystem type. E.g. for block filesystems, dev_name is
163 interpreted as block device name, that device is opened and if it
164 contains a suitable filesystem image the method creates and initializes
165 struct super_block accordingly, returning its root dentry to caller.
167 ->mount() may choose to return a subtree of existing filesystem - it
168 doesn't have to create a new one. The main result from the caller's
169 point of view is a reference to dentry at the root of (sub)tree to
170 be attached; creation of new superblock is a common side effect.
172 The most interesting member of the superblock structure that the
173 mount() method fills in is the "s_op" field. This is a pointer to
174 a "struct super_operations" which describes the next level of the
175 filesystem implementation.
177 Usually, a filesystem uses one of the generic mount() implementations
178 and provides a fill_super() callback instead. The generic variants are:
180 mount_bdev: mount a filesystem residing on a block device
182 mount_nodev: mount a filesystem that is not backed by a device
184 mount_single: mount a filesystem which shares the instance between
187 A fill_super() callback implementation has the following arguments:
189 struct super_block *sb: the superblock structure. The callback
190 must initialize this properly.
192 void *data: arbitrary mount options, usually comes as an ASCII
193 string (see "Mount Options" section)
195 int silent: whether or not to be silent on error
198 The Superblock Object
199 =====================
201 A superblock object represents a mounted filesystem.
204 struct super_operations
205 -----------------------
207 This describes how the VFS can manipulate the superblock of your
208 filesystem. As of kernel 2.6.22, the following members are defined:
210 struct super_operations {
211 struct inode *(*alloc_inode)(struct super_block *sb);
212 void (*destroy_inode)(struct inode *);
214 void (*dirty_inode) (struct inode *, int flags);
215 int (*write_inode) (struct inode *, int);
216 void (*drop_inode) (struct inode *);
217 void (*delete_inode) (struct inode *);
218 void (*put_super) (struct super_block *);
219 int (*sync_fs)(struct super_block *sb, int wait);
220 int (*freeze_fs) (struct super_block *);
221 int (*unfreeze_fs) (struct super_block *);
222 int (*statfs) (struct dentry *, struct kstatfs *);
223 int (*remount_fs) (struct super_block *, int *, char *);
224 void (*clear_inode) (struct inode *);
225 void (*umount_begin) (struct super_block *);
227 int (*show_options)(struct seq_file *, struct dentry *);
229 ssize_t (*quota_read)(struct super_block *, int, char *, size_t, loff_t);
230 ssize_t (*quota_write)(struct super_block *, int, const char *, size_t, loff_t);
231 int (*nr_cached_objects)(struct super_block *);
232 void (*free_cached_objects)(struct super_block *, int);
235 All methods are called without any locks being held, unless otherwise
236 noted. This means that most methods can block safely. All methods are
237 only called from a process context (i.e. not from an interrupt handler
240 alloc_inode: this method is called by alloc_inode() to allocate memory
241 for struct inode and initialize it. If this function is not
242 defined, a simple 'struct inode' is allocated. Normally
243 alloc_inode will be used to allocate a larger structure which
244 contains a 'struct inode' embedded within it.
246 destroy_inode: this method is called by destroy_inode() to release
247 resources allocated for struct inode. It is only required if
248 ->alloc_inode was defined and simply undoes anything done by
251 dirty_inode: this method is called by the VFS to mark an inode dirty.
253 write_inode: this method is called when the VFS needs to write an
254 inode to disc. The second parameter indicates whether the write
255 should be synchronous or not, not all filesystems check this flag.
257 drop_inode: called when the last access to the inode is dropped,
258 with the inode->i_lock spinlock held.
260 This method should be either NULL (normal UNIX filesystem
261 semantics) or "generic_delete_inode" (for filesystems that do not
262 want to cache inodes - causing "delete_inode" to always be
263 called regardless of the value of i_nlink)
265 The "generic_delete_inode()" behavior is equivalent to the
266 old practice of using "force_delete" in the put_inode() case,
267 but does not have the races that the "force_delete()" approach
270 delete_inode: called when the VFS wants to delete an inode
272 put_super: called when the VFS wishes to free the superblock
273 (i.e. unmount). This is called with the superblock lock held
275 sync_fs: called when VFS is writing out all dirty data associated with
276 a superblock. The second parameter indicates whether the method
277 should wait until the write out has been completed. Optional.
279 freeze_fs: called when VFS is locking a filesystem and
280 forcing it into a consistent state. This method is currently
281 used by the Logical Volume Manager (LVM).
283 unfreeze_fs: called when VFS is unlocking a filesystem and making it writable
286 statfs: called when the VFS needs to get filesystem statistics.
288 remount_fs: called when the filesystem is remounted. This is called
289 with the kernel lock held
291 clear_inode: called then the VFS clears the inode. Optional
293 umount_begin: called when the VFS is unmounting a filesystem.
295 show_options: called by the VFS to show mount options for
296 /proc/<pid>/mounts. (see "Mount Options" section)
298 quota_read: called by the VFS to read from filesystem quota file.
300 quota_write: called by the VFS to write to filesystem quota file.
302 nr_cached_objects: called by the sb cache shrinking function for the
303 filesystem to return the number of freeable cached objects it contains.
306 free_cache_objects: called by the sb cache shrinking function for the
307 filesystem to scan the number of objects indicated to try to free them.
308 Optional, but any filesystem implementing this method needs to also
309 implement ->nr_cached_objects for it to be called correctly.
311 We can't do anything with any errors that the filesystem might
312 encountered, hence the void return type. This will never be called if
313 the VM is trying to reclaim under GFP_NOFS conditions, hence this
314 method does not need to handle that situation itself.
316 Implementations must include conditional reschedule calls inside any
317 scanning loop that is done. This allows the VFS to determine
318 appropriate scan batch sizes without having to worry about whether
319 implementations will cause holdoff problems due to large scan batch
322 Whoever sets up the inode is responsible for filling in the "i_op" field. This
323 is a pointer to a "struct inode_operations" which describes the methods that
324 can be performed on individual inodes.
326 struct xattr_handlers
327 ---------------------
329 On filesystems that support extended attributes (xattrs), the s_xattr
330 superblock field points to a NULL-terminated array of xattr handlers. Extended
331 attributes are name:value pairs.
333 name: Indicates that the handler matches attributes with the specified name
334 (such as "system.posix_acl_access"); the prefix field must be NULL.
336 prefix: Indicates that the handler matches all attributes with the specified
337 name prefix (such as "user."); the name field must be NULL.
339 list: Determine if attributes matching this xattr handler should be listed
340 for a particular dentry. Used by some listxattr implementations like
343 get: Called by the VFS to get the value of a particular extended attribute.
344 This method is called by the getxattr(2) system call.
346 set: Called by the VFS to set the value of a particular extended attribute.
347 When the new value is NULL, called to remove a particular extended
348 attribute. This method is called by the the setxattr(2) and
349 removexattr(2) system calls.
351 When none of the xattr handlers of a filesystem match the specified attribute
352 name or when a filesystem doesn't support extended attributes, the various
353 *xattr(2) system calls return -EOPNOTSUPP.
359 An inode object represents an object within the filesystem.
362 struct inode_operations
363 -----------------------
365 This describes how the VFS can manipulate an inode in your
366 filesystem. As of kernel 2.6.22, the following members are defined:
368 struct inode_operations {
369 int (*create) (struct inode *,struct dentry *, umode_t, bool);
370 struct dentry * (*lookup) (struct inode *,struct dentry *, unsigned int);
371 int (*link) (struct dentry *,struct inode *,struct dentry *);
372 int (*unlink) (struct inode *,struct dentry *);
373 int (*symlink) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,const char *);
374 int (*mkdir) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,umode_t);
375 int (*rmdir) (struct inode *,struct dentry *);
376 int (*mknod) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,umode_t,dev_t);
377 int (*rename) (struct inode *, struct dentry *,
378 struct inode *, struct dentry *);
379 int (*rename2) (struct inode *, struct dentry *,
380 struct inode *, struct dentry *, unsigned int);
381 int (*readlink) (struct dentry *, char __user *,int);
382 const char *(*get_link) (struct dentry *, struct inode *,
383 struct delayed_call *);
384 int (*permission) (struct inode *, int);
385 int (*get_acl)(struct inode *, int);
386 int (*setattr) (struct dentry *, struct iattr *);
387 int (*getattr) (struct vfsmount *mnt, struct dentry *, struct kstat *);
388 ssize_t (*listxattr) (struct dentry *, char *, size_t);
389 void (*update_time)(struct inode *, struct timespec *, int);
390 int (*atomic_open)(struct inode *, struct dentry *, struct file *,
391 unsigned open_flag, umode_t create_mode, int *opened);
392 int (*tmpfile) (struct inode *, struct dentry *, umode_t);
395 Again, all methods are called without any locks being held, unless
398 create: called by the open(2) and creat(2) system calls. Only
399 required if you want to support regular files. The dentry you
400 get should not have an inode (i.e. it should be a negative
401 dentry). Here you will probably call d_instantiate() with the
402 dentry and the newly created inode
404 lookup: called when the VFS needs to look up an inode in a parent
405 directory. The name to look for is found in the dentry. This
406 method must call d_add() to insert the found inode into the
407 dentry. The "i_count" field in the inode structure should be
408 incremented. If the named inode does not exist a NULL inode
409 should be inserted into the dentry (this is called a negative
410 dentry). Returning an error code from this routine must only
411 be done on a real error, otherwise creating inodes with system
412 calls like create(2), mknod(2), mkdir(2) and so on will fail.
413 If you wish to overload the dentry methods then you should
414 initialise the "d_dop" field in the dentry; this is a pointer
415 to a struct "dentry_operations".
416 This method is called with the directory inode semaphore held
418 link: called by the link(2) system call. Only required if you want
419 to support hard links. You will probably need to call
420 d_instantiate() just as you would in the create() method
422 unlink: called by the unlink(2) system call. Only required if you
423 want to support deleting inodes
425 symlink: called by the symlink(2) system call. Only required if you
426 want to support symlinks. You will probably need to call
427 d_instantiate() just as you would in the create() method
429 mkdir: called by the mkdir(2) system call. Only required if you want
430 to support creating subdirectories. You will probably need to
431 call d_instantiate() just as you would in the create() method
433 rmdir: called by the rmdir(2) system call. Only required if you want
434 to support deleting subdirectories
436 mknod: called by the mknod(2) system call to create a device (char,
437 block) inode or a named pipe (FIFO) or socket. Only required
438 if you want to support creating these types of inodes. You
439 will probably need to call d_instantiate() just as you would
440 in the create() method
442 rename: called by the rename(2) system call to rename the object to
443 have the parent and name given by the second inode and dentry.
445 rename2: this has an additional flags argument compared to rename.
446 If no flags are supported by the filesystem then this method
447 need not be implemented. If some flags are supported then the
448 filesystem must return -EINVAL for any unsupported or unknown
449 flags. Currently the following flags are implemented:
450 (1) RENAME_NOREPLACE: this flag indicates that if the target
451 of the rename exists the rename should fail with -EEXIST
452 instead of replacing the target. The VFS already checks for
453 existence, so for local filesystems the RENAME_NOREPLACE
454 implementation is equivalent to plain rename.
455 (2) RENAME_EXCHANGE: exchange source and target. Both must
456 exist; this is checked by the VFS. Unlike plain rename,
457 source and target may be of different type.
459 readlink: called by the readlink(2) system call. Only required if
460 you want to support reading symbolic links
462 get_link: called by the VFS to follow a symbolic link to the
463 inode it points to. Only required if you want to support
464 symbolic links. This method returns the symlink body
465 to traverse (and possibly resets the current position with
466 nd_jump_link()). If the body won't go away until the inode
467 is gone, nothing else is needed; if it needs to be otherwise
468 pinned, arrange for its release by having get_link(..., ..., done)
469 do set_delayed_call(done, destructor, argument).
470 In that case destructor(argument) will be called once VFS is
471 done with the body you've returned.
472 May be called in RCU mode; that is indicated by NULL dentry
473 argument. If request can't be handled without leaving RCU mode,
474 have it return ERR_PTR(-ECHILD).
476 permission: called by the VFS to check for access rights on a POSIX-like
479 May be called in rcu-walk mode (mask & MAY_NOT_BLOCK). If in rcu-walk
480 mode, the filesystem must check the permission without blocking or
481 storing to the inode.
483 If a situation is encountered that rcu-walk cannot handle, return
484 -ECHILD and it will be called again in ref-walk mode.
486 setattr: called by the VFS to set attributes for a file. This method
487 is called by chmod(2) and related system calls.
489 getattr: called by the VFS to get attributes of a file. This method
490 is called by stat(2) and related system calls.
492 listxattr: called by the VFS to list all extended attributes for a
493 given file. This method is called by the listxattr(2) system call.
495 update_time: called by the VFS to update a specific time or the i_version of
496 an inode. If this is not defined the VFS will update the inode itself
497 and call mark_inode_dirty_sync.
499 atomic_open: called on the last component of an open. Using this optional
500 method the filesystem can look up, possibly create and open the file in
501 one atomic operation. If it cannot perform this (e.g. the file type
502 turned out to be wrong) it may signal this by returning 1 instead of
503 usual 0 or -ve . This method is only called if the last component is
504 negative or needs lookup. Cached positive dentries are still handled by
505 f_op->open(). If the file was created, the FILE_CREATED flag should be
506 set in "opened". In case of O_EXCL the method must only succeed if the
507 file didn't exist and hence FILE_CREATED shall always be set on success.
509 tmpfile: called in the end of O_TMPFILE open(). Optional, equivalent to
510 atomically creating, opening and unlinking a file in given directory.
512 The Address Space Object
513 ========================
515 The address space object is used to group and manage pages in the page
516 cache. It can be used to keep track of the pages in a file (or
517 anything else) and also track the mapping of sections of the file into
518 process address spaces.
520 There are a number of distinct yet related services that an
521 address-space can provide. These include communicating memory
522 pressure, page lookup by address, and keeping track of pages tagged as
525 The first can be used independently to the others. The VM can try to
526 either write dirty pages in order to clean them, or release clean
527 pages in order to reuse them. To do this it can call the ->writepage
528 method on dirty pages, and ->releasepage on clean pages with
529 PagePrivate set. Clean pages without PagePrivate and with no external
530 references will be released without notice being given to the
533 To achieve this functionality, pages need to be placed on an LRU with
534 lru_cache_add and mark_page_active needs to be called whenever the
537 Pages are normally kept in a radix tree index by ->index. This tree
538 maintains information about the PG_Dirty and PG_Writeback status of
539 each page, so that pages with either of these flags can be found
542 The Dirty tag is primarily used by mpage_writepages - the default
543 ->writepages method. It uses the tag to find dirty pages to call
544 ->writepage on. If mpage_writepages is not used (i.e. the address
545 provides its own ->writepages) , the PAGECACHE_TAG_DIRTY tag is
546 almost unused. write_inode_now and sync_inode do use it (through
547 __sync_single_inode) to check if ->writepages has been successful in
548 writing out the whole address_space.
550 The Writeback tag is used by filemap*wait* and sync_page* functions,
551 via filemap_fdatawait_range, to wait for all writeback to complete.
553 An address_space handler may attach extra information to a page,
554 typically using the 'private' field in the 'struct page'. If such
555 information is attached, the PG_Private flag should be set. This will
556 cause various VM routines to make extra calls into the address_space
557 handler to deal with that data.
559 An address space acts as an intermediate between storage and
560 application. Data is read into the address space a whole page at a
561 time, and provided to the application either by copying of the page,
562 or by memory-mapping the page.
563 Data is written into the address space by the application, and then
564 written-back to storage typically in whole pages, however the
565 address_space has finer control of write sizes.
567 The read process essentially only requires 'readpage'. The write
568 process is more complicated and uses write_begin/write_end or
569 set_page_dirty to write data into the address_space, and writepage
570 and writepages to writeback data to storage.
572 Adding and removing pages to/from an address_space is protected by the
575 When data is written to a page, the PG_Dirty flag should be set. It
576 typically remains set until writepage asks for it to be written. This
577 should clear PG_Dirty and set PG_Writeback. It can be actually
578 written at any point after PG_Dirty is clear. Once it is known to be
579 safe, PG_Writeback is cleared.
581 Writeback makes use of a writeback_control structure...
583 struct address_space_operations
584 -------------------------------
586 This describes how the VFS can manipulate mapping of a file to page cache in
587 your filesystem. The following members are defined:
589 struct address_space_operations {
590 int (*writepage)(struct page *page, struct writeback_control *wbc);
591 int (*readpage)(struct file *, struct page *);
592 int (*writepages)(struct address_space *, struct writeback_control *);
593 int (*set_page_dirty)(struct page *page);
594 int (*readpages)(struct file *filp, struct address_space *mapping,
595 struct list_head *pages, unsigned nr_pages);
596 int (*write_begin)(struct file *, struct address_space *mapping,
597 loff_t pos, unsigned len, unsigned flags,
598 struct page **pagep, void **fsdata);
599 int (*write_end)(struct file *, struct address_space *mapping,
600 loff_t pos, unsigned len, unsigned copied,
601 struct page *page, void *fsdata);
602 sector_t (*bmap)(struct address_space *, sector_t);
603 void (*invalidatepage) (struct page *, unsigned int, unsigned int);
604 int (*releasepage) (struct page *, int);
605 void (*freepage)(struct page *);
606 ssize_t (*direct_IO)(struct kiocb *, struct iov_iter *iter);
607 /* isolate a page for migration */
608 bool (*isolate_page) (struct page *, isolate_mode_t);
609 /* migrate the contents of a page to the specified target */
610 int (*migratepage) (struct page *, struct page *);
611 /* put migration-failed page back to right list */
612 void (*putback_page) (struct page *);
613 int (*launder_page) (struct page *);
615 int (*is_partially_uptodate) (struct page *, unsigned long,
617 void (*is_dirty_writeback) (struct page *, bool *, bool *);
618 int (*error_remove_page) (struct mapping *mapping, struct page *page);
619 int (*swap_activate)(struct file *);
620 int (*swap_deactivate)(struct file *);
623 writepage: called by the VM to write a dirty page to backing store.
624 This may happen for data integrity reasons (i.e. 'sync'), or
625 to free up memory (flush). The difference can be seen in
627 The PG_Dirty flag has been cleared and PageLocked is true.
628 writepage should start writeout, should set PG_Writeback,
629 and should make sure the page is unlocked, either synchronously
630 or asynchronously when the write operation completes.
632 If wbc->sync_mode is WB_SYNC_NONE, ->writepage doesn't have to
633 try too hard if there are problems, and may choose to write out
634 other pages from the mapping if that is easier (e.g. due to
635 internal dependencies). If it chooses not to start writeout, it
636 should return AOP_WRITEPAGE_ACTIVATE so that the VM will not keep
637 calling ->writepage on that page.
639 See the file "Locking" for more details.
641 readpage: called by the VM to read a page from backing store.
642 The page will be Locked when readpage is called, and should be
643 unlocked and marked uptodate once the read completes.
644 If ->readpage discovers that it needs to unlock the page for
645 some reason, it can do so, and then return AOP_TRUNCATED_PAGE.
646 In this case, the page will be relocated, relocked and if
647 that all succeeds, ->readpage will be called again.
649 writepages: called by the VM to write out pages associated with the
650 address_space object. If wbc->sync_mode is WBC_SYNC_ALL, then
651 the writeback_control will specify a range of pages that must be
652 written out. If it is WBC_SYNC_NONE, then a nr_to_write is given
653 and that many pages should be written if possible.
654 If no ->writepages is given, then mpage_writepages is used
655 instead. This will choose pages from the address space that are
656 tagged as DIRTY and will pass them to ->writepage.
658 set_page_dirty: called by the VM to set a page dirty.
659 This is particularly needed if an address space attaches
660 private data to a page, and that data needs to be updated when
661 a page is dirtied. This is called, for example, when a memory
662 mapped page gets modified.
663 If defined, it should set the PageDirty flag, and the
664 PAGECACHE_TAG_DIRTY tag in the radix tree.
666 readpages: called by the VM to read pages associated with the address_space
667 object. This is essentially just a vector version of
668 readpage. Instead of just one page, several pages are
670 readpages is only used for read-ahead, so read errors are
671 ignored. If anything goes wrong, feel free to give up.
674 Called by the generic buffered write code to ask the filesystem to
675 prepare to write len bytes at the given offset in the file. The
676 address_space should check that the write will be able to complete,
677 by allocating space if necessary and doing any other internal
678 housekeeping. If the write will update parts of any basic-blocks on
679 storage, then those blocks should be pre-read (if they haven't been
680 read already) so that the updated blocks can be written out properly.
682 The filesystem must return the locked pagecache page for the specified
683 offset, in *pagep, for the caller to write into.
685 It must be able to cope with short writes (where the length passed to
686 write_begin is greater than the number of bytes copied into the page).
688 flags is a field for AOP_FLAG_xxx flags, described in
691 A void * may be returned in fsdata, which then gets passed into
694 Returns 0 on success; < 0 on failure (which is the error code), in
695 which case write_end is not called.
697 write_end: After a successful write_begin, and data copy, write_end must
698 be called. len is the original len passed to write_begin, and copied
699 is the amount that was able to be copied (copied == len is always true
700 if write_begin was called with the AOP_FLAG_UNINTERRUPTIBLE flag).
702 The filesystem must take care of unlocking the page and releasing it
703 refcount, and updating i_size.
705 Returns < 0 on failure, otherwise the number of bytes (<= 'copied')
706 that were able to be copied into pagecache.
708 bmap: called by the VFS to map a logical block offset within object to
709 physical block number. This method is used by the FIBMAP
710 ioctl and for working with swap-files. To be able to swap to
711 a file, the file must have a stable mapping to a block
712 device. The swap system does not go through the filesystem
713 but instead uses bmap to find out where the blocks in the file
714 are and uses those addresses directly.
716 invalidatepage: If a page has PagePrivate set, then invalidatepage
717 will be called when part or all of the page is to be removed
718 from the address space. This generally corresponds to either a
719 truncation, punch hole or a complete invalidation of the address
720 space (in the latter case 'offset' will always be 0 and 'length'
721 will be PAGE_SIZE). Any private data associated with the page
722 should be updated to reflect this truncation. If offset is 0 and
723 length is PAGE_SIZE, then the private data should be released,
724 because the page must be able to be completely discarded. This may
725 be done by calling the ->releasepage function, but in this case the
726 release MUST succeed.
728 releasepage: releasepage is called on PagePrivate pages to indicate
729 that the page should be freed if possible. ->releasepage
730 should remove any private data from the page and clear the
731 PagePrivate flag. If releasepage() fails for some reason, it must
732 indicate failure with a 0 return value.
733 releasepage() is used in two distinct though related cases. The
734 first is when the VM finds a clean page with no active users and
735 wants to make it a free page. If ->releasepage succeeds, the
736 page will be removed from the address_space and become free.
738 The second case is when a request has been made to invalidate
739 some or all pages in an address_space. This can happen
740 through the fadvise(POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED) system call or by the
741 filesystem explicitly requesting it as nfs and 9fs do (when
742 they believe the cache may be out of date with storage) by
743 calling invalidate_inode_pages2().
744 If the filesystem makes such a call, and needs to be certain
745 that all pages are invalidated, then its releasepage will
746 need to ensure this. Possibly it can clear the PageUptodate
747 bit if it cannot free private data yet.
749 freepage: freepage is called once the page is no longer visible in
750 the page cache in order to allow the cleanup of any private
751 data. Since it may be called by the memory reclaimer, it
752 should not assume that the original address_space mapping still
753 exists, and it should not block.
755 direct_IO: called by the generic read/write routines to perform
756 direct_IO - that is IO requests which bypass the page cache
757 and transfer data directly between the storage and the
758 application's address space.
760 isolate_page: Called by the VM when isolating a movable non-lru page.
761 If page is successfully isolated, VM marks the page as PG_isolated
762 via __SetPageIsolated.
764 migrate_page: This is used to compact the physical memory usage.
765 If the VM wants to relocate a page (maybe off a memory card
766 that is signalling imminent failure) it will pass a new page
767 and an old page to this function. migrate_page should
768 transfer any private data across and update any references
769 that it has to the page.
771 putback_page: Called by the VM when isolated page's migration fails.
773 launder_page: Called before freeing a page - it writes back the dirty page. To
774 prevent redirtying the page, it is kept locked during the whole
777 is_partially_uptodate: Called by the VM when reading a file through the
778 pagecache when the underlying blocksize != pagesize. If the required
779 block is up to date then the read can complete without needing the IO
780 to bring the whole page up to date.
782 is_dirty_writeback: Called by the VM when attempting to reclaim a page.
783 The VM uses dirty and writeback information to determine if it needs
784 to stall to allow flushers a chance to complete some IO. Ordinarily
785 it can use PageDirty and PageWriteback but some filesystems have
786 more complex state (unstable pages in NFS prevent reclaim) or
787 do not set those flags due to locking problems. This callback
788 allows a filesystem to indicate to the VM if a page should be
789 treated as dirty or writeback for the purposes of stalling.
791 error_remove_page: normally set to generic_error_remove_page if truncation
792 is ok for this address space. Used for memory failure handling.
793 Setting this implies you deal with pages going away under you,
794 unless you have them locked or reference counts increased.
796 swap_activate: Called when swapon is used on a file to allocate
797 space if necessary and pin the block lookup information in
798 memory. A return value of zero indicates success,
799 in which case this file can be used to back swapspace. The
800 swapspace operations will be proxied to this address space's
801 ->swap_{out,in} methods.
803 swap_deactivate: Called during swapoff on files where swap_activate
810 A file object represents a file opened by a process.
813 struct file_operations
814 ----------------------
816 This describes how the VFS can manipulate an open file. As of kernel
817 4.1, the following members are defined:
819 struct file_operations {
820 struct module *owner;
821 loff_t (*llseek) (struct file *, loff_t, int);
822 ssize_t (*read) (struct file *, char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);
823 ssize_t (*write) (struct file *, const char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);
824 ssize_t (*read_iter) (struct kiocb *, struct iov_iter *);
825 ssize_t (*write_iter) (struct kiocb *, struct iov_iter *);
826 int (*iterate) (struct file *, struct dir_context *);
827 unsigned int (*poll) (struct file *, struct poll_table_struct *);
828 long (*unlocked_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
829 long (*compat_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
830 int (*mmap) (struct file *, struct vm_area_struct *);
831 int (*mremap)(struct file *, struct vm_area_struct *);
832 int (*open) (struct inode *, struct file *);
833 int (*flush) (struct file *, fl_owner_t id);
834 int (*release) (struct inode *, struct file *);
835 int (*fsync) (struct file *, loff_t, loff_t, int datasync);
836 int (*aio_fsync) (struct kiocb *, int datasync);
837 int (*fasync) (int, struct file *, int);
838 int (*lock) (struct file *, int, struct file_lock *);
839 ssize_t (*sendpage) (struct file *, struct page *, int, size_t, loff_t *, int);
840 unsigned long (*get_unmapped_area)(struct file *, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long);
841 int (*check_flags)(int);
842 int (*flock) (struct file *, int, struct file_lock *);
843 ssize_t (*splice_write)(struct pipe_inode_info *, struct file *, loff_t *, size_t, unsigned int);
844 ssize_t (*splice_read)(struct file *, loff_t *, struct pipe_inode_info *, size_t, unsigned int);
845 int (*setlease)(struct file *, long, struct file_lock **, void **);
846 long (*fallocate)(struct file *file, int mode, loff_t offset,
848 void (*show_fdinfo)(struct seq_file *m, struct file *f);
850 unsigned (*mmap_capabilities)(struct file *);
854 Again, all methods are called without any locks being held, unless
857 llseek: called when the VFS needs to move the file position index
859 read: called by read(2) and related system calls
861 read_iter: possibly asynchronous read with iov_iter as destination
863 write: called by write(2) and related system calls
865 write_iter: possibly asynchronous write with iov_iter as source
867 iterate: called when the VFS needs to read the directory contents
869 poll: called by the VFS when a process wants to check if there is
870 activity on this file and (optionally) go to sleep until there
871 is activity. Called by the select(2) and poll(2) system calls
873 unlocked_ioctl: called by the ioctl(2) system call.
875 compat_ioctl: called by the ioctl(2) system call when 32 bit system calls
876 are used on 64 bit kernels.
878 mmap: called by the mmap(2) system call
880 open: called by the VFS when an inode should be opened. When the VFS
881 opens a file, it creates a new "struct file". It then calls the
882 open method for the newly allocated file structure. You might
883 think that the open method really belongs in
884 "struct inode_operations", and you may be right. I think it's
885 done the way it is because it makes filesystems simpler to
886 implement. The open() method is a good place to initialize the
887 "private_data" member in the file structure if you want to point
888 to a device structure
890 flush: called by the close(2) system call to flush a file
892 release: called when the last reference to an open file is closed
894 fsync: called by the fsync(2) system call
896 fasync: called by the fcntl(2) system call when asynchronous
897 (non-blocking) mode is enabled for a file
899 lock: called by the fcntl(2) system call for F_GETLK, F_SETLK, and F_SETLKW
902 get_unmapped_area: called by the mmap(2) system call
904 check_flags: called by the fcntl(2) system call for F_SETFL command
906 flock: called by the flock(2) system call
908 splice_write: called by the VFS to splice data from a pipe to a file. This
909 method is used by the splice(2) system call
911 splice_read: called by the VFS to splice data from file to a pipe. This
912 method is used by the splice(2) system call
914 setlease: called by the VFS to set or release a file lock lease. setlease
915 implementations should call generic_setlease to record or remove
916 the lease in the inode after setting it.
918 fallocate: called by the VFS to preallocate blocks or punch a hole.
920 Note that the file operations are implemented by the specific
921 filesystem in which the inode resides. When opening a device node
922 (character or block special) most filesystems will call special
923 support routines in the VFS which will locate the required device
924 driver information. These support routines replace the filesystem file
925 operations with those for the device driver, and then proceed to call
926 the new open() method for the file. This is how opening a device file
927 in the filesystem eventually ends up calling the device driver open()
931 Directory Entry Cache (dcache)
932 ==============================
935 struct dentry_operations
936 ------------------------
938 This describes how a filesystem can overload the standard dentry
939 operations. Dentries and the dcache are the domain of the VFS and the
940 individual filesystem implementations. Device drivers have no business
941 here. These methods may be set to NULL, as they are either optional or
942 the VFS uses a default. As of kernel 2.6.22, the following members are
945 struct dentry_operations {
946 int (*d_revalidate)(struct dentry *, unsigned int);
947 int (*d_weak_revalidate)(struct dentry *, unsigned int);
948 int (*d_hash)(const struct dentry *, struct qstr *);
949 int (*d_compare)(const struct dentry *,
950 unsigned int, const char *, const struct qstr *);
951 int (*d_delete)(const struct dentry *);
952 int (*d_init)(struct dentry *);
953 void (*d_release)(struct dentry *);
954 void (*d_iput)(struct dentry *, struct inode *);
955 char *(*d_dname)(struct dentry *, char *, int);
956 struct vfsmount *(*d_automount)(struct path *);
957 int (*d_manage)(struct dentry *, bool);
958 struct dentry *(*d_real)(struct dentry *, const struct inode *,
962 d_revalidate: called when the VFS needs to revalidate a dentry. This
963 is called whenever a name look-up finds a dentry in the
964 dcache. Most local filesystems leave this as NULL, because all their
965 dentries in the dcache are valid. Network filesystems are different
966 since things can change on the server without the client necessarily
969 This function should return a positive value if the dentry is still
970 valid, and zero or a negative error code if it isn't.
972 d_revalidate may be called in rcu-walk mode (flags & LOOKUP_RCU).
973 If in rcu-walk mode, the filesystem must revalidate the dentry without
974 blocking or storing to the dentry, d_parent and d_inode should not be
975 used without care (because they can change and, in d_inode case, even
976 become NULL under us).
978 If a situation is encountered that rcu-walk cannot handle, return
979 -ECHILD and it will be called again in ref-walk mode.
981 d_weak_revalidate: called when the VFS needs to revalidate a "jumped" dentry.
982 This is called when a path-walk ends at dentry that was not acquired by
983 doing a lookup in the parent directory. This includes "/", "." and "..",
984 as well as procfs-style symlinks and mountpoint traversal.
986 In this case, we are less concerned with whether the dentry is still
987 fully correct, but rather that the inode is still valid. As with
988 d_revalidate, most local filesystems will set this to NULL since their
989 dcache entries are always valid.
991 This function has the same return code semantics as d_revalidate.
993 d_weak_revalidate is only called after leaving rcu-walk mode.
995 d_hash: called when the VFS adds a dentry to the hash table. The first
996 dentry passed to d_hash is the parent directory that the name is
999 Same locking and synchronisation rules as d_compare regarding
1000 what is safe to dereference etc.
1002 d_compare: called to compare a dentry name with a given name. The first
1003 dentry is the parent of the dentry to be compared, the second is
1004 the child dentry. len and name string are properties of the dentry
1005 to be compared. qstr is the name to compare it with.
1007 Must be constant and idempotent, and should not take locks if
1008 possible, and should not or store into the dentry.
1009 Should not dereference pointers outside the dentry without
1010 lots of care (eg. d_parent, d_inode, d_name should not be used).
1012 However, our vfsmount is pinned, and RCU held, so the dentries and
1013 inodes won't disappear, neither will our sb or filesystem module.
1016 It is a tricky calling convention because it needs to be called under
1017 "rcu-walk", ie. without any locks or references on things.
1019 d_delete: called when the last reference to a dentry is dropped and the
1020 dcache is deciding whether or not to cache it. Return 1 to delete
1021 immediately, or 0 to cache the dentry. Default is NULL which means to
1022 always cache a reachable dentry. d_delete must be constant and
1025 d_init: called when a dentry is allocated
1027 d_release: called when a dentry is really deallocated
1029 d_iput: called when a dentry loses its inode (just prior to its
1030 being deallocated). The default when this is NULL is that the
1031 VFS calls iput(). If you define this method, you must call
1034 d_dname: called when the pathname of a dentry should be generated.
1035 Useful for some pseudo filesystems (sockfs, pipefs, ...) to delay
1036 pathname generation. (Instead of doing it when dentry is created,
1037 it's done only when the path is needed.). Real filesystems probably
1038 dont want to use it, because their dentries are present in global
1039 dcache hash, so their hash should be an invariant. As no lock is
1040 held, d_dname() should not try to modify the dentry itself, unless
1041 appropriate SMP safety is used. CAUTION : d_path() logic is quite
1042 tricky. The correct way to return for example "Hello" is to put it
1043 at the end of the buffer, and returns a pointer to the first char.
1044 dynamic_dname() helper function is provided to take care of this.
1048 static char *pipefs_dname(struct dentry *dent, char *buffer, int buflen)
1050 return dynamic_dname(dentry, buffer, buflen, "pipe:[%lu]",
1051 dentry->d_inode->i_ino);
1054 d_automount: called when an automount dentry is to be traversed (optional).
1055 This should create a new VFS mount record and return the record to the
1056 caller. The caller is supplied with a path parameter giving the
1057 automount directory to describe the automount target and the parent
1058 VFS mount record to provide inheritable mount parameters. NULL should
1059 be returned if someone else managed to make the automount first. If
1060 the vfsmount creation failed, then an error code should be returned.
1061 If -EISDIR is returned, then the directory will be treated as an
1062 ordinary directory and returned to pathwalk to continue walking.
1064 If a vfsmount is returned, the caller will attempt to mount it on the
1065 mountpoint and will remove the vfsmount from its expiration list in
1066 the case of failure. The vfsmount should be returned with 2 refs on
1067 it to prevent automatic expiration - the caller will clean up the
1070 This function is only used if DCACHE_NEED_AUTOMOUNT is set on the
1071 dentry. This is set by __d_instantiate() if S_AUTOMOUNT is set on the
1074 d_manage: called to allow the filesystem to manage the transition from a
1075 dentry (optional). This allows autofs, for example, to hold up clients
1076 waiting to explore behind a 'mountpoint' whilst letting the daemon go
1077 past and construct the subtree there. 0 should be returned to let the
1078 calling process continue. -EISDIR can be returned to tell pathwalk to
1079 use this directory as an ordinary directory and to ignore anything
1080 mounted on it and not to check the automount flag. Any other error
1081 code will abort pathwalk completely.
1083 If the 'rcu_walk' parameter is true, then the caller is doing a
1084 pathwalk in RCU-walk mode. Sleeping is not permitted in this mode,
1085 and the caller can be asked to leave it and call again by returning
1086 -ECHILD. -EISDIR may also be returned to tell pathwalk to
1087 ignore d_automount or any mounts.
1089 This function is only used if DCACHE_MANAGE_TRANSIT is set on the
1090 dentry being transited from.
1092 d_real: overlay/union type filesystems implement this method to return one of
1093 the underlying dentries hidden by the overlay. It is used in three
1096 Called from open it may need to copy-up the file depending on the
1097 supplied open flags. This mode is selected with a non-zero flags
1098 argument. In this mode the d_real method can return an error.
1100 Called from file_dentry() it returns the real dentry matching the inode
1101 argument. The real dentry may be from a lower layer already copied up,
1102 but still referenced from the file. This mode is selected with a
1103 non-NULL inode argument. This will always succeed.
1105 With NULL inode and zero flags the topmost real underlying dentry is
1106 returned. This will always succeed.
1108 This method is never called with both non-NULL inode and non-zero flags.
1110 Each dentry has a pointer to its parent dentry, as well as a hash list
1111 of child dentries. Child dentries are basically like files in a
1115 Directory Entry Cache API
1116 --------------------------
1118 There are a number of functions defined which permit a filesystem to
1119 manipulate dentries:
1121 dget: open a new handle for an existing dentry (this just increments
1124 dput: close a handle for a dentry (decrements the usage count). If
1125 the usage count drops to 0, and the dentry is still in its
1126 parent's hash, the "d_delete" method is called to check whether
1127 it should be cached. If it should not be cached, or if the dentry
1128 is not hashed, it is deleted. Otherwise cached dentries are put
1129 into an LRU list to be reclaimed on memory shortage.
1131 d_drop: this unhashes a dentry from its parents hash list. A
1132 subsequent call to dput() will deallocate the dentry if its
1133 usage count drops to 0
1135 d_delete: delete a dentry. If there are no other open references to
1136 the dentry then the dentry is turned into a negative dentry
1137 (the d_iput() method is called). If there are other
1138 references, then d_drop() is called instead
1140 d_add: add a dentry to its parents hash list and then calls
1143 d_instantiate: add a dentry to the alias hash list for the inode and
1144 updates the "d_inode" member. The "i_count" member in the
1145 inode structure should be set/incremented. If the inode
1146 pointer is NULL, the dentry is called a "negative
1147 dentry". This function is commonly called when an inode is
1148 created for an existing negative dentry
1150 d_lookup: look up a dentry given its parent and path name component
1151 It looks up the child of that given name from the dcache
1152 hash table. If it is found, the reference count is incremented
1153 and the dentry is returned. The caller must use dput()
1154 to free the dentry when it finishes using it.
1162 On mount and remount the filesystem is passed a string containing a
1163 comma separated list of mount options. The options can have either of
1169 The <linux/parser.h> header defines an API that helps parse these
1170 options. There are plenty of examples on how to use it in existing
1176 If a filesystem accepts mount options, it must define show_options()
1177 to show all the currently active options. The rules are:
1179 - options MUST be shown which are not default or their values differ
1182 - options MAY be shown which are enabled by default or have their
1185 Options used only internally between a mount helper and the kernel
1186 (such as file descriptors), or which only have an effect during the
1187 mounting (such as ones controlling the creation of a journal) are exempt
1188 from the above rules.
1190 The underlying reason for the above rules is to make sure, that a
1191 mount can be accurately replicated (e.g. umounting and mounting again)
1192 based on the information found in /proc/mounts.
1194 A simple method of saving options at mount/remount time and showing
1195 them is provided with the save_mount_options() and
1196 generic_show_options() helper functions. Please note, that using
1197 these may have drawbacks. For more info see header comments for these
1198 functions in fs/namespace.c.
1203 (Note some of these resources are not up-to-date with the latest kernel
1206 Creating Linux virtual filesystems. 2002
1207 <http://lwn.net/Articles/13325/>
1209 The Linux Virtual File-system Layer by Neil Brown. 1999
1210 <http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/oss/linux-commentary/vfs.html>
1212 A tour of the Linux VFS by Michael K. Johnson. 1996
1213 <http://www.tldp.org/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/fs/vfstour.html>
1215 A small trail through the Linux kernel by Andries Brouwer. 2001
1216 <http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/vfs/trail.html>
projects / cascardo / linux.git / blob