1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
3 =========================================
4 Overview of the Linux Virtual File System
5 =========================================
7 Original author: Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.csiro.au>
9 - Copyright (C) 1999 Richard Gooch
10 - Copyright (C) 2005 Pekka Enberg
16 The Virtual File System (also known as the Virtual Filesystem Switch) is
17 the software layer in the kernel that provides the filesystem interface
18 to userspace programs. It also provides an abstraction within the
19 kernel which allows different filesystem implementations to coexist.
21 VFS system calls open(2), stat(2), read(2), write(2), chmod(2) and so on
22 are called from a process context. Filesystem locking is described in
23 the document Documentation/filesystems/locking.rst.
26 Directory Entry Cache (dcache)
27 ------------------------------
29 The VFS implements the open(2), stat(2), chmod(2), and similar system
30 calls. The pathname argument that is passed to them is used by the VFS
31 to search through the directory entry cache (also known as the dentry
32 cache or dcache). This provides a very fast look-up mechanism to
33 translate a pathname (filename) into a specific dentry. Dentries live
34 in RAM and are never saved to disc: they exist only for performance.
36 The dentry cache is meant to be a view into your entire filespace. As
37 most computers cannot fit all dentries in the RAM at the same time, some
38 bits of the cache are missing. In order to resolve your pathname into a
39 dentry, the VFS may have to resort to creating dentries along the way,
40 and then loading the inode. This is done by looking up the inode.
46 An individual dentry usually has a pointer to an inode. Inodes are
47 filesystem objects such as regular files, directories, FIFOs and other
48 beasts. They live either on the disc (for block device filesystems) or
49 in the memory (for pseudo filesystems). Inodes that live on the disc
50 are copied into the memory when required and changes to the inode are
51 written back to disc. A single inode can be pointed to by multiple
52 dentries (hard links, for example, do this).
54 To look up an inode requires that the VFS calls the lookup() method of
55 the parent directory inode. This method is installed by the specific
56 filesystem implementation that the inode lives in. Once the VFS has the
57 required dentry (and hence the inode), we can do all those boring things
58 like open(2) the file, or stat(2) it to peek at the inode data. The
59 stat(2) operation is fairly simple: once the VFS has the dentry, it
60 peeks at the inode data and passes some of it back to userspace.
66 Opening a file requires another operation: allocation of a file
67 structure (this is the kernel-side implementation of file descriptors).
68 The freshly allocated file structure is initialized with a pointer to
69 the dentry and a set of file operation member functions. These are
70 taken from the inode data. The open() file method is then called so the
71 specific filesystem implementation can do its work. You can see that
72 this is another switch performed by the VFS. The file structure is
73 placed into the file descriptor table for the process.
75 Reading, writing and closing files (and other assorted VFS operations)
76 is done by using the userspace file descriptor to grab the appropriate
77 file structure, and then calling the required file structure method to
78 do whatever is required. For as long as the file is open, it keeps the
79 dentry in use, which in turn means that the VFS inode is still in use.
82 Registering and Mounting a Filesystem
83 =====================================
85 To register and unregister a filesystem, use the following API
92 extern int register_filesystem(struct file_system_type *);
93 extern int unregister_filesystem(struct file_system_type *);
95 The passed struct file_system_type describes your filesystem. When a
96 request is made to mount a filesystem onto a directory in your
97 namespace, the VFS will call the appropriate mount() method for the
98 specific filesystem. New vfsmount referring to the tree returned by
99 ->mount() will be attached to the mountpoint, so that when pathname
100 resolution reaches the mountpoint it will jump into the root of that
103 You can see all filesystems that are registered to the kernel in the
104 file /proc/filesystems.
107 struct file_system_type
108 -----------------------
110 This describes the filesystem. As of kernel 2.6.39, the following
115 struct file_system_type {
118 struct dentry *(*mount) (struct file_system_type *, int,
119 const char *, void *);
120 void (*kill_sb) (struct super_block *);
121 struct module *owner;
122 struct file_system_type * next;
123 struct list_head fs_supers;
124 struct lock_class_key s_lock_key;
125 struct lock_class_key s_umount_key;
129 the name of the filesystem type, such as "ext2", "iso9660",
133 various flags (i.e. FS_REQUIRES_DEV, FS_NO_DCACHE, etc.)
136 the method to call when a new instance of this filesystem should
140 the method to call when an instance of this filesystem should be
145 for internal VFS use: you should initialize this to THIS_MODULE
149 for internal VFS use: you should initialize this to NULL
151 s_lock_key, s_umount_key: lockdep-specific
153 The mount() method has the following arguments:
155 ``struct file_system_type *fs_type``
156 describes the filesystem, partly initialized by the specific
162 ``const char *dev_name``
163 the device name we are mounting.
166 arbitrary mount options, usually comes as an ASCII string (see
167 "Mount Options" section)
169 The mount() method must return the root dentry of the tree requested by
170 caller. An active reference to its superblock must be grabbed and the
171 superblock must be locked. On failure it should return ERR_PTR(error).
173 The arguments match those of mount(2) and their interpretation depends
174 on filesystem type. E.g. for block filesystems, dev_name is interpreted
175 as block device name, that device is opened and if it contains a
176 suitable filesystem image the method creates and initializes struct
177 super_block accordingly, returning its root dentry to caller.
179 ->mount() may choose to return a subtree of existing filesystem - it
180 doesn't have to create a new one. The main result from the caller's
181 point of view is a reference to dentry at the root of (sub)tree to be
182 attached; creation of new superblock is a common side effect.
184 The most interesting member of the superblock structure that the mount()
185 method fills in is the "s_op" field. This is a pointer to a "struct
186 super_operations" which describes the next level of the filesystem
189 Usually, a filesystem uses one of the generic mount() implementations
190 and provides a fill_super() callback instead. The generic variants are:
193 mount a filesystem residing on a block device
196 mount a filesystem that is not backed by a device
199 mount a filesystem which shares the instance between all mounts
201 A fill_super() callback implementation has the following arguments:
203 ``struct super_block *sb``
204 the superblock structure. The callback must initialize this
208 arbitrary mount options, usually comes as an ASCII string (see
209 "Mount Options" section)
212 whether or not to be silent on error
215 The Superblock Object
216 =====================
218 A superblock object represents a mounted filesystem.
221 struct super_operations
222 -----------------------
224 This describes how the VFS can manipulate the superblock of your
225 filesystem. As of kernel 2.6.22, the following members are defined:
229 struct super_operations {
230 struct inode *(*alloc_inode)(struct super_block *sb);
231 void (*destroy_inode)(struct inode *);
233 void (*dirty_inode) (struct inode *, int flags);
234 int (*write_inode) (struct inode *, int);
235 void (*drop_inode) (struct inode *);
236 void (*delete_inode) (struct inode *);
237 void (*put_super) (struct super_block *);
238 int (*sync_fs)(struct super_block *sb, int wait);
239 int (*freeze_fs) (struct super_block *);
240 int (*unfreeze_fs) (struct super_block *);
241 int (*statfs) (struct dentry *, struct kstatfs *);
242 int (*remount_fs) (struct super_block *, int *, char *);
243 void (*clear_inode) (struct inode *);
244 void (*umount_begin) (struct super_block *);
246 int (*show_options)(struct seq_file *, struct dentry *);
248 ssize_t (*quota_read)(struct super_block *, int, char *, size_t, loff_t);
249 ssize_t (*quota_write)(struct super_block *, int, const char *, size_t, loff_t);
250 int (*nr_cached_objects)(struct super_block *);
251 void (*free_cached_objects)(struct super_block *, int);
254 All methods are called without any locks being held, unless otherwise
255 noted. This means that most methods can block safely. All methods are
256 only called from a process context (i.e. not from an interrupt handler
260 this method is called by alloc_inode() to allocate memory for
261 struct inode and initialize it. If this function is not
262 defined, a simple 'struct inode' is allocated. Normally
263 alloc_inode will be used to allocate a larger structure which
264 contains a 'struct inode' embedded within it.
267 this method is called by destroy_inode() to release resources
268 allocated for struct inode. It is only required if
269 ->alloc_inode was defined and simply undoes anything done by
273 this method is called by the VFS when an inode is marked dirty.
274 This is specifically for the inode itself being marked dirty,
275 not its data. If the update needs to be persisted by fdatasync(),
276 then I_DIRTY_DATASYNC will be set in the flags argument.
279 this method is called when the VFS needs to write an inode to
280 disc. The second parameter indicates whether the write should
281 be synchronous or not, not all filesystems check this flag.
284 called when the last access to the inode is dropped, with the
285 inode->i_lock spinlock held.
287 This method should be either NULL (normal UNIX filesystem
288 semantics) or "generic_delete_inode" (for filesystems that do
289 not want to cache inodes - causing "delete_inode" to always be
290 called regardless of the value of i_nlink)
292 The "generic_delete_inode()" behavior is equivalent to the old
293 practice of using "force_delete" in the put_inode() case, but
294 does not have the races that the "force_delete()" approach had.
297 called when the VFS wants to delete an inode
300 called when the VFS wishes to free the superblock
301 (i.e. unmount). This is called with the superblock lock held
304 called when VFS is writing out all dirty data associated with a
305 superblock. The second parameter indicates whether the method
306 should wait until the write out has been completed. Optional.
309 called when VFS is locking a filesystem and forcing it into a
310 consistent state. This method is currently used by the Logical
311 Volume Manager (LVM).
314 called when VFS is unlocking a filesystem and making it writable
318 called when the VFS needs to get filesystem statistics.
321 called when the filesystem is remounted. This is called with
325 called then the VFS clears the inode. Optional
328 called when the VFS is unmounting a filesystem.
331 called by the VFS to show mount options for /proc/<pid>/mounts.
332 (see "Mount Options" section)
335 called by the VFS to read from filesystem quota file.
338 called by the VFS to write to filesystem quota file.
340 ``nr_cached_objects``
341 called by the sb cache shrinking function for the filesystem to
342 return the number of freeable cached objects it contains.
345 ``free_cache_objects``
346 called by the sb cache shrinking function for the filesystem to
347 scan the number of objects indicated to try to free them.
348 Optional, but any filesystem implementing this method needs to
349 also implement ->nr_cached_objects for it to be called
352 We can't do anything with any errors that the filesystem might
353 encountered, hence the void return type. This will never be
354 called if the VM is trying to reclaim under GFP_NOFS conditions,
355 hence this method does not need to handle that situation itself.
357 Implementations must include conditional reschedule calls inside
358 any scanning loop that is done. This allows the VFS to
359 determine appropriate scan batch sizes without having to worry
360 about whether implementations will cause holdoff problems due to
361 large scan batch sizes.
363 Whoever sets up the inode is responsible for filling in the "i_op"
364 field. This is a pointer to a "struct inode_operations" which describes
365 the methods that can be performed on individual inodes.
368 struct xattr_handlers
369 ---------------------
371 On filesystems that support extended attributes (xattrs), the s_xattr
372 superblock field points to a NULL-terminated array of xattr handlers.
373 Extended attributes are name:value pairs.
376 Indicates that the handler matches attributes with the specified
377 name (such as "system.posix_acl_access"); the prefix field must
381 Indicates that the handler matches all attributes with the
382 specified name prefix (such as "user."); the name field must be
386 Determine if attributes matching this xattr handler should be
387 listed for a particular dentry. Used by some listxattr
388 implementations like generic_listxattr.
391 Called by the VFS to get the value of a particular extended
392 attribute. This method is called by the getxattr(2) system
396 Called by the VFS to set the value of a particular extended
397 attribute. When the new value is NULL, called to remove a
398 particular extended attribute. This method is called by the
399 setxattr(2) and removexattr(2) system calls.
401 When none of the xattr handlers of a filesystem match the specified
402 attribute name or when a filesystem doesn't support extended attributes,
403 the various ``*xattr(2)`` system calls return -EOPNOTSUPP.
409 An inode object represents an object within the filesystem.
412 struct inode_operations
413 -----------------------
415 This describes how the VFS can manipulate an inode in your filesystem.
416 As of kernel 2.6.22, the following members are defined:
420 struct inode_operations {
421 int (*create) (struct user_namespace *, struct inode *,struct dentry *, umode_t, bool);
422 struct dentry * (*lookup) (struct inode *,struct dentry *, unsigned int);
423 int (*link) (struct dentry *,struct inode *,struct dentry *);
424 int (*unlink) (struct inode *,struct dentry *);
425 int (*symlink) (struct user_namespace *, struct inode *,struct dentry *,const char *);
426 int (*mkdir) (struct user_namespace *, struct inode *,struct dentry *,umode_t);
427 int (*rmdir) (struct inode *,struct dentry *);
428 int (*mknod) (struct user_namespace *, struct inode *,struct dentry *,umode_t,dev_t);
429 int (*rename) (struct user_namespace *, struct inode *, struct dentry *,
430 struct inode *, struct dentry *, unsigned int);
431 int (*readlink) (struct dentry *, char __user *,int);
432 const char *(*get_link) (struct dentry *, struct inode *,
433 struct delayed_call *);
434 int (*permission) (struct user_namespace *, struct inode *, int);
435 int (*get_acl)(struct inode *, int);
436 int (*setattr) (struct user_namespace *, struct dentry *, struct iattr *);
437 int (*getattr) (struct user_namespace *, const struct path *, struct kstat *, u32, unsigned int);
438 ssize_t (*listxattr) (struct dentry *, char *, size_t);
439 void (*update_time)(struct inode *, struct timespec *, int);
440 int (*atomic_open)(struct inode *, struct dentry *, struct file *,
441 unsigned open_flag, umode_t create_mode);
442 int (*tmpfile) (struct user_namespace *, struct inode *, struct dentry *, umode_t);
443 int (*set_acl)(struct user_namespace *, struct inode *, struct posix_acl *, int);
446 Again, all methods are called without any locks being held, unless
450 called by the open(2) and creat(2) system calls. Only required
451 if you want to support regular files. The dentry you get should
452 not have an inode (i.e. it should be a negative dentry). Here
453 you will probably call d_instantiate() with the dentry and the
457 called when the VFS needs to look up an inode in a parent
458 directory. The name to look for is found in the dentry. This
459 method must call d_add() to insert the found inode into the
460 dentry. The "i_count" field in the inode structure should be
461 incremented. If the named inode does not exist a NULL inode
462 should be inserted into the dentry (this is called a negative
463 dentry). Returning an error code from this routine must only be
464 done on a real error, otherwise creating inodes with system
465 calls like create(2), mknod(2), mkdir(2) and so on will fail.
466 If you wish to overload the dentry methods then you should
467 initialise the "d_dop" field in the dentry; this is a pointer to
468 a struct "dentry_operations". This method is called with the
469 directory inode semaphore held
472 called by the link(2) system call. Only required if you want to
473 support hard links. You will probably need to call
474 d_instantiate() just as you would in the create() method
477 called by the unlink(2) system call. Only required if you want
478 to support deleting inodes
481 called by the symlink(2) system call. Only required if you want
482 to support symlinks. You will probably need to call
483 d_instantiate() just as you would in the create() method
486 called by the mkdir(2) system call. Only required if you want
487 to support creating subdirectories. You will probably need to
488 call d_instantiate() just as you would in the create() method
491 called by the rmdir(2) system call. Only required if you want
492 to support deleting subdirectories
495 called by the mknod(2) system call to create a device (char,
496 block) inode or a named pipe (FIFO) or socket. Only required if
497 you want to support creating these types of inodes. You will
498 probably need to call d_instantiate() just as you would in the
502 called by the rename(2) system call to rename the object to have
503 the parent and name given by the second inode and dentry.
505 The filesystem must return -EINVAL for any unsupported or
506 unknown flags. Currently the following flags are implemented:
507 (1) RENAME_NOREPLACE: this flag indicates that if the target of
508 the rename exists the rename should fail with -EEXIST instead of
509 replacing the target. The VFS already checks for existence, so
510 for local filesystems the RENAME_NOREPLACE implementation is
511 equivalent to plain rename.
512 (2) RENAME_EXCHANGE: exchange source and target. Both must
513 exist; this is checked by the VFS. Unlike plain rename, source
514 and target may be of different type.
517 called by the VFS to follow a symbolic link to the inode it
518 points to. Only required if you want to support symbolic links.
519 This method returns the symlink body to traverse (and possibly
520 resets the current position with nd_jump_link()). If the body
521 won't go away until the inode is gone, nothing else is needed;
522 if it needs to be otherwise pinned, arrange for its release by
523 having get_link(..., ..., done) do set_delayed_call(done,
524 destructor, argument). In that case destructor(argument) will
525 be called once VFS is done with the body you've returned. May
526 be called in RCU mode; that is indicated by NULL dentry
527 argument. If request can't be handled without leaving RCU mode,
528 have it return ERR_PTR(-ECHILD).
530 If the filesystem stores the symlink target in ->i_link, the
531 VFS may use it directly without calling ->get_link(); however,
532 ->get_link() must still be provided. ->i_link must not be
533 freed until after an RCU grace period. Writing to ->i_link
534 post-iget() time requires a 'release' memory barrier.
537 this is now just an override for use by readlink(2) for the
538 cases when ->get_link uses nd_jump_link() or object is not in
539 fact a symlink. Normally filesystems should only implement
540 ->get_link for symlinks and readlink(2) will automatically use
544 called by the VFS to check for access rights on a POSIX-like
547 May be called in rcu-walk mode (mask & MAY_NOT_BLOCK). If in
548 rcu-walk mode, the filesystem must check the permission without
549 blocking or storing to the inode.
551 If a situation is encountered that rcu-walk cannot handle,
553 -ECHILD and it will be called again in ref-walk mode.
556 called by the VFS to set attributes for a file. This method is
557 called by chmod(2) and related system calls.
560 called by the VFS to get attributes of a file. This method is
561 called by stat(2) and related system calls.
564 called by the VFS to list all extended attributes for a given
565 file. This method is called by the listxattr(2) system call.
568 called by the VFS to update a specific time or the i_version of
569 an inode. If this is not defined the VFS will update the inode
570 itself and call mark_inode_dirty_sync.
573 called on the last component of an open. Using this optional
574 method the filesystem can look up, possibly create and open the
575 file in one atomic operation. If it wants to leave actual
576 opening to the caller (e.g. if the file turned out to be a
577 symlink, device, or just something filesystem won't do atomic
578 open for), it may signal this by returning finish_no_open(file,
579 dentry). This method is only called if the last component is
580 negative or needs lookup. Cached positive dentries are still
581 handled by f_op->open(). If the file was created, FMODE_CREATED
582 flag should be set in file->f_mode. In case of O_EXCL the
583 method must only succeed if the file didn't exist and hence
584 FMODE_CREATED shall always be set on success.
587 called in the end of O_TMPFILE open(). Optional, equivalent to
588 atomically creating, opening and unlinking a file in given
592 The Address Space Object
593 ========================
595 The address space object is used to group and manage pages in the page
596 cache. It can be used to keep track of the pages in a file (or anything
597 else) and also track the mapping of sections of the file into process
600 There are a number of distinct yet related services that an
601 address-space can provide. These include communicating memory pressure,
602 page lookup by address, and keeping track of pages tagged as Dirty or
605 The first can be used independently to the others. The VM can try to
606 either write dirty pages in order to clean them, or release clean pages
607 in order to reuse them. To do this it can call the ->writepage method
608 on dirty pages, and ->releasepage on clean pages with PagePrivate set.
609 Clean pages without PagePrivate and with no external references will be
610 released without notice being given to the address_space.
612 To achieve this functionality, pages need to be placed on an LRU with
613 lru_cache_add and mark_page_active needs to be called whenever the page
616 Pages are normally kept in a radix tree index by ->index. This tree
617 maintains information about the PG_Dirty and PG_Writeback status of each
618 page, so that pages with either of these flags can be found quickly.
620 The Dirty tag is primarily used by mpage_writepages - the default
621 ->writepages method. It uses the tag to find dirty pages to call
622 ->writepage on. If mpage_writepages is not used (i.e. the address
623 provides its own ->writepages) , the PAGECACHE_TAG_DIRTY tag is almost
624 unused. write_inode_now and sync_inode do use it (through
625 __sync_single_inode) to check if ->writepages has been successful in
626 writing out the whole address_space.
628 The Writeback tag is used by filemap*wait* and sync_page* functions, via
629 filemap_fdatawait_range, to wait for all writeback to complete.
631 An address_space handler may attach extra information to a page,
632 typically using the 'private' field in the 'struct page'. If such
633 information is attached, the PG_Private flag should be set. This will
634 cause various VM routines to make extra calls into the address_space
635 handler to deal with that data.
637 An address space acts as an intermediate between storage and
638 application. Data is read into the address space a whole page at a
639 time, and provided to the application either by copying of the page, or
640 by memory-mapping the page. Data is written into the address space by
641 the application, and then written-back to storage typically in whole
642 pages, however the address_space has finer control of write sizes.
644 The read process essentially only requires 'readpage'. The write
645 process is more complicated and uses write_begin/write_end or
646 set_page_dirty to write data into the address_space, and writepage and
647 writepages to writeback data to storage.
649 Adding and removing pages to/from an address_space is protected by the
652 When data is written to a page, the PG_Dirty flag should be set. It
653 typically remains set until writepage asks for it to be written. This
654 should clear PG_Dirty and set PG_Writeback. It can be actually written
655 at any point after PG_Dirty is clear. Once it is known to be safe,
656 PG_Writeback is cleared.
658 Writeback makes use of a writeback_control structure to direct the
659 operations. This gives the writepage and writepages operations some
660 information about the nature of and reason for the writeback request,
661 and the constraints under which it is being done. It is also used to
662 return information back to the caller about the result of a writepage or
666 Handling errors during writeback
667 --------------------------------
669 Most applications that do buffered I/O will periodically call a file
670 synchronization call (fsync, fdatasync, msync or sync_file_range) to
671 ensure that data written has made it to the backing store. When there
672 is an error during writeback, they expect that error to be reported when
673 a file sync request is made. After an error has been reported on one
674 request, subsequent requests on the same file descriptor should return
675 0, unless further writeback errors have occurred since the previous file
678 Ideally, the kernel would report errors only on file descriptions on
679 which writes were done that subsequently failed to be written back. The
680 generic pagecache infrastructure does not track the file descriptions
681 that have dirtied each individual page however, so determining which
682 file descriptors should get back an error is not possible.
684 Instead, the generic writeback error tracking infrastructure in the
685 kernel settles for reporting errors to fsync on all file descriptions
686 that were open at the time that the error occurred. In a situation with
687 multiple writers, all of them will get back an error on a subsequent
688 fsync, even if all of the writes done through that particular file
689 descriptor succeeded (or even if there were no writes on that file
692 Filesystems that wish to use this infrastructure should call
693 mapping_set_error to record the error in the address_space when it
694 occurs. Then, after writing back data from the pagecache in their
695 file->fsync operation, they should call file_check_and_advance_wb_err to
696 ensure that the struct file's error cursor has advanced to the correct
697 point in the stream of errors emitted by the backing device(s).
700 struct address_space_operations
701 -------------------------------
703 This describes how the VFS can manipulate mapping of a file to page
704 cache in your filesystem. The following members are defined:
708 struct address_space_operations {
709 int (*writepage)(struct page *page, struct writeback_control *wbc);
710 int (*readpage)(struct file *, struct page *);
711 int (*writepages)(struct address_space *, struct writeback_control *);
712 int (*set_page_dirty)(struct page *page);
713 void (*readahead)(struct readahead_control *);
714 int (*readpages)(struct file *filp, struct address_space *mapping,
715 struct list_head *pages, unsigned nr_pages);
716 int (*write_begin)(struct file *, struct address_space *mapping,
717 loff_t pos, unsigned len, unsigned flags,
718 struct page **pagep, void **fsdata);
719 int (*write_end)(struct file *, struct address_space *mapping,
720 loff_t pos, unsigned len, unsigned copied,
721 struct page *page, void *fsdata);
722 sector_t (*bmap)(struct address_space *, sector_t);
723 void (*invalidatepage) (struct page *, unsigned int, unsigned int);
724 int (*releasepage) (struct page *, int);
725 void (*freepage)(struct page *);
726 ssize_t (*direct_IO)(struct kiocb *, struct iov_iter *iter);
727 /* isolate a page for migration */
728 bool (*isolate_page) (struct page *, isolate_mode_t);
729 /* migrate the contents of a page to the specified target */
730 int (*migratepage) (struct page *, struct page *);
731 /* put migration-failed page back to right list */
732 void (*putback_page) (struct page *);
733 int (*launder_page) (struct page *);
735 int (*is_partially_uptodate) (struct page *, unsigned long,
737 void (*is_dirty_writeback) (struct page *, bool *, bool *);
738 int (*error_remove_page) (struct mapping *mapping, struct page *page);
739 int (*swap_activate)(struct file *);
740 int (*swap_deactivate)(struct file *);
744 called by the VM to write a dirty page to backing store. This
745 may happen for data integrity reasons (i.e. 'sync'), or to free
746 up memory (flush). The difference can be seen in
747 wbc->sync_mode. The PG_Dirty flag has been cleared and
748 PageLocked is true. writepage should start writeout, should set
749 PG_Writeback, and should make sure the page is unlocked, either
750 synchronously or asynchronously when the write operation
753 If wbc->sync_mode is WB_SYNC_NONE, ->writepage doesn't have to
754 try too hard if there are problems, and may choose to write out
755 other pages from the mapping if that is easier (e.g. due to
756 internal dependencies). If it chooses not to start writeout, it
757 should return AOP_WRITEPAGE_ACTIVATE so that the VM will not
758 keep calling ->writepage on that page.
760 See the file "Locking" for more details.
763 called by the VM to read a page from backing store. The page
764 will be Locked when readpage is called, and should be unlocked
765 and marked uptodate once the read completes. If ->readpage
766 discovers that it needs to unlock the page for some reason, it
767 can do so, and then return AOP_TRUNCATED_PAGE. In this case,
768 the page will be relocated, relocked and if that all succeeds,
769 ->readpage will be called again.
772 called by the VM to write out pages associated with the
773 address_space object. If wbc->sync_mode is WB_SYNC_ALL, then
774 the writeback_control will specify a range of pages that must be
775 written out. If it is WB_SYNC_NONE, then a nr_to_write is
776 given and that many pages should be written if possible. If no
777 ->writepages is given, then mpage_writepages is used instead.
778 This will choose pages from the address space that are tagged as
779 DIRTY and will pass them to ->writepage.
782 called by the VM to set a page dirty. This is particularly
783 needed if an address space attaches private data to a page, and
784 that data needs to be updated when a page is dirtied. This is
785 called, for example, when a memory mapped page gets modified.
786 If defined, it should set the PageDirty flag, and the
787 PAGECACHE_TAG_DIRTY tag in the radix tree.
790 Called by the VM to read pages associated with the address_space
791 object. The pages are consecutive in the page cache and are
792 locked. The implementation should decrement the page refcount
793 after starting I/O on each page. Usually the page will be
794 unlocked by the I/O completion handler. If the filesystem decides
795 to stop attempting I/O before reaching the end of the readahead
796 window, it can simply return. The caller will decrement the page
797 refcount and unlock the remaining pages for you. Set PageUptodate
798 if the I/O completes successfully. Setting PageError on any page
799 will be ignored; simply unlock the page if an I/O error occurs.
802 called by the VM to read pages associated with the address_space
803 object. This is essentially just a vector version of readpage.
804 Instead of just one page, several pages are requested.
805 readpages is only used for read-ahead, so read errors are
806 ignored. If anything goes wrong, feel free to give up.
807 This interface is deprecated and will be removed by the end of
808 2020; implement readahead instead.
811 Called by the generic buffered write code to ask the filesystem
812 to prepare to write len bytes at the given offset in the file.
813 The address_space should check that the write will be able to
814 complete, by allocating space if necessary and doing any other
815 internal housekeeping. If the write will update parts of any
816 basic-blocks on storage, then those blocks should be pre-read
817 (if they haven't been read already) so that the updated blocks
818 can be written out properly.
820 The filesystem must return the locked pagecache page for the
821 specified offset, in ``*pagep``, for the caller to write into.
823 It must be able to cope with short writes (where the length
824 passed to write_begin is greater than the number of bytes copied
827 flags is a field for AOP_FLAG_xxx flags, described in
830 A void * may be returned in fsdata, which then gets passed into
833 Returns 0 on success; < 0 on failure (which is the error code),
834 in which case write_end is not called.
837 After a successful write_begin, and data copy, write_end must be
838 called. len is the original len passed to write_begin, and
839 copied is the amount that was able to be copied.
841 The filesystem must take care of unlocking the page and
842 releasing it refcount, and updating i_size.
844 Returns < 0 on failure, otherwise the number of bytes (<=
845 'copied') that were able to be copied into pagecache.
848 called by the VFS to map a logical block offset within object to
849 physical block number. This method is used by the FIBMAP ioctl
850 and for working with swap-files. To be able to swap to a file,
851 the file must have a stable mapping to a block device. The swap
852 system does not go through the filesystem but instead uses bmap
853 to find out where the blocks in the file are and uses those
857 If a page has PagePrivate set, then invalidatepage will be
858 called when part or all of the page is to be removed from the
859 address space. This generally corresponds to either a
860 truncation, punch hole or a complete invalidation of the address
861 space (in the latter case 'offset' will always be 0 and 'length'
862 will be PAGE_SIZE). Any private data associated with the page
863 should be updated to reflect this truncation. If offset is 0
864 and length is PAGE_SIZE, then the private data should be
865 released, because the page must be able to be completely
866 discarded. This may be done by calling the ->releasepage
867 function, but in this case the release MUST succeed.
870 releasepage is called on PagePrivate pages to indicate that the
871 page should be freed if possible. ->releasepage should remove
872 any private data from the page and clear the PagePrivate flag.
873 If releasepage() fails for some reason, it must indicate failure
874 with a 0 return value. releasepage() is used in two distinct
875 though related cases. The first is when the VM finds a clean
876 page with no active users and wants to make it a free page. If
877 ->releasepage succeeds, the page will be removed from the
878 address_space and become free.
880 The second case is when a request has been made to invalidate
881 some or all pages in an address_space. This can happen through
882 the fadvise(POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED) system call or by the
883 filesystem explicitly requesting it as nfs and 9fs do (when they
884 believe the cache may be out of date with storage) by calling
885 invalidate_inode_pages2(). If the filesystem makes such a call,
886 and needs to be certain that all pages are invalidated, then its
887 releasepage will need to ensure this. Possibly it can clear the
888 PageUptodate bit if it cannot free private data yet.
891 freepage is called once the page is no longer visible in the
892 page cache in order to allow the cleanup of any private data.
893 Since it may be called by the memory reclaimer, it should not
894 assume that the original address_space mapping still exists, and
898 called by the generic read/write routines to perform direct_IO -
899 that is IO requests which bypass the page cache and transfer
900 data directly between the storage and the application's address
904 Called by the VM when isolating a movable non-lru page. If page
905 is successfully isolated, VM marks the page as PG_isolated via
909 This is used to compact the physical memory usage. If the VM
910 wants to relocate a page (maybe off a memory card that is
911 signalling imminent failure) it will pass a new page and an old
912 page to this function. migrate_page should transfer any private
913 data across and update any references that it has to the page.
916 Called by the VM when isolated page's migration fails.
919 Called before freeing a page - it writes back the dirty page.
920 To prevent redirtying the page, it is kept locked during the
923 ``is_partially_uptodate``
924 Called by the VM when reading a file through the pagecache when
925 the underlying blocksize != pagesize. If the required block is
926 up to date then the read can complete without needing the IO to
927 bring the whole page up to date.
929 ``is_dirty_writeback``
930 Called by the VM when attempting to reclaim a page. The VM uses
931 dirty and writeback information to determine if it needs to
932 stall to allow flushers a chance to complete some IO.
933 Ordinarily it can use PageDirty and PageWriteback but some
934 filesystems have more complex state (unstable pages in NFS
935 prevent reclaim) or do not set those flags due to locking
936 problems. This callback allows a filesystem to indicate to the
937 VM if a page should be treated as dirty or writeback for the
938 purposes of stalling.
940 ``error_remove_page``
941 normally set to generic_error_remove_page if truncation is ok
942 for this address space. Used for memory failure handling.
943 Setting this implies you deal with pages going away under you,
944 unless you have them locked or reference counts increased.
947 Called when swapon is used on a file to allocate space if
948 necessary and pin the block lookup information in memory. A
949 return value of zero indicates success, in which case this file
950 can be used to back swapspace.
953 Called during swapoff on files where swap_activate was
960 A file object represents a file opened by a process. This is also known
961 as an "open file description" in POSIX parlance.
964 struct file_operations
965 ----------------------
967 This describes how the VFS can manipulate an open file. As of kernel
968 4.18, the following members are defined:
972 struct file_operations {
973 struct module *owner;
974 loff_t (*llseek) (struct file *, loff_t, int);
975 ssize_t (*read) (struct file *, char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);
976 ssize_t (*write) (struct file *, const char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);
977 ssize_t (*read_iter) (struct kiocb *, struct iov_iter *);
978 ssize_t (*write_iter) (struct kiocb *, struct iov_iter *);
979 int (*iopoll)(struct kiocb *kiocb, bool spin);
980 int (*iterate) (struct file *, struct dir_context *);
981 int (*iterate_shared) (struct file *, struct dir_context *);
982 __poll_t (*poll) (struct file *, struct poll_table_struct *);
983 long (*unlocked_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
984 long (*compat_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
985 int (*mmap) (struct file *, struct vm_area_struct *);
986 int (*open) (struct inode *, struct file *);
987 int (*flush) (struct file *, fl_owner_t id);
988 int (*release) (struct inode *, struct file *);
989 int (*fsync) (struct file *, loff_t, loff_t, int datasync);
990 int (*fasync) (int, struct file *, int);
991 int (*lock) (struct file *, int, struct file_lock *);
992 ssize_t (*sendpage) (struct file *, struct page *, int, size_t, loff_t *, int);
993 unsigned long (*get_unmapped_area)(struct file *, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long);
994 int (*check_flags)(int);
995 int (*flock) (struct file *, int, struct file_lock *);
996 ssize_t (*splice_write)(struct pipe_inode_info *, struct file *, loff_t *, size_t, unsigned int);
997 ssize_t (*splice_read)(struct file *, loff_t *, struct pipe_inode_info *, size_t, unsigned int);
998 int (*setlease)(struct file *, long, struct file_lock **, void **);
999 long (*fallocate)(struct file *file, int mode, loff_t offset,
1001 void (*show_fdinfo)(struct seq_file *m, struct file *f);
1003 unsigned (*mmap_capabilities)(struct file *);
1005 ssize_t (*copy_file_range)(struct file *, loff_t, struct file *, loff_t, size_t, unsigned int);
1006 loff_t (*remap_file_range)(struct file *file_in, loff_t pos_in,
1007 struct file *file_out, loff_t pos_out,
1008 loff_t len, unsigned int remap_flags);
1009 int (*fadvise)(struct file *, loff_t, loff_t, int);
1012 Again, all methods are called without any locks being held, unless
1016 called when the VFS needs to move the file position index
1019 called by read(2) and related system calls
1022 possibly asynchronous read with iov_iter as destination
1025 called by write(2) and related system calls
1028 possibly asynchronous write with iov_iter as source
1031 called when aio wants to poll for completions on HIPRI iocbs
1034 called when the VFS needs to read the directory contents
1037 called when the VFS needs to read the directory contents when
1038 filesystem supports concurrent dir iterators
1041 called by the VFS when a process wants to check if there is
1042 activity on this file and (optionally) go to sleep until there
1043 is activity. Called by the select(2) and poll(2) system calls
1046 called by the ioctl(2) system call.
1049 called by the ioctl(2) system call when 32 bit system calls are
1050 used on 64 bit kernels.
1053 called by the mmap(2) system call
1056 called by the VFS when an inode should be opened. When the VFS
1057 opens a file, it creates a new "struct file". It then calls the
1058 open method for the newly allocated file structure. You might
1059 think that the open method really belongs in "struct
1060 inode_operations", and you may be right. I think it's done the
1061 way it is because it makes filesystems simpler to implement.
1062 The open() method is a good place to initialize the
1063 "private_data" member in the file structure if you want to point
1064 to a device structure
1067 called by the close(2) system call to flush a file
1070 called when the last reference to an open file is closed
1073 called by the fsync(2) system call. Also see the section above
1074 entitled "Handling errors during writeback".
1077 called by the fcntl(2) system call when asynchronous
1078 (non-blocking) mode is enabled for a file
1081 called by the fcntl(2) system call for F_GETLK, F_SETLK, and
1084 ``get_unmapped_area``
1085 called by the mmap(2) system call
1088 called by the fcntl(2) system call for F_SETFL command
1091 called by the flock(2) system call
1094 called by the VFS to splice data from a pipe to a file. This
1095 method is used by the splice(2) system call
1098 called by the VFS to splice data from file to a pipe. This
1099 method is used by the splice(2) system call
1102 called by the VFS to set or release a file lock lease. setlease
1103 implementations should call generic_setlease to record or remove
1104 the lease in the inode after setting it.
1107 called by the VFS to preallocate blocks or punch a hole.
1110 called by the copy_file_range(2) system call.
1112 ``remap_file_range``
1113 called by the ioctl(2) system call for FICLONERANGE and FICLONE
1114 and FIDEDUPERANGE commands to remap file ranges. An
1115 implementation should remap len bytes at pos_in of the source
1116 file into the dest file at pos_out. Implementations must handle
1117 callers passing in len == 0; this means "remap to the end of the
1118 source file". The return value should the number of bytes
1119 remapped, or the usual negative error code if errors occurred
1120 before any bytes were remapped. The remap_flags parameter
1121 accepts REMAP_FILE_* flags. If REMAP_FILE_DEDUP is set then the
1122 implementation must only remap if the requested file ranges have
1123 identical contents. If REMAP_FILE_CAN_SHORTEN is set, the caller is
1124 ok with the implementation shortening the request length to
1125 satisfy alignment or EOF requirements (or any other reason).
1128 possibly called by the fadvise64() system call.
1130 Note that the file operations are implemented by the specific
1131 filesystem in which the inode resides. When opening a device node
1132 (character or block special) most filesystems will call special
1133 support routines in the VFS which will locate the required device
1134 driver information. These support routines replace the filesystem file
1135 operations with those for the device driver, and then proceed to call
1136 the new open() method for the file. This is how opening a device file
1137 in the filesystem eventually ends up calling the device driver open()
1141 Directory Entry Cache (dcache)
1142 ==============================
1145 struct dentry_operations
1146 ------------------------
1148 This describes how a filesystem can overload the standard dentry
1149 operations. Dentries and the dcache are the domain of the VFS and the
1150 individual filesystem implementations. Device drivers have no business
1151 here. These methods may be set to NULL, as they are either optional or
1152 the VFS uses a default. As of kernel 2.6.22, the following members are
1157 struct dentry_operations {
1158 int (*d_revalidate)(struct dentry *, unsigned int);
1159 int (*d_weak_revalidate)(struct dentry *, unsigned int);
1160 int (*d_hash)(const struct dentry *, struct qstr *);
1161 int (*d_compare)(const struct dentry *,
1162 unsigned int, const char *, const struct qstr *);
1163 int (*d_delete)(const struct dentry *);
1164 int (*d_init)(struct dentry *);
1165 void (*d_release)(struct dentry *);
1166 void (*d_iput)(struct dentry *, struct inode *);
1167 char *(*d_dname)(struct dentry *, char *, int);
1168 struct vfsmount *(*d_automount)(struct path *);
1169 int (*d_manage)(const struct path *, bool);
1170 struct dentry *(*d_real)(struct dentry *, const struct inode *);
1174 called when the VFS needs to revalidate a dentry. This is
1175 called whenever a name look-up finds a dentry in the dcache.
1176 Most local filesystems leave this as NULL, because all their
1177 dentries in the dcache are valid. Network filesystems are
1178 different since things can change on the server without the
1179 client necessarily being aware of it.
1181 This function should return a positive value if the dentry is
1182 still valid, and zero or a negative error code if it isn't.
1184 d_revalidate may be called in rcu-walk mode (flags &
1185 LOOKUP_RCU). If in rcu-walk mode, the filesystem must
1186 revalidate the dentry without blocking or storing to the dentry,
1187 d_parent and d_inode should not be used without care (because
1188 they can change and, in d_inode case, even become NULL under
1191 If a situation is encountered that rcu-walk cannot handle,
1193 -ECHILD and it will be called again in ref-walk mode.
1195 ``_weak_revalidate``
1196 called when the VFS needs to revalidate a "jumped" dentry. This
1197 is called when a path-walk ends at dentry that was not acquired
1198 by doing a lookup in the parent directory. This includes "/",
1199 "." and "..", as well as procfs-style symlinks and mountpoint
1202 In this case, we are less concerned with whether the dentry is
1203 still fully correct, but rather that the inode is still valid.
1204 As with d_revalidate, most local filesystems will set this to
1205 NULL since their dcache entries are always valid.
1207 This function has the same return code semantics as
1210 d_weak_revalidate is only called after leaving rcu-walk mode.
1213 called when the VFS adds a dentry to the hash table. The first
1214 dentry passed to d_hash is the parent directory that the name is
1217 Same locking and synchronisation rules as d_compare regarding
1218 what is safe to dereference etc.
1221 called to compare a dentry name with a given name. The first
1222 dentry is the parent of the dentry to be compared, the second is
1223 the child dentry. len and name string are properties of the
1224 dentry to be compared. qstr is the name to compare it with.
1226 Must be constant and idempotent, and should not take locks if
1227 possible, and should not or store into the dentry. Should not
1228 dereference pointers outside the dentry without lots of care
1229 (eg. d_parent, d_inode, d_name should not be used).
1231 However, our vfsmount is pinned, and RCU held, so the dentries
1232 and inodes won't disappear, neither will our sb or filesystem
1233 module. ->d_sb may be used.
1235 It is a tricky calling convention because it needs to be called
1236 under "rcu-walk", ie. without any locks or references on things.
1239 called when the last reference to a dentry is dropped and the
1240 dcache is deciding whether or not to cache it. Return 1 to
1241 delete immediately, or 0 to cache the dentry. Default is NULL
1242 which means to always cache a reachable dentry. d_delete must
1243 be constant and idempotent.
1246 called when a dentry is allocated
1249 called when a dentry is really deallocated
1252 called when a dentry loses its inode (just prior to its being
1253 deallocated). The default when this is NULL is that the VFS
1254 calls iput(). If you define this method, you must call iput()
1258 called when the pathname of a dentry should be generated.
1259 Useful for some pseudo filesystems (sockfs, pipefs, ...) to
1260 delay pathname generation. (Instead of doing it when dentry is
1261 created, it's done only when the path is needed.). Real
1262 filesystems probably dont want to use it, because their dentries
1263 are present in global dcache hash, so their hash should be an
1264 invariant. As no lock is held, d_dname() should not try to
1265 modify the dentry itself, unless appropriate SMP safety is used.
1266 CAUTION : d_path() logic is quite tricky. The correct way to
1267 return for example "Hello" is to put it at the end of the
1268 buffer, and returns a pointer to the first char.
1269 dynamic_dname() helper function is provided to take care of
1276 static char *pipefs_dname(struct dentry *dent, char *buffer, int buflen)
1278 return dynamic_dname(dentry, buffer, buflen, "pipe:[%lu]",
1279 dentry->d_inode->i_ino);
1283 called when an automount dentry is to be traversed (optional).
1284 This should create a new VFS mount record and return the record
1285 to the caller. The caller is supplied with a path parameter
1286 giving the automount directory to describe the automount target
1287 and the parent VFS mount record to provide inheritable mount
1288 parameters. NULL should be returned if someone else managed to
1289 make the automount first. If the vfsmount creation failed, then
1290 an error code should be returned. If -EISDIR is returned, then
1291 the directory will be treated as an ordinary directory and
1292 returned to pathwalk to continue walking.
1294 If a vfsmount is returned, the caller will attempt to mount it
1295 on the mountpoint and will remove the vfsmount from its
1296 expiration list in the case of failure. The vfsmount should be
1297 returned with 2 refs on it to prevent automatic expiration - the
1298 caller will clean up the additional ref.
1300 This function is only used if DCACHE_NEED_AUTOMOUNT is set on
1301 the dentry. This is set by __d_instantiate() if S_AUTOMOUNT is
1302 set on the inode being added.
1305 called to allow the filesystem to manage the transition from a
1306 dentry (optional). This allows autofs, for example, to hold up
1307 clients waiting to explore behind a 'mountpoint' while letting
1308 the daemon go past and construct the subtree there. 0 should be
1309 returned to let the calling process continue. -EISDIR can be
1310 returned to tell pathwalk to use this directory as an ordinary
1311 directory and to ignore anything mounted on it and not to check
1312 the automount flag. Any other error code will abort pathwalk
1315 If the 'rcu_walk' parameter is true, then the caller is doing a
1316 pathwalk in RCU-walk mode. Sleeping is not permitted in this
1317 mode, and the caller can be asked to leave it and call again by
1318 returning -ECHILD. -EISDIR may also be returned to tell
1319 pathwalk to ignore d_automount or any mounts.
1321 This function is only used if DCACHE_MANAGE_TRANSIT is set on
1322 the dentry being transited from.
1325 overlay/union type filesystems implement this method to return
1326 one of the underlying dentries hidden by the overlay. It is
1327 used in two different modes:
1329 Called from file_dentry() it returns the real dentry matching
1330 the inode argument. The real dentry may be from a lower layer
1331 already copied up, but still referenced from the file. This
1332 mode is selected with a non-NULL inode argument.
1334 With NULL inode the topmost real underlying dentry is returned.
1336 Each dentry has a pointer to its parent dentry, as well as a hash list
1337 of child dentries. Child dentries are basically like files in a
1341 Directory Entry Cache API
1342 --------------------------
1344 There are a number of functions defined which permit a filesystem to
1345 manipulate dentries:
1348 open a new handle for an existing dentry (this just increments
1352 close a handle for a dentry (decrements the usage count). If
1353 the usage count drops to 0, and the dentry is still in its
1354 parent's hash, the "d_delete" method is called to check whether
1355 it should be cached. If it should not be cached, or if the
1356 dentry is not hashed, it is deleted. Otherwise cached dentries
1357 are put into an LRU list to be reclaimed on memory shortage.
1360 this unhashes a dentry from its parents hash list. A subsequent
1361 call to dput() will deallocate the dentry if its usage count
1365 delete a dentry. If there are no other open references to the
1366 dentry then the dentry is turned into a negative dentry (the
1367 d_iput() method is called). If there are other references, then
1368 d_drop() is called instead
1371 add a dentry to its parents hash list and then calls
1375 add a dentry to the alias hash list for the inode and updates
1376 the "d_inode" member. The "i_count" member in the inode
1377 structure should be set/incremented. If the inode pointer is
1378 NULL, the dentry is called a "negative dentry". This function
1379 is commonly called when an inode is created for an existing
1383 look up a dentry given its parent and path name component It
1384 looks up the child of that given name from the dcache hash
1385 table. If it is found, the reference count is incremented and
1386 the dentry is returned. The caller must use dput() to free the
1387 dentry when it finishes using it.
1397 On mount and remount the filesystem is passed a string containing a
1398 comma separated list of mount options. The options can have either of
1404 The <linux/parser.h> header defines an API that helps parse these
1405 options. There are plenty of examples on how to use it in existing
1412 If a filesystem accepts mount options, it must define show_options() to
1413 show all the currently active options. The rules are:
1415 - options MUST be shown which are not default or their values differ
1418 - options MAY be shown which are enabled by default or have their
1421 Options used only internally between a mount helper and the kernel (such
1422 as file descriptors), or which only have an effect during the mounting
1423 (such as ones controlling the creation of a journal) are exempt from the
1426 The underlying reason for the above rules is to make sure, that a mount
1427 can be accurately replicated (e.g. umounting and mounting again) based
1428 on the information found in /proc/mounts.
1434 (Note some of these resources are not up-to-date with the latest kernel
1437 Creating Linux virtual filesystems. 2002
1438 <https://lwn.net/Articles/13325/>
1440 The Linux Virtual File-system Layer by Neil Brown. 1999
1441 <http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~neilb/oss/linux-commentary/vfs.html>
1443 A tour of the Linux VFS by Michael K. Johnson. 1996
1444 <https://www.tldp.org/LDP/khg/HyperNews/get/fs/vfstour.html>
1446 A small trail through the Linux kernel by Andries Brouwer. 2001
1447 <https://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/vfs/trail.html>