c/ Helper routines to allocate anonymous dentries, and to help attach
loose directory dentries at lookup time. They are:
- d_alloc_anon(inode) will return a dentry for the given inode.
+ d_obtain_alias(inode) will return a dentry for the given inode.
If the inode already has a dentry, one of those is returned.
If it doesn't, a new anonymous (IS_ROOT and
DCACHE_DISCONNECTED) dentry is allocated and attached.
In the case of a directory, care is taken that only one dentry
can ever be attached.
- d_splice_alias(inode, dentry) will make sure that there is a
- dentry with the same name and parent as the given dentry, and
- which refers to the given inode.
- If the inode is a directory and already has a dentry, then that
- dentry is d_moved over the given dentry.
- If the passed dentry gets attached, care is taken that this is
- mutually exclusive to a d_alloc_anon operation.
- If the passed dentry is used, NULL is returned, else the used
- dentry is returned. This corresponds to the calling pattern of
- ->lookup.
-
+ d_splice_alias(inode, dentry) or d_materialise_unique(dentry, inode)
+ will introduce a new dentry into the tree; either the passed-in
+ dentry or a preexisting alias for the given inode (such as an
+ anonymous one created by d_obtain_alias), if appropriate. The two
+ functions differ in their handling of directories with preexisting
+ aliases:
+ d_splice_alias will use any existing IS_ROOT dentry, but it will
+ return -EIO rather than try to move a dentry with a different
+ parent. This is appropriate for local filesystems, which
+ should never see such an alias unless the filesystem is
+ corrupted somehow (for example, if two on-disk directory
+ entries refer to the same directory.)
+ d_materialise_unique will attempt to move any dentry. This is
+ appropriate for distributed filesystems, where finding a
+ directory other than where we last cached it may be a normal
+ consequence of concurrent operations on other hosts.
+ Both functions return NULL when the passed-in dentry is used,
+ following the calling convention of ->lookup.
+
Filesystem Issues
-----------------
fh_to_dentry (mandatory)
Given a filehandle fragment, this should find the implied object and
- create a dentry for it (possibly with d_alloc_anon).
+ create a dentry for it (possibly with d_obtain_alias).
fh_to_parent (optional but strongly recommended)
Given a filehandle fragment, this should find the parent of the
- implied object and create a dentry for it (possibly with d_alloc_anon).
- May fail if the filehandle fragment is too small.
+ implied object and create a dentry for it (possibly with
+ d_obtain_alias). May fail if the filehandle fragment is too small.
get_parent (optional but strongly recommended)
When given a dentry for a directory, this should return a dentry for