lock i_mutex for fallocate?

From: Allison Henderson
Date: Wed Aug 31 2011 - 20:33:50 EST


Hi All,

In ext4 punch hole, we realized that the punch hole operation needs to be done under i_mutex just like truncate. i_mutex for truncate is held in the vfs layer, so we dont need to lock it at the file system layer, but vfs does not lock i_mutex for fallocate. We can lock i_mutex for fallocate at the fs layer, but question was raised then: should i_mutex for fallocate be held in the vfs layer instead? I do not know if other file systems need i_mutex to be locked for fallocate, or if they might be locking it already, so I am doing some investigating on this idea, and also the appropriate use of i_mutex in general. Can someone provide some insight this topic? Thx!

Allison Henderson
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