[PATCH 3/3] fs/namei.c: update kerneldoc of atomic_open()

From: Jori Koolstra

Date: Fri Jul 10 2026 - 12:46:06 EST


The comments above atomic_open() contain several errors:

- atomic_open() does not return 0 if successful
- @path is not updated

Fix those and be more explicit about when FMODE_OPENED and FMODE_CREATED
are set. Change to a full kerneldoc.

Signed-off-by: Jori Koolstra <jkoolstra@xxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/namei.c | 32 ++++++++++++++++++++------------
1 file changed, 20 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/namei.c b/fs/namei.c
index fe5d59c6f925..2eef2a49d3f4 100644
--- a/fs/namei.c
+++ b/fs/namei.c
@@ -4336,18 +4336,26 @@ static int may_o_create(struct mnt_idmap *idmap,
return security_inode_create(dir->dentry->d_inode, dentry, mode);
}

-/*
- * Attempt to atomically look up, create and open a file from a negative
- * dentry.
- *
- * Returns 0 if successful. The file will have been created and attached to
- * @file by the filesystem calling finish_open().
- *
- * If the file was looked up only or didn't need creating, FMODE_OPENED won't
- * be set. The caller will need to perform the open themselves. @path will
- * have been updated to point to the new dentry. This may be negative.
- *
- * Returns an error code otherwise.
+/**
+ * atomic_open() - attempt to atomically look up, create and open a file
+ * from a negative dentry.
+ * @path: parent directory path
+ * @dentry: child to ->atomic_open()
+ * @file: file to attach child to
+ * @open_flag: open flags
+ * @mode: create mode
+ * @create_error: return value from may_o_create()
+ *
+ * If a non-error dentry is returned then: when FMODE_OPENED is set,
+ * the file will have been attached to @file by the filesystem calling
+ * finish_open(). If FMODE_OPENED isn't set, the filesystem instead called
+ * finish_no_open() and the caller will need to perform the open themselves.
+ *
+ * FMODE_CREATED is set when the call to ->atomic_open() actually created
+ * the file.
+ *
+ * Returns the opened/looked-up dentry on success or ERR_PTR(-E) on failure.
+ * On error, atomic_open() consumes @dentry.
*/
static struct dentry *atomic_open(const struct path *path, struct dentry *dentry,
struct file *file,
--
2.55.0