[PATCH 08/10] ufs: refuse read-write mount when fsck or journal replay is needed

From: Ali Ahmet Memis

Date: Sat Aug 01 2026 - 19:00:41 EST


FS_NEEDSFSCK, FS_SUJ and FS_GJOURNAL live in the 32 bit fs_flags of the
modern superblock, which Linux has never read. A UFS2 filesystem that
FreeBSD marked as needing a foreground fsck, or that carries soft
updates journalling or a GEOM journal, therefore mounts read-write here
and is written to with the pending recovery work still outstanding.

FreeBSD itself will not do this. ffs_mountfs() only accepts an unclean
filesystem when neither flag is set:

(fs->fs_flags & (FS_SUJ | FS_NEEDSFSCK)) == 0 &&
(fs->fs_flags & FS_DOSOFTDEP)

and otherwise refuses with "Filesystem is not clean - run fsck".

Linux has no journal replay for either journal and no way to run the
recovery, so the only safe thing it can do is stay read-only. Check the
flags on mount and on remount read-write.

Only UFS2 is examined. On older layouts the same offset is scratch space
that may hold anything, and misreading it would wrongly refuse
filesystems that are perfectly fine.

Signed-off-by: Ali Ahmet Memis <ali@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/ufs/super.c | 33 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
1 file changed, 31 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/ufs/super.c b/fs/ufs/super.c
index 4b0e9196fa41..df95502e039e 100644
--- a/fs/ufs/super.c
+++ b/fs/ufs/super.c
@@ -767,6 +767,34 @@ static bool ufs_state_allows_write(struct super_block *sb)
}
}

+/*
+ * Refuse to write to a filesystem using features we do not implement.
+ * Only UFS2 is examined: the 32 bit fs_flags lives in the modern part of
+ * the superblock, which older layouts leave as scratch space.
+ */
+static bool ufs_features_allow_write(struct super_block *sb)
+{
+ struct ufs_sb_private_info *uspi = UFS_SB(sb)->s_uspi;
+ struct ufs_super_block_third *usb3 = ubh_get_usb_third(uspi);
+ u32 fsflags;
+
+ if (uspi->fs_magic != UFS2_MAGIC)
+ return true;
+
+ fsflags = fs32_to_cpu(sb, usb3->fs_un2.fs_44.fs_flags);
+
+ if (fsflags & UFS_FS_NEEDSFSCK) {
+ pr_err("%s(): fs is marked as needing fsck\n", __func__);
+ return false;
+ }
+ if (fsflags & (UFS_FS_SUJ | UFS_FS_GJOURNAL)) {
+ pr_err("%s(): journalled fs, journal replay is not supported\n",
+ __func__);
+ return false;
+ }
+ return true;
+}
+
static int ufs_fill_super(struct super_block *sb, struct fs_context *fc)
{
struct ufs_fs_context *ctx = fc->fs_private;
@@ -1103,7 +1131,7 @@ static int ufs_fill_super(struct super_block *sb, struct fs_context *fc)
* Check, if file system was correctly unmounted.
* If not, make it read only.
*/
- if (!ufs_state_allows_write(sb))
+ if (!ufs_state_allows_write(sb) || !ufs_features_allow_write(sb))
sb->s_flags |= SB_RDONLY;

/*
@@ -1310,7 +1338,8 @@ static int ufs_reconfigure(struct fs_context *fc)
mutex_unlock(&UFS_SB(sb)->s_lock);
return -EINVAL;
}
- if (!ufs_state_allows_write(sb)) {
+ if (!ufs_state_allows_write(sb) ||
+ !ufs_features_allow_write(sb)) {
mutex_unlock(&UFS_SB(sb)->s_lock);
return -EROFS;
}
--
2.55.0