Re: [PATCH v13 0/7] ntfs: fix volume flag races and persist the recorded error state

[Namjae Jeon]

On Tue, Sep 15, 2026 at 5:33 PM Hongling Zeng <zenghongling@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> The fs/ntfs runtime metadata-corruption paths only record the in-memory
> NVolErrors() flag, and the dirty-bit persistence used to race with
> ntfs_sync_fs(): a volume could end up with a clean on-disk dirty flag
> despite modification or recorded corruption, so chkdsk would not run on
> the next mount.  This series fixes that.
>
>    1/6 makes the volume flag read-modify-write atomic under the
>       $Volume mrec_lock;
>    2/6 marks the volume dirty unconditionally on metadata changes,
>       dropping the racy caller-side checks in file.c and namei.c;
>    3/6 derives the on-disk dirty bit from the recorded error state at
>       the persistence points (sync_fs, remount-ro, put_super) and never
>       writes a hibernated volume;
>    4/6 persists the dirty state after the final put_super() commits so
>       late errors cannot unmount clean;
>    5/6 stops ntfs_sync_fs() from clearing VOLUME_IS_DIRTY: the clearing
>       moves to the quiescent transitions, a recorded error state is
>       still persisted at sync time, and sync now reports writeback and
>       flush errors instead of discarding them;
>    6/6 checks the dirty-state commit on remount and unmount.
>    7/7 ntfs: fail remount on sync errors and keep the dirty bit on
>       SB_FORCE
>
> Changes in this revision, from the review:
>
>   - 5/6: with the clearing gone from the sync path, a recorded error
>     state is persisted without ever clearing the bit, and
>     sync_blockdev() and blkdev_issue_flush() are both called with the
>     first error returned.
>
>   - The IOCB_NOWAIT behavior and the per-operation $Volume mrec_lock
>     acquisition are outside the scope of this series.  The series keeps
>     the unconditional ntfs_set_volume_flags() call to preserve the
>     ordering that marks the volume dirty before the metadata
>     modification; a RWF_NOWAIT write still blocks in the marking when
>     the volume looks clean, as it already did on the base.  The
>     non-blocking and contended-lock handling (mutex_trylock, GFP_NOWAIT)
>     will be addressed in a separate follow-up patch.
>
> Hongling Zeng (4):
>   ntfs: fix volume flag update races
>   ntfs: set the volume dirty bit unconditionally on metadata changes
>   ntfs: sync the volume dirty bit with the recorded error state
>   ntfs: persist the dirty state after the final put_super() commits
Applied them to #ntfs-next.
Thanks!