[PATCH v2 01/19] fs: new API for handling inode->i_version

[Jeff Layton]

From: Jeff Layton <jlayton@xxxxxxxxxx>

Add a documentation blob that explains what the i_version field is, how
it is expected to work, and how it is currently implemented by various
filesystems.

We already have inode_inc_iversion. Add several other functions for
manipulating and accessing the i_version counter. For now, the
implementation is trivial and basically works the way that all of the
open-coded i_version accesses work today.

Future patches will convert existing users of i_version to use the new
API, and then convert the backend implementation to do things more
efficiently.

Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
 include/linux/fs.h | 200 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---
 1 file changed, 192 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/fs.h b/include/linux/fs.h
index 511fbaabf624..5001e77342fd 100644
--- a/include/linux/fs.h
+++ b/include/linux/fs.h
@@ -2036,19 +2036,203 @@ static inline void inode_dec_link_count(struct inode *inode)
 	mark_inode_dirty(inode);
 }
 
+/*
+ * The change attribute (i_version) is mandated by NFSv4 and is mostly for
+ * knfsd, but is also used for other purposes (e.g. IMA). The i_version must
+ * appear different to observers if there was a change to the inode's data or
+ * metadata since it was last queried.
+ *
+ * It should be considered an opaque value by observers. If it remains the same
+ * since it was last checked, then nothing has changed in the inode. If it's
+ * different then something has changed. Observers cannot infer anything about
+ * the nature or magnitude of the changes from the value, only that the inode
+ * has changed in some fashion.
+ *
+ * Not all filesystems properly implement the i_version counter. Subsystems that
+ * want to use i_version field on an inode should first check whether the
+ * filesystem sets the SB_I_VERSION flag (usually via the IS_I_VERSION macro).
+ *
+ * Those that set SB_I_VERSION will automatically have their i_version counter
+ * incremented on writes to normal files. If the SB_I_VERSION is not set, then
+ * the VFS will not touch it on writes, and the filesystem can use it how it
+ * wishes. Note that the filesystem is always responsible for updating the
+ * i_version on namespace changes in directories (mkdir, rmdir, unlink, etc.).
+ * We consider these sorts of filesystems to have a kernel-managed i_version.
+ *
+ * Note that some filesystems (e.g. NFS and AFS) just use the field to store
+ * a server-provided value (for the most part). For that reason, those
+ * filesystems do not set SB_I_VERSION. These filesystems are considered to
+ * have a self-managed i_version.
+ */
+
+/**
+ * inode_set_iversion_raw - set i_version to the specified raw value
+ * @inode: inode to set
+ * @new: new i_version value to set
+ *
+ * Set @inode's i_version field to @new. This function is for use by
+ * filesystems that self-manage the i_version.
+ *
+ * For example, the NFS client stores its NFSv4 change attribute in this way,
+ * and the AFS client stores the data_version from the server here.
+ */
+static inline void
+inode_set_iversion_raw(struct inode *inode, const u64 new)
+{
+	inode->i_version = new;
+}
+
+/**
+ * inode_set_iversion - set i_version to a particular value
+ * @inode: inode to set
+ * @new: new i_version value to set
+ *
+ * Set @inode's i_version field to @new. This function is for filesystems with
+ * a kernel-managed i_version.
+ *
+ * For now, this just does the same thing as the _raw variant.
+ */
+static inline void
+inode_set_iversion(struct inode *inode, const u64 new)
+{
+	inode_set_iversion_raw(inode, new);
+}
+
+/**
+ * inode_set_iversion_queried - set i_version to a particular value and set
+ *                              flag to indicate that it has been viewed
+ * @inode: inode to set
+ * @new: new i_version value to set
+ *
+ * When loading in an i_version value from a backing store, we typically don't
+ * know whether it was previously viewed before being stored or not. Thus, we
+ * must assume that it was, to ensure that any changes will result in the
+ * value changing.
+ *
+ * This function will set the inode's i_version, and possibly flag the value
+ * as if it has already been viewed at least once.
+ *
+ * For now, this just does what inode_set_iversion does.
+ */
+static inline void
+inode_set_iversion_queried(struct inode *inode, const u64 new)
+{
+	inode_set_iversion(inode, new);
+}
+
+/**
+ * inode_maybe_inc_iversion - increments i_version
+ * @inode: inode with the i_version that should be updated
+ * @force: increment the counter even if it's not necessary
+ *
+ * Every time the inode is modified, the i_version field must be seen to have
+ * changed by any observer.
+ *
+ * In this implementation, we always increment it after taking the i_lock to
+ * ensure that we don't race with other incrementors.
+ *
+ * Returns true if counter was bumped, and false if it wasn't.
+ */
+static inline bool
+inode_maybe_inc_iversion(struct inode *inode, bool force)
+{
+	spin_lock(&inode->i_lock);
+	inode->i_version++;
+	spin_unlock(&inode->i_lock);
+	return true;
+}
+
+/**
+ * inode_inc_iversion - forcibly increment i_version
+ * @inode: inode that needs to be updated
+ *
+ * Forcbily increment the i_version field. This always results in a change to
+ * the observable value.
+ */
+static inline void
+inode_inc_iversion(struct inode *inode)
+{
+	inode_maybe_inc_iversion(inode, true);
+}
+
 /**
- * inode_inc_iversion - increments i_version
- * @inode: inode that need to be updated
+ * inode_iversion_need_inc - is the i_version in need of being incremented?
+ * @inode: inode to check
  *
- * Every time the inode is modified, the i_version field will be incremented.
- * The filesystem has to be mounted with i_version flag
+ * Returns whether the inode->i_version counter needs incrementing on the next
+ * change.
+ *
+ * For now, we assume that it always does.
  */
+static inline bool
+inode_iversion_need_inc(struct inode *inode)
+{
+	return true;
+}
 
-static inline void inode_inc_iversion(struct inode *inode)
+/**
+ * inode_peek_iversion_raw - grab a "raw" iversion value
+ * @inode: inode from which i_version should be read
+ *
+ * Grab a "raw" inode->i_version value and return it. The i_version is not
+ * flagged or converted in any way. This is mostly used to access a self-managed
+ * i_version.
+ *
+ * With those filesystems, we want to treat the i_version as an entirely
+ * opaque value.
+ */
+static inline u64
+inode_peek_iversion_raw(const struct inode *inode)
+{
+	return inode->i_version;
+}
+
+/**
+ * inode_peek_iversion - read i_version without flagging it to be incremented
+ * @inode: inode from which i_version should be read
+ *
+ * Read the inode i_version counter for an inode without registering it as a
+ * query.
+ *
+ * This is typically used by local filesystems that need to store an i_version
+ * on disk. In that situation, it's not necessary to flag it as having been
+ * viewed, as the result won't be used to gauge changes from that point.
+ */
+static inline u64
+inode_peek_iversion(const struct inode *inode)
+{
+	return inode_peek_iversion_raw(inode);
+}
+
+/**
+ * inode_query_iversion - read i_version for later use
+ * @inode: inode from which i_version should be read
+ *
+ * Read the inode i_version counter. This should be used by callers that wish
+ * to store the returned i_version for later comparison. This will guarantee
+ * that a later query of the i_version will result in a different value if
+ * anything has changed.
+ *
+ * This implementation just does a peek.
+ */
+static inline u64
+inode_query_iversion(struct inode *inode)
+{
+	return inode_peek_iversion(inode);
+}
+
+/**
+ * inode_cmp_iversion - check whether the i_version counter has changed
+ * @inode: inode to check
+ * @old: old value to check against its i_version
+ *
+ * Compare an i_version counter with a previous one. Returns 0 if they are
+ * the same or non-zero if they are different.
+ */
+static inline s64
+inode_cmp_iversion(const struct inode *inode, const u64 old)
 {
-       spin_lock(&inode->i_lock);
-       inode->i_version++;
-       spin_unlock(&inode->i_lock);
+	return (s64)inode_peek_iversion(inode) - (s64)old;
 }
 
 enum file_time_flags {
-- 
2.14.3