Re: [PATCH 1/2] Add manpages for move_mount(2) and open_tree(2)

[Michael Kerrisk (man-pages)]

Hello David,

I got a bunch of mail with man-pages patches from you,
but I think there's some confusion, since the mails I
got were:

[MANPAGE] fsopen.2, fsmount.2
[MANPAGE] fspick.2
[MANPAGE] fsconfig.2
[MANPAGE] open_tree.2
[MANPAGE] move_mount.2
[PATCH 1/2] Add manpages for move_mount(2) and open_tree(2)
[PATCH 2/2] Add manpage for fsopen(2), fspick(2) and fsmount(2)

There are two problems here:
(1) There's obviously some duplication in the mails,
so I don't know which ones to detail with.
(2) Some of the mails still provide two man pages in one mail.
This would make review very difficult.

Could you resend please? One patch per page (and no duplicates).

Also, I greatly appreciate you CCing linux-kernel@ and
linux-fsdevel@, so that there might be wider exposure for
review, but could you also CC linux-man@ please.

Thanks,

Michael

On 10/10/19 7:05 PM, David Howells wrote:
> Add manual pages to document the move_mount and open_tree() system calls.
> 
> Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> 
>  man2/move_mount.2 |  275 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  man2/open_tree.2  |  260 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>  2 files changed, 535 insertions(+)
>  create mode 100644 man2/move_mount.2
>  create mode 100644 man2/open_tree.2
> 
> diff --git a/man2/move_mount.2 b/man2/move_mount.2
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000..a9720ea6f
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/man2/move_mount.2
> @@ -0,0 +1,275 @@
> +'\" t
> +.\" Copyright (c) 2019 David Howells <dhowells@xxxxxxxxxx>
> +.\"
> +.\" %%%LICENSE_START(VERBATIM)
> +.\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
> +.\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
> +.\" preserved on all copies.
> +.\"
> +.\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
> +.\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
> +.\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
> +.\" permission notice identical to this one.
> +.\"
> +.\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this
> +.\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date.  The author(s) assume no
> +.\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
> +.\" the use of the information contained herein.  The author(s) may not
> +.\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual,
> +.\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working
> +.\" professionally.
> +.\"
> +.\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by
> +.\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work.
> +.\" %%%LICENSE_END
> +.\"
> +.TH MOVE_MOUNT 2 2019-10-10 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
> +.SH NAME
> +move_mount \- Move mount objects around the filesystem topology
> +.SH SYNOPSIS
> +.nf
> +.B #include <sys/types.h>
> +.br
> +.B #include <sys/mount.h>
> +.br
> +.B #include <unistd.h>
> +.br
> +.BR "#include <fcntl.h>           " "/* Definition of AT_* constants */"
> +.PP
> +.BI "int move_mount(int " from_dirfd ", const char *" from_pathname ","
> +.BI "               int " to_dirfd ", const char *" to_pathname ","
> +.BI "               unsigned int " flags );
> +.fi
> +.PP
> +.IR Note :
> +There is no glibc wrapper for this system call.
> +.SH DESCRIPTION
> +The
> +.BR move_mount ()
> +call moves a mount from one place to another; it can also be used to attach an
> +unattached mount created by
> +.BR fsmount "() or " open_tree "() with " OPEN_TREE_CLONE .
> +.PP
> +If
> +.BR move_mount ()
> +is called repeatedly with a file descriptor that refers to a mount object,
> +then the object will be attached/moved the first time and then moved again and
> +again and again, detaching it from the previous mountpoint each time.
> +.PP
> +To access the source mount object or the destination mountpoint, no
> +permissions are required on the object itself, but if either pathname is
> +supplied, execute (search) permission is required on all of the directories
> +specified in
> +.IR from_pathname " or " to_pathname .
> +.PP
> +The caller does, however, require the appropriate capabilities or permission
> +to effect a mount.
> +.PP
> +.BR move_mount ()
> +uses
> +.IR from_pathname ", " from_dirfd " and part of " flags
> +to locate the mount object to be moved and
> +.IR to_pathname ", " to_dirfd " and another part of " flags
> +to locate the destination mountpoint.  Each lookup can be done in one of a
> +variety of ways:
> +.TP
> +[*] By absolute path.
> +The pathname points to an absolute path and the dirfd is ignored.  The file is
> +looked up by name, starting from the root of the filesystem as seen by the
> +calling process.
> +.TP
> +[*] By cwd-relative path.
> +The pathname points to a relative path and the dirfd is
> +.IR AT_FDCWD .
> +The file is looked up by name, starting from the current working directory.
> +.TP
> +[*] By dir-relative path.
> +The pathname points to relative path and the dirfd indicates a file descriptor
> +pointing to a directory.  The file is looked up by name, starting from the
> +directory specified by
> +.IR dirfd .
> +.TP
> +[*] By file descriptor.
> +The pathname points to "", the dirfd points directly to the mount object to
> +move or the destination mount point and the appropriate
> +.B *_EMPTY_PATH
> +flag is set.
> +.PP
> +.I flags
> +can be used to influence a path-based lookup.  A value for
> +.I flags
> +is constructed by OR'ing together zero or more of the following constants:
> +.TP
> +.BR MOVE_MOUNT_F_EMPTY_PATH
> +.\" commit 65cfc6722361570bfe255698d9cd4dccaf47570d
> +If
> +.I from_pathname
> +is an empty string, operate on the file referred to by
> +.IR from_dirfd
> +(which may have been obtained using the
> +.BR open (2)
> +.B O_PATH
> +flag or
> +.BR open_tree ())
> +If
> +.I from_dirfd
> +is
> +.BR AT_FDCWD ,
> +the call operates on the current working directory.
> +In this case,
> +.I from_dirfd
> +can refer to any type of file, not just a directory.
> +This flag is Linux-specific; define
> +.B _GNU_SOURCE
> +.\" Before glibc 2.16, defining _ATFILE_SOURCE sufficed
> +to obtain its definition.
> +.TP
> +.B MOVE_MOUNT_T_EMPTY_PATH
> +As above, but operating on
> +.IR to_pathname " and " to_dirfd .
> +.TP
> +.B MOVE_MOUNT_F_NO_AUTOMOUNT
> +Don't automount the terminal ("basename") component of
> +.I from_pathname
> +if it is a directory that is an automount point.  This allows a mount object
> +that has an automount point at its root to be moved and prevents unintended
> +triggering of an automount point.
> +The
> +.B MOVE_MOUNT_F_NO_AUTOMOUNT
> +flag has no effect if the automount point has already been mounted over.  This
> +flag is Linux-specific; define
> +.B _GNU_SOURCE
> +.\" Before glibc 2.16, defining _ATFILE_SOURCE sufficed
> +to obtain its definition.
> +.TP
> +.B MOVE_MOUNT_T_NO_AUTOMOUNT
> +As above, but operating on
> +.IR to_pathname " and " to_dirfd .
> +This allows an automount point to be manually mounted over.
> +.TP
> +.B MOVE_MOUNT_F_SYMLINKS
> +If
> +.I from_pathname
> +is a symbolic link, then dereference it.  The default for
> +.BR move_mount ()
> +is to not follow symlinks.
> +.TP
> +.B MOVE_MOUNT_T_SYMLINKS
> +As above, but operating on
> +.IR to_pathname " and " to_dirfd .
> +
> +.SH EXAMPLES
> +The
> +.BR move_mount ()
> +function can be used like the following:
> +.PP
> +.RS
> +.nf
> +move_mount(AT_FDCWD, "/a", AT_FDCWD, "/b", 0);
> +.fi
> +.RE
> +.PP
> +This would move the object mounted on "/a" to "/b".  It can also be used in
> +conjunction with
> +.BR open_tree "(2) or " open "(2) with " O_PATH :
> +.PP
> +.RS
> +.nf
> +fd = open_tree(AT_FDCWD, "/mnt", 0);
> +move_mount(fd, "", AT_FDCWD, "/mnt2", MOVE_MOUNT_F_EMPTY_PATH);
> +move_mount(fd, "", AT_FDCWD, "/mnt3", MOVE_MOUNT_F_EMPTY_PATH);
> +move_mount(fd, "", AT_FDCWD, "/mnt4", MOVE_MOUNT_F_EMPTY_PATH);
> +.fi
> +.RE
> +.PP
> +This would attach the path point for "/mnt" to fd, then it would move the
> +mount to "/mnt2", then move it to "/mnt3" and finally to "/mnt4".
> +.PP
> +It can also be used to attach new mounts:
> +.PP
> +.RS
> +.nf
> +sfd = fsopen("ext4", FSOPEN_CLOEXEC);
> +fsconfig(sfd, FSCONFIG_SET_STRING, "source", "/dev/sda1", 0);
> +fsconfig(sfd, FSCONFIG_SET_FLAG, "user_xattr", NULL, 0);
> +fsconfig(sfd, FSCONFIG_CMD_CREATE, NULL, NULL, 0);
> +mfd = fsmount(sfd, FSMOUNT_CLOEXEC, MOUNT_ATTR_NODEV);
> +move_mount(mfd, "", AT_FDCWD, "/home", MOVE_MOUNT_F_EMPTY_PATH);
> +.fi
> +.RE
> +.PP
> +Which would open the Ext4 filesystem mounted on "/dev/sda1", turn on user
> +extended attribute support and create a mount object for it.  Finally, the new
> +mount object would be attached with
> +.BR move_mount ()
> +to "/home".
> +
> +
> +.\"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> +.\"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> +.\"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> +.SH RETURN VALUE
> +On success, 0 is returned.  On error, \-1 is returned, and
> +.I errno
> +is set appropriately.
> +.SH ERRORS
> +.TP
> +.B EACCES
> +Search permission is denied for one of the directories
> +in the path prefix of
> +.IR pathname .
> +(See also
> +.BR path_resolution (7).)
> +.TP
> +.B EBADF
> +.IR from_dirfd " or " to_dirfd
> +is not a valid open file descriptor.
> +.TP
> +.B EFAULT
> +.IR from_pathname " or " to_pathname
> +is NULL or either one point to a location outside the process's accessible
> +address space.
> +.TP
> +.B EINVAL
> +Reserved flag specified in
> +.IR flags .
> +.TP
> +.B ELOOP
> +Too many symbolic links encountered while traversing the pathname.
> +.TP
> +.B ENAMETOOLONG
> +.IR from_pathname " or " to_pathname
> +is too long.
> +.TP
> +.B ENOENT
> +A component of
> +.IR from_pathname " or " to_pathname
> +does not exist, or one is an empty string and the appropriate
> +.B *_EMPTY_PATH
> +was not specified in
> +.IR flags .
> +.TP
> +.B ENOMEM
> +Out of memory (i.e., kernel memory).
> +.TP
> +.B ENOTDIR
> +A component of the path prefix of
> +.IR from_pathname " or " to_pathname
> +is not a directory or one or the other is relative and the appropriate
> +.I *_dirfd
> +is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.
> +.SH VERSIONS
> +.BR move_mount ()
> +was added to Linux in kernel 4.18.
> +.SH CONFORMING TO
> +.BR move_mount ()
> +is Linux-specific.
> +.SH NOTES
> +Glibc does not (yet) provide a wrapper for the
> +.BR move_mount ()
> +system call; call it using
> +.BR syscall (2).
> +.SH SEE ALSO
> +.BR fsmount (2),
> +.BR fsopen (2),
> +.BR open_tree (2)
> diff --git a/man2/open_tree.2 b/man2/open_tree.2
> new file mode 100644
> index 000000000..cbebbfda8
> --- /dev/null
> +++ b/man2/open_tree.2
> @@ -0,0 +1,260 @@
> +'\" t
> +.\" Copyright (c) 2019 David Howells <dhowells@xxxxxxxxxx>
> +.\"
> +.\" %%%LICENSE_START(VERBATIM)
> +.\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
> +.\" manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
> +.\" preserved on all copies.
> +.\"
> +.\" Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this
> +.\" manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that the
> +.\" entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
> +.\" permission notice identical to this one.
> +.\"
> +.\" Since the Linux kernel and libraries are constantly changing, this
> +.\" manual page may be incorrect or out-of-date.  The author(s) assume no
> +.\" responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from
> +.\" the use of the information contained herein.  The author(s) may not
> +.\" have taken the same level of care in the production of this manual,
> +.\" which is licensed free of charge, as they might when working
> +.\" professionally.
> +.\"
> +.\" Formatted or processed versions of this manual, if unaccompanied by
> +.\" the source, must acknowledge the copyright and authors of this work.
> +.\" %%%LICENSE_END
> +.\"
> +.TH OPEN_TREE 2 2019-10-10 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
> +.SH NAME
> +open_tree \- Pick or clone mount object and attach to fd
> +.SH SYNOPSIS
> +.nf
> +.B #include <sys/types.h>
> +.br
> +.B #include <sys/mount.h>
> +.br
> +.B #include <unistd.h>
> +.br
> +.BR "#include <fcntl.h>           " "/* Definition of AT_* constants */"
> +.PP
> +.BI "int open_tree(int " dirfd ", const char *" pathname ", unsigned int " flags );
> +.fi
> +.PP
> +.IR Note :
> +There are no glibc wrappers for these system calls.
> +.SH DESCRIPTION
> +.BR open_tree ()
> +picks the mount object specified by the pathname and attaches it to a new file
> +descriptor or clones it and attaches the clone to the file descriptor.  The
> +resultant file descriptor is indistinguishable from one produced by
> +.BR open "(2) with " O_PATH .
> +.PP
> +In the case that the mount object is cloned, the clone will be "unmounted" and
> +destroyed when the file descriptor is closed if it is not otherwise mounted
> +somewhere by calling
> +.BR move_mount (2).
> +.PP
> +To select a mount object, no permissions are required on the object referred
> +to by the path, but execute (search) permission is required on all of the
> +directories in
> +.I pathname
> +that lead to the object.
> +.PP
> +To clone an object, however, the caller must have mount capabilities and
> +permissions.
> +.PP
> +.BR open_tree ()
> +uses
> +.IR pathname ", " dirfd " and " flags
> +to locate the target object in one of a variety of ways:
> +.TP
> +[*] By absolute path.
> +.I pathname
> +points to an absolute path and
> +.I dirfd
> +is ignored.  The object is looked up by name, starting from the root of the
> +filesystem as seen by the calling process.
> +.TP
> +[*] By cwd-relative path.
> +.I pathname
> +points to a relative path and
> +.IR dirfd " is " AT_FDCWD .
> +The object is looked up by name, starting from the current working directory.
> +.TP
> +[*] By dir-relative path.
> +.I pathname
> +points to relative path and
> +.I dirfd
> +indicates a file descriptor pointing to a directory.  The object is looked up
> +by name, starting from the directory specified by
> +.IR dirfd .
> +.TP
> +[*] By file descriptor.
> +.I pathname
> +is "",
> +.I dirfd
> +indicates a file descriptor and
> +.B AT_EMPTY_PATH
> +is set in
> +.IR flags .
> +The mount attached to the file descriptor is queried directly.  The file
> +descriptor may point to any type of file, not just a directory.
> +
> +.\"______________________________________________________________
> +.PP
> +.I flags
> +can be used to control the operation of the function and to influence a
> +path-based lookup.  A value for
> +.I flags
> +is constructed by OR'ing together zero or more of the following constants:
> +.TP
> +.BR AT_EMPTY_PATH
> +.\" commit 65cfc6722361570bfe255698d9cd4dccaf47570d
> +If
> +.I pathname
> +is an empty string, operate on the file referred to by
> +.IR dirfd
> +(which may have been obtained from
> +.BR open "(2) with"
> +.BR O_PATH ", from " fsmount (2)
> +or from another
> +.BR open_tree ()).
> +If
> +.I dirfd
> +is
> +.BR AT_FDCWD ,
> +the call operates on the current working directory.
> +In this case,
> +.I dirfd
> +can refer to any type of file, not just a directory.
> +This flag is Linux-specific; define
> +.B _GNU_SOURCE
> +.\" Before glibc 2.16, defining _ATFILE_SOURCE sufficed
> +to obtain its definition.
> +.TP
> +.BR AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT
> +Don't automount the terminal ("basename") component of
> +.I pathname
> +if it is a directory that is an automount point.  This flag allows the
> +automount point itself to be picked up or a mount cloned that is rooted on the
> +automount point.  The
> +.B AT_NO_AUTOMOUNT
> +flag has no effect if the mount point has already been mounted over.
> +This flag is Linux-specific; define
> +.B _GNU_SOURCE
> +.\" Before glibc 2.16, defining _ATFILE_SOURCE sufficed
> +to obtain its definition.
> +.TP
> +.B AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW
> +If
> +.I pathname
> +is a symbolic link, do not dereference it: instead pick up or clone a mount
> +rooted on the link itself.
> +.TP
> +.B OPEN_TREE_CLOEXEC
> +Set the close-on-exec flag for the new file descriptor.  This will cause the
> +file descriptor to be closed automatically when a process exec's.
> +.TP
> +.B OPEN_TREE_CLONE
> +Rather than directly attaching the selected object to the file descriptor,
> +clone the object, set the root of the new mount object to that point and
> +attach the clone to the file descriptor.
> +.TP
> +.B AT_RECURSIVE
> +This is only permitted in conjunction with OPEN_TREE_CLONE.  It causes the
> +entire mount subtree rooted at the selected spot to be cloned rather than just
> +that one mount object.
> +
> +
> +.SH EXAMPLE
> +The
> +.BR open_tree ()
> +function can be used like the following:
> +.PP
> +.RS
> +.nf
> +fd1 = open_tree(AT_FDCWD, "/mnt", 0);
> +fd2 = open_tree(fd1, "",
> +                AT_EMPTY_PATH | OPEN_TREE_CLONE | AT_RECURSIVE);
> +move_mount(fd2, "", AT_FDCWD, "/mnt2", MOVE_MOUNT_F_EMPTY_PATH);
> +.fi
> +.RE
> +.PP
> +This would attach the path point for "/mnt" to fd1, then it would copy the
> +entire subtree at the point referred to by fd1 and attach that to fd2; lastly,
> +it would attach the clone to "/mnt2".
> +
> +
> +.\"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> +.\"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> +.\"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
> +.SH RETURN VALUE
> +On success, the new file descriptor is returned.  On error, \-1 is returned,
> +and
> +.I errno
> +is set appropriately.
> +.SH ERRORS
> +.TP
> +.B EACCES
> +Search permission is denied for one of the directories
> +in the path prefix of
> +.IR pathname .
> +(See also
> +.BR path_resolution (7).)
> +.TP
> +.B EBADF
> +.I dirfd
> +is not a valid open file descriptor.
> +.TP
> +.B EFAULT
> +.I pathname
> +is NULL or
> +.IR pathname
> +point to a location outside the process's accessible address space.
> +.TP
> +.B EINVAL
> +Reserved flag specified in
> +.IR flags .
> +.TP
> +.B ELOOP
> +Too many symbolic links encountered while traversing the pathname.
> +.TP
> +.B ENAMETOOLONG
> +.I pathname
> +is too long.
> +.TP
> +.B ENOENT
> +A component of
> +.I pathname
> +does not exist, or
> +.I pathname
> +is an empty string and
> +.B AT_EMPTY_PATH
> +was not specified in
> +.IR flags .
> +.TP
> +.B ENOMEM
> +Out of memory (i.e., kernel memory).
> +.TP
> +.B ENOTDIR
> +A component of the path prefix of
> +.I pathname
> +is not a directory or
> +.I pathname
> +is relative and
> +.I dirfd
> +is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.
> +.SH VERSIONS
> +.BR open_tree ()
> +was added to Linux in kernel 4.18.
> +.SH CONFORMING TO
> +.BR open_tree ()
> +is Linux-specific.
> +.SH NOTES
> +Glibc does not (yet) provide a wrapper for the
> +.BR open_tree ()
> +system call; call it using
> +.BR syscall (2).
> +.SH SEE ALSO
> +.BR fsmount (2),
> +.BR move_mount (2),
> +.BR open (2)
> 
> 


-- 
Michael Kerrisk
Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/
Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/