Re: [PATCH v4 1/3] FUSE: Implement atomic lookup + create

From: Bernd Schubert
Date: Wed May 11 2022 - 06:09:09 EST




On 5/7/22 12:42, Jean-Pierre André wrote:
Bernd Schubert wrote on 5/6/22 8:45 PM:


On 5/6/22 19:07, Vivek Goyal wrote:
I looked at fuse_lowlevel API and passthrough_ll.c and there is no
assumption whether FUSE_LOOKUP has already been called by client
before calling FUSE_CREATE. Similarly, I looked at virtiofs code
and I can't see any such assumption there as well.

The current linux kernel code does this right now, skipping the lookup just changes behavior.  Personally I would see it as bug if the userspace implementation does not handle EEXIST for FUSE_CREATE. Implementation developer and especially users might see it differently if a kernel update breaks/changes things out of the sudden. passthrough_ll.c is not the issue here, it handles it correctly, but what about the XYZ other file systems out there - do you want to check them one by one, including closed source ones? And wouldn't even a single broken application count as regression?


https://github.com/qemu/qemu/blob/master/tools/virtiofsd/passthrough_ll.c

So I am sort of lost. May be you can help me understsand this.

I guess it would be more interesting to look at different file systems that are not overlay based. Like ntfs-3g - I have not looked at the code yet, but especially disk based file system didn't have a reason so far to handle EEXIST. And

AFAIK ntfs-3g proper does not keep a context across calls and does
not know what LOOKUP was preparing a CREATE. However this may have
consequences in the high level of libfuse for managing the file tree.

I don't think high level is effected. I'm really just scared to break


The kernel apparently issues a LOOKUP to decide whether issuing a
CREATE (create+open) or an OPEN. If it sent blindly a CREATE,
ntfs-3g would return EEXIST if the name was already present in
the directory.

Ok, so ntfs-3g is ok - which leaves N-1 file systems to check...


For a test, can you suggest a way to force ignore of such lookup
within libfuse, without applying your kernel patches ? Is there a
way to detect the purpose of a lookup ? (A possible way is to
hardcode a directory inode within which the lookups return ENOENT).


What I mean is that we need to check the code or test N file systems - if ntfs-3g handles it, N-1 are left...

I we all agree on that there is no issue in skipping the lookup - fine with me - it slightly simplifies the patches.


Thanks,
Bernd