Re: [PATCH 0/2] virtio-fs: Add 'file' mount option

[Josef Bacik]

On Wed, Jul 10, 2024 at 09:28:08AM +0200, Hanna Czenczek wrote:
> On 09.07.24 19:56, Josef Bacik wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 09, 2024 at 01:19:16PM +0200, Hanna Czenczek wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > We want to be able to mount filesystems that just consist of one regular
> > > file via virtio-fs, i.e. no root directory, just a file as the root
> > > node.
> > > 
> > > While that is possible via FUSE itself (through the 'rootmode' mount
> > > option, which is automatically set by the fusermount help program to
> > > match the mount point's inode mode), there is no virtio-fs option yet
> > > that would allow changing the rootmode from S_IFDIR to S_IFREG.
> > > 
> > > To do that, this series introduces a new 'file' mount option that does
> > > precisely that.  Alternatively, we could provide the same 'rootmode'
> > > option that FUSE has, but as laid out in patch 1's commit description,
> > > that option is a bit cumbersome for virtio-fs (in a way that it is not
> > > for FUSE), and its usefulness as a more general option is limited.
> > > 
> > All this does is make file an alias for something a little easier for users to
> > read, which can easily be done in libfuse.  Add the code to lib/mount.c to alias
> > 'file' to turn it into rootmode=S_IFREG when it sends it to the kernel, it's not
> > necessary to do this in the kernel.  Thanks,
> 
> This series is not about normal FUSE filesystems (file_system_type
> fuse_fs_type, “fuse”), but about virtio-fs (file_system_type virtio_fs_type,
> “virtiofs”), i.e. a case where libfuse and fusermount are not involved at
> all.  As far as I’m aware, mounting a virtio-fs filesystem with a
> non-directory root inode is currently not possible at all.

Ok so I think I had it backwards in my head, my apologies.

That being said I still don't understand why this requires a change to virtiofs
at all.

I have a virtiofs thing attached to my VM.  Inside the vm I do

mount -t virtiofs <name of thing I've attached to the vm> /directory

and then on the host machine, virtiofsd is a "normal" FUSE driver, except it's
talking over the socket you setup between the guest and the host.  I assume this
is all correct?

So then the question is, why does it matter what virtiofsd is exposing?  I guess
that's the better question.  The guest shouldn't have to care if it's a
directory or a file right?  The mountpoint is going to be a directory, whatever
is backing it shouldn't matter.  Could you describe the exact thing you're
trying to accomplish?  Thanks,

Josef