Re: [PATCH v2] ext4: do not check fast symlink during orphan recovery
From: Jan Kara
Date: Mon Feb 02 2026 - 07:54:48 EST
On Sat 31-01-26 17:11:56, Zhang Yi wrote:
> From: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> Commit '5f920d5d6083 ("ext4: verify fast symlink length")' causes the
> generic/475 test to fail during orphan cleanup of zero-length symlinks.
>
> generic/475 84s ... _check_generic_filesystem: filesystem on /dev/vde is inconsistent
>
> The fsck reports are provided below:
>
> Deleted inode 9686 has zero dtime.
> Deleted inode 158230 has zero dtime.
> ...
> Inode bitmap differences: -9686 -158230
> Orphan file (inode 12) block 13 is not clean.
> Failed to initialize orphan file.
>
> In ext4_symlink(), a newly created symlink can be added to the orphan
> list due to ENOSPC. Its data has not been initialized, and its size is
> zero. Therefore, we need to disregard the length check of the symbolic
> link when cleaning up orphan inodes. Instead, we should ensure that the
> nlink count is zero.
>
> Fixes: 5f920d5d6083 ("ext4: verify fast symlink length")
> Signed-off-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@xxxxxxxxxx>
Looks good! Feel free to add:
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx>
Honza
> ---
> Changes since v1:
> - Improve the comment and add nlink check during orphan cleanup as Jan
> suggested.
>
> fs/ext4/inode.c | 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
> 1 file changed, 29 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/fs/ext4/inode.c b/fs/ext4/inode.c
> index 129594bf8311..cfb66f7ad3d7 100644
> --- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
> +++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
> @@ -6073,18 +6073,36 @@ struct inode *__ext4_iget(struct super_block *sb, unsigned long ino,
> inode->i_op = &ext4_encrypted_symlink_inode_operations;
> } else if (ext4_inode_is_fast_symlink(inode)) {
> inode->i_op = &ext4_fast_symlink_inode_operations;
> - if (inode->i_size == 0 ||
> - inode->i_size >= sizeof(ei->i_data) ||
> - strnlen((char *)ei->i_data, inode->i_size + 1) !=
> - inode->i_size) {
> - ext4_error_inode(inode, function, line, 0,
> - "invalid fast symlink length %llu",
> - (unsigned long long)inode->i_size);
> - ret = -EFSCORRUPTED;
> - goto bad_inode;
> +
> + /*
> + * Orphan cleanup can see inodes with i_size == 0
> + * and i_data uninitialized. Skip size checks in
> + * that case. This is safe because the first thing
> + * ext4_evict_inode() does for fast symlinks is
> + * clearing of i_data and i_size.
> + */
> + if ((EXT4_SB(sb)->s_mount_state & EXT4_ORPHAN_FS)) {
> + if (inode->i_nlink != 0) {
> + ext4_error_inode(inode, function, line, 0,
> + "invalid orphan symlink nlink %d",
> + inode->i_nlink);
> + ret = -EFSCORRUPTED;
> + goto bad_inode;
> + }
> + } else {
> + if (inode->i_size == 0 ||
> + inode->i_size >= sizeof(ei->i_data) ||
> + strnlen((char *)ei->i_data, inode->i_size + 1) !=
> + inode->i_size) {
> + ext4_error_inode(inode, function, line, 0,
> + "invalid fast symlink length %llu",
> + (unsigned long long)inode->i_size);
> + ret = -EFSCORRUPTED;
> + goto bad_inode;
> + }
> + inode_set_cached_link(inode, (char *)ei->i_data,
> + inode->i_size);
> }
> - inode_set_cached_link(inode, (char *)ei->i_data,
> - inode->i_size);
> } else {
> inode->i_op = &ext4_symlink_inode_operations;
> }
> --
> 2.52.0
>
--
Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxxx>
SUSE Labs, CR