Re: [RFC PATCH] ovl: keep merged and impure readdir caches separate

[Amir Goldstein]

On Thu, May 14, 2026 at 4:55 PM Nirmoy Das <nirmoyd@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On 14.05.26 16:09, Amir Goldstein wrote:
...
>> Patch looks great - real root cause, gave you minor comments.
>>
>> IIUC, as far as you know, the repro never triggered the theoretic
>> OVL_WHITEOUTS race?
>>
>> It was always just this ERR_PTR(PTR_ERR()) black magic?
>
>
> Yes, with this particular syzkaller reproducer, it was always this black magic. I tried with and without your suggested changes and saw no difference in the crash behavior.
>
> But I think we should also have the fix for OVL_WHITEOUTS race as well.
>

Yeh maybe.
I don't like making fixes to theoretical races without reproducers.
I'll think about it.
Maybe I'll try to reproduce synthetically.
Or maybe I'll just do a fortify patch.

Thanks,
Amir.