Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context

From	Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com>
Newsgroups	linux.kernel
Subject	Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context
Date	2017-05-05 16:40 +0200
Message-ID	<tDMyJ-2YY-7@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References	<tD50J-7GP-3@gated-at.bofh.it>
Organization	linux.* mail to news gateway

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On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 6:04 PM, David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> wrote:
>
> Here are a set of patches to create a mount context prior to setting up a
> new mount, populating it with the parsed options/binary data and then
> effecting the mount.

Great work, thanks for taking this on.

I'd argue with some design decisions here.  One of the motivations for
doing the mount API overhaul is to create clear distinction between
separate functions like:

 - creating filesystem instance (aka superblock)

 - attaching filesystem instance into mount tree

 - reconfiguring superblock

 - changing mount properties

This patchset achieves this partly, but the separation is far from
crisp clear...  First of all why is fsopen() creating a "mount
context"?  It's suppsed to create a "superblock creation context".
And indeed, there are mount flags and root path in there, which are
definitely not necessary for creating a super block.

Is there a good reason why these mount specific properties leaked into
the object created by fsopen()?

Also I'd expect all context ops to be fully generic first.  I.e. no
filesystem code needs to be touched to make the new interface work.
The context would just build the option string and when everything is
ready (probably need a "commit" command) then it would go off and call
mount_fs() to create the superblock and attach it to the context.

Then, when that works, we could add context ops, so the filesystem can
do various things along the way, which is the other reason we want
this.  And in the end it would allow gradual migration to a new
superblock creation api and phasing out the old one.   But that
shouldn't be observable on either the old or the new userspace
interfaces.

> This allows namespaces and other information to be conveyed through the
> mount procedure.  It also allows extra error information to be returned
> (so many things can go wrong during a mount that a small integer isn't
> really sufficient to convey the issue).
>
> This also allows Miklós Szeredi's idea of doing:
>
>         fd = fsopen("nfs");
>         write(fd, "option=val", ...);
>         fsmount(fd, "/mnt");
>
> that he presented at LSF-2017 to be implemented (see the relevant patches
> in the series), to which I can add:
>
>         read(fd, error_buffer, ...);
>
> to read back any error message.  I didn't use netlink as that would make it
> depend on CONFIG_NET and would introduce network namespacing issues.
>
> I've implemented mount context handling for procfs and nfs.
>
> Further developments:
>
>  (*) Implement mount context support in more filesystems, ext4 being next
>      on my list.
>
>  (*) Move the walk-from-root stuff that nfs has to generic code so that you
>      can do something akin to:
>
>         mount /dev/sda1:/foo/bar /mnt
>
>      See nfs_follow_remote_path() and mount_subtree().  This is slightly
>      tricky in NFS as we have to prevent referral loops.

First we can limit this feature to non-weird (ie. no managed dentries) subtrees.

>
>  (*) Move the pid_ns pointer from struct mount_context to struct
>      proc_mount_context as I'm not sure it's necessary for anything other
>      than procfs.
>
>  (*) Work out how to get at the error message incurred by submounts
>      encountered during nfs_follow_remote_path().
>
>      Should the error message be moved to task_struct and made more
>      general, perhaps retrieved with a prctl() function?
>
>  (*) Clean up/consolidate the security functions.  Possibly add a
>      validation hook to be called at the same time as the mount context
>      validate op.
>
> The patches can be found here also:
>
>         http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/dhowells/linux-fs.git/log/?h=mount-context

Will try to review the actual patches next week.

Thanks,
Miklos

Thread

[RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 18:10 +0200
  [PATCH 1/9] Provide a function to create a NUL-terminated string  from unterminated data David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 18:10 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 1/9] Provide a function to create a NUL-terminated  string from unterminated data Jeff Layton <jlayton@poochiereds.net> - 2017-05-03 19:00 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 1/9] Provide a function to create a NUL-terminated string from unterminated data Rasmus Villemoes <linux@rasmusvillemoes.dk> - 2017-05-03 21:30 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 1/9] Provide a function to create a NUL-terminated string from unterminated data David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 22:20 +0200
  [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 18:10 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount Jeff Layton <jlayton@poochiereds.net> - 2017-05-03 20:40 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 20:50 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount Rasmus Villemoes <linux@rasmusvillemoes.dk> - 2017-05-03 22:50 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-04 15:00 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-04 15:00 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com> - 2017-05-04 12:50 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-04 15:10 +0200
        Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com> - 2017-05-04 15:40 +0200
          Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 20:50 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-08 17:20 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 4/9] Implement fsopen() to prepare for a mount David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 01:20 +0200
  [PATCH 5/9] Implement fsmount() to effect a pre-configured mount David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 18:10 +0200
  [PATCH 2/9] Clean up whitespace in fs/namespace.c David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 18:10 +0200
  [PATCH 8/9] proc: Support the mount context in procfs David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 18:10 +0200
  [PATCH 7/9] procfs: Move proc_fill_super() to fs/proc/root.c David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 18:10 +0200
  Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context Jeff Layton <jlayton@poochiereds.net> - 2017-05-03 18:50 +0200
    Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 19:00 +0200
      Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context Jeff Layton <jlayton@poochiereds.net> - 2017-05-03 19:30 +0200
  Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Joe Perches <joe@perches.com> - 2017-05-03 20:30 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 20:40 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Joe Perches <joe@perches.com> - 2017-05-03 20:50 +0200
        Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 22:20 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org> - 2017-05-03 22:40 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-03 23:20 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Joe Perches <joe@perches.com> - 2017-05-03 23:40 +0200
        Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Julia Lawall <julia.lawall@lip6.fr> - 2017-05-04 08:30 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-04 11:30 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Joe Perches <joe@perches.com> - 2017-05-04 16:40 +0200
  Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Rasmus Villemoes <linux@rasmusvillemoes.dk> - 2017-05-03 23:50 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-04 12:30 +0200
  Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-05 16:40 +0200
    Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-05 17:50 +0200
      Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-08 10:30 +0200
      Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-08 10:40 +0200
        Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-08 10:50 +0200
  Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-08 17:10 +0200
    Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 01:00 +0200
      Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 10:10 +0200
        Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 11:40 +0200
          Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 13:10 +0200
        Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 11:50 +0200
          Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 14:10 +0200
            Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 21:00 +0200
              Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-10 09:30 +0200
                Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-10 10:10 +0200
                Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com> - 2017-05-10 15:30 +0200
                Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-10 15:40 +0200
                Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com> - 2017-05-10 15:40 +0200
                Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-10 15:40 +0200
                Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-10 15:40 +0200
                Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com> - 2017-05-10 15:50 +0200
        Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 12:00 +0200
          Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com> - 2017-05-09 14:40 +0200
        Re: [PATCH 3/9] VFS: Introduce a mount context Karel Zak <kzak@redhat.com> - 2017-05-10 14:50 +0200
  Re: [RFC][PATCH 0/9] VFS: Introduce mount context Djalal Harouni <tixxdz@gmail.com> - 2017-05-08 19:10 +0200

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