From: viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk
To: Jeff Woods <kazrak+kernel@cesmail.net>
Cc: Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Should struct inode be made available to userspace?
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 06:28:12 +0000 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20040104062812.GX4176@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <6.0.1.1.0.20040103214203.038dceb0@no.incoming.mail>
On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 09:45:47PM -0800, Jeff Woods wrote:
> At 1/3/2004 06:57 PM +0000, viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk wrote:
> >On Sat, Jan 03, 2004 at 01:39:41PM -0500, Bill Davidsen wrote:
> >>Moving the definitions is fine, but some user programs, like backup
> >>programs, do benefit from direct interpretation of the inode. Clearly
> >>that's not a normal user program, but this information is not only useful
> >>inside the kernel.
> >
> >No, they do not. They care about on-disk structures, not the in-core ones
> >fs driver happens to build.
>
> They may if trying to do an online backup of open files, especially if
> attempting to maintain transactional integrity (i.e. make the backup
> logically atomic).
*ROTFL*
Excuse me, what sort of atomicity are you talking about? If that "program"
pokes around in kernel memory and accesses (nevermind how found) in-core
inodes, it's not just not atomic, it's obviously racy in all sorts of
interesting ways. struct inode can be freed at any point _and_ userland
code can lose timeslice and not regain it in quite a while.
If any backup program tries to pull that off, I would really like to see
the names of its "designers" posted for public ridicule. If such duhvelopers
actually exist, they more than deserve recognition.
prev parent reply other threads:[~2004-01-04 6:28 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 7+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2003-12-29 19:40 Should struct inode be made available to userspace? Mariusz Mazur
2003-12-29 19:57 ` viro
2004-01-03 18:39 ` Bill Davidsen
2004-01-03 18:57 ` viro
2004-01-04 5:43 ` Bill Davidsen
2004-01-04 5:45 ` Jeff Woods
2004-01-04 6:28 ` viro [this message]
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