Re: [PATCH] dcache: rename d_genocide()

[Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>]

On Mon, Feb 12, 2024 at 08:09:26AM +0000, Al Viro wrote:

> Bloody bad idea, IMO.  Note that straight use of kill_anon_super()
> pretty much forces you into doing everything from ->put_super().
> And that leads to rather clumsy failure exits in foo_fill_super(),
> since you *won't* get ->put_super() called unless you've got to
> setting ->s_root.
> 
> Considering how easily the failure exits rot, I'd rather discourage
> that variant.

BTW, take a look at fs/ext2/super.c and compare the mess in failure
exits in ext2_fill_super() with ext2_put_super().  See the amount of
duplication?

In case of ext2_fill_super() success eventual ->kill_sb() will call
->put_super() (from generic_shutdown_super(), from kill_block_super()).

What happens in case of ext2_fill_super() failure?  ->kill_sb() is called,
but ->put_super() is only called if ->s_root is non-NULL (and at the very
least it requires ->s_op to have been set).  So in that case we have
ext2_fill_super() manually undo the allocations, etc. it had managed to do,
same as ext2_put_super() would've done.

If that stuff gets lifted into ->kill_sb(), we get the bulk of ext2_put_super()
moved into ext2_kill_super() (I wouldn't be surprised if ext2_put_super()
completely disappeared, actually), with all those goto failed_mount<something>
in ext2_fill_super() turning into plain return -E...