Re: [PATCH] vfs: missing inode operation should return a consistent error code

[Pedro Falcato <pfalcato@suse.de>]

On Mon, Jun 01, 2026 at 06:50:10PM +0200, Jan Kara wrote:
> On Mon 01-06-26 18:27:53, Jori Koolstra wrote:
> > 
> > > Op 01-06-2026 17:58 CEST schreef Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>:
> > > 
> > >  
> > > On Sun 31-05-26 10:08:47, Jeff Layton wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > This seems ill-advised. The problem is that most of this behavior has
> > > > been well established for years, and not all userland software (and
> > > > even some internal callers like nfsd), will react well when you go
> > > > changing behavior like this.
> > > > 
> > > > As a case in point, the POSIX spec doesn't list EOPNOTSUPP as a valid
> > > > error return for open():
> > > > 
> > > >    https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9690949399/functions/open.html
> > > > 
> > > > The manpage for open() says only:
> > > > 
> > > >        EOPNOTSUPP
> > > >               The filesystem containing pathname does not support O_TMPFILE.
> > > > 
> > > > What is the poor userland developer to make of this when open() starts
> > > > returning EOPNOTSUPP without O_TMPFILE being specified?
> > > 
> > > So I wouldn't care as much about POSIX, we largely ignore it anyway in the
> > > kernel. But I tend to agree that changing the error code we returned for
> > > several decades just for the sake of "cleanliness" isn't IMHO a good enough
> > > reason to risk breaking userspace or causing confusion.
> > > 
> > > 								Honza
> > > -- 
> > > Jan Kara <jack@suse.com>
> > > SUSE Labs, CR
> > 
> > For what its worth, the EACCES return value for not having a create()
> > call on the fs is also not specified in the open() man page. For mkdir,
> > EPERM IS specified.
> 
> Yep, as I said we don't really follow POSIX closely. And it goes way
> further than just error code :)

Not trying to excessively necro here (just seen this thread), but I'll
have to interject here: POSIX very much lets you return whatever error codes
you want. Quoting directly from POSIX.1-2024 (System Interfaces, 2.3 Error Numbers)

> Implementations may support additional errors not included in this list,
> may generate errors included in this list under circumstances other than
> those described here, or may contain extensions or limitations that prevent
> some errors from occurring.

and also:
> Implementations may generate error numbers listed here under circumstances
> other than those described [...]
> Implementations shall not generate a different error number from one
> required by this volume of POSIX.1-2024 for an error condition described
> in this volume of POSIX.1-2024, but may generate additional errors unless
> explicitly disallowed for a particular function.

which pretty much give you the freedom to do whatever you want (and that's how
I've seen other people language-lawyer this as well).

So, yes, while it is true that the kernel sometimes treats POSIX as merely a
suggestion, in this case we're strictly adhering :)


> 
> > But in general, can we never add new error codes to any syscall? Are
> > there user programs that do neatly check for each specified error code in
> > the man page, but that do not implement a fallback at all? I mean, I am
> > not unsympathetic to the arguments that you and Jeff make, but such a
> > user program would be odd.
> 
> We certainly can (and sometimes do) modify the returned errors. It is
> always just a balancing act between the benefit of the change and chances
> somebody will get broken by it. In this case I don't quite see the
> benefit, not that I'd be too worried about the a regression but there's
> always the chance...
> 

FWIW my opinion here would be that changing the error number doesn't _really_
matter. Filesystems with missing ops are generally already outliers in "sane
filesystems semantics ", and it's unlikely that someone is doing something like

if (unlink(path) < 0 && errno == EPERM) {
	printf("path is bad since you can't unlink it!!!\n");
}

particularly as most of these error numbers are actually impossible to
distinguish (I don't have permissions on the filesystem, or does the
filesystem not implement this op?).


-- 
Pedro