From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from out30-124.freemail.mail.aliyun.com (out30-124.freemail.mail.aliyun.com [115.124.30.124]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by smtp.subspace.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 88A451A704B for ; Wed, 7 Jan 2026 02:55:04 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; arc=none smtp.client-ip=115.124.30.124 ARC-Seal:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1767754508; cv=none; b=I64OxY8k3sTmi56Nd4z1j++qz2N5YXsWnJVYwZO2F3oZKpJ+XGojbaRJTNxbdnmpgBujmKUfEYFco7dHbrdknrOYpfNtwKaAiHxXk1rFiEmSPEcUKisv/JQmy+c4fR/O/BZwpR53CUQU+bceay7rSr5vBw+dcZPDISu7bXadrSQ= ARC-Message-Signature:i=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=subspace.kernel.org; s=arc-20240116; t=1767754508; c=relaxed/simple; bh=aUsE/cySTAqHBXdGLbIOVcIc2KukrYR3EeDQBGWjTYA=; h=Message-ID:Date:MIME-Version:Subject:To:Cc:References:From: In-Reply-To:Content-Type; b=btDyNE1i72sSiZLK5AvCwJIaB1E1CuBfTbL8QjopiWRCCmtzcsxHO7Txfv1ZO3YU+eGdclOK4NgFnCLbeG609C82FLREW6QzdfEF0c6ObMgL8idIzKQdD51aTo1CtTpmce6ON59YytKyG/etLfkxXNZ8Yr8k2hecTGL/lOMiXx4= ARC-Authentication-Results:i=1; smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=linux.alibaba.com; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=linux.alibaba.com; dkim=pass (1024-bit key) header.d=linux.alibaba.com header.i=@linux.alibaba.com header.b=CduNltpJ; arc=none smtp.client-ip=115.124.30.124 Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dmarc=pass (p=none dis=none) header.from=linux.alibaba.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; spf=pass smtp.mailfrom=linux.alibaba.com Authentication-Results: smtp.subspace.kernel.org; dkim=pass (1024-bit key) header.d=linux.alibaba.com header.i=@linux.alibaba.com header.b="CduNltpJ" DKIM-Signature:v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=linux.alibaba.com; s=default; t=1767754501; h=Message-ID:Date:MIME-Version:Subject:To:From:Content-Type; bh=KQDFGf2ptcUk6k9pSkqPNxqXotAWUhdnptVixlDEIdM=; b=CduNltpJxOBUxer2sY0KLgvG09h43JV4bjqKM+AnGGh1JRZSyezmvE9i/gGmYl5kbCWD5Om/P9HTrNRZ8i157LLLiU8iKAsiwQkY3F3QkY/vCNvN5kOaNlgSJCODKOlwIoqVTOPanQ/3EENq8MazrNVjwW7WWkzkPYDOle3oYWQ= Received: from 30.221.132.240(mailfrom:hsiangkao@linux.alibaba.com fp:SMTPD_---0WwXAho7_1767754500 cluster:ay36) by smtp.aliyun-inc.com; Wed, 07 Jan 2026 10:55:00 +0800 Message-ID: Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2026 10:55:00 +0800 Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org List-Id: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: MIME-Version: 1.0 User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird Subject: Re: [PATCH 3/3] fs: add immutable rootfs To: Al Viro Cc: Christian Brauner , linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, Jan Kara , Jeff Layton , Amir Goldstein , Lennart Poettering , =?UTF-8?Q?Zbigniew_J=C4=99drzejewski-Szmek?= , Josef Bacik References: <20260102-work-immutable-rootfs-v1-0-f2073b2d1602@kernel.org> <20260102-work-immutable-rootfs-v1-3-f2073b2d1602@kernel.org> <20260107024727.GM1712166@ZenIV> From: Gao Xiang In-Reply-To: <20260107024727.GM1712166@ZenIV> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On 2026/1/7 10:47, Al Viro wrote: > On Wed, Jan 07, 2026 at 10:28:23AM +0800, Gao Xiang wrote: > >> Just one random suggestion. Regardless of Al's comments, >> if we really would like to expose a new visible type to >> userspace, how about giving it a meaningful name like >> emptyfs or nullfs (I know it could have other meanings >> in other OSes) from its tree hierarchy to avoid the >> ambiguous "rootfs" naming, especially if it may be >> considered for mounting by users in future potential use >> cases? > > *boggle* > > _what_ potential use cases? "This here directory is empty and > it'll stay empty and anyone trying to create stuff in it will > get an error; oh, and we want it to be a mount boundary, for > some reason"? > > IDGI... My concern is that "rootfs" naming is already (ab)used in various ways, although kernel folks know what happens here by checking the kernel code for example, but making it visible to users I'm afraid that userspace folks already get various concepts out of the word "root" (it's absolutely not "chroot" but for a mount namespace?). Thanks, Gao Xiang