[man-pages RFC PATCH v6] statx, inode: document the new STATX_VERSION field

[Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org>]

I'm proposing to expose the inode change attribute via statx [1]. Document
what this value means and what an observer can infer from it changing.

NB: this will probably have conflicts with the STATX_DIOALIGN doc
patches, but we should be able to resolve those before merging anything.

Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org>

[1]: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-nfs/20220826214703.134870-1-jlayton@kernel.org/T/#t
---
 man2/statx.2 | 13 +++++++++++++
 man7/inode.7 | 36 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 49 insertions(+)

v6: incorporate Neil's suggestions
    clarify how well-behaved filesystems should order things

diff --git a/man2/statx.2 b/man2/statx.2
index 0d1b4591f74c..ee7005334a2f 100644
--- a/man2/statx.2
+++ b/man2/statx.2
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ struct statx {
     __u32 stx_dev_major;   /* Major ID */
     __u32 stx_dev_minor;   /* Minor ID */
     __u64 stx_mnt_id;      /* Mount ID */
+    __u64 stx_version;     /* Inode change attribute */
 };
 .EE
 .in
@@ -247,6 +248,7 @@ STATX_BTIME	Want stx_btime
 STATX_ALL	The same as STATX_BASIC_STATS | STATX_BTIME.
 	It is deprecated and should not be used.
 STATX_MNT_ID	Want stx_mnt_id (since Linux 5.8)
+STATX_VERSION	Want stx_version (DRAFT)
 .TE
 .in
 .PP
@@ -407,10 +409,16 @@ This is the same number reported by
 .BR name_to_handle_at (2)
 and corresponds to the number in the first field in one of the records in
 .IR /proc/self/mountinfo .
+.TP
+.I stx_version
+The inode version, also known as the inode change attribute. See
+.BR inode (7)
+for details.
 .PP
 For further information on the above fields, see
 .BR inode (7).
 .\"
+.TP
 .SS File attributes
 The
 .I stx_attributes
@@ -489,6 +497,11 @@ without an explicit
 See
 .BR mmap (2)
 for more information.
+.TP
+.BR STATX_ATTR_VERSION_MONOTONIC " (since Linux 6.?)"
+The stx_version value monotonically increases over time and will never appear
+to go backward, even in the event of a crash. This can allow an application to
+make a better determination about ordering when viewing different versions.
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 On success, zero is returned.
 On error, \-1 is returned, and
diff --git a/man7/inode.7 b/man7/inode.7
index 9b255a890720..e8adb63b1f6a 100644
--- a/man7/inode.7
+++ b/man7/inode.7
@@ -184,6 +184,12 @@ Last status change timestamp (ctime)
 This is the file's last status change timestamp.
 It is changed by writing or by setting inode information
 (i.e., owner, group, link count, mode, etc.).
+.TP
+Inode version (version)
+(not returned in the \fIstat\fP structure); \fIstatx.stx_version\fP
+.IP
+This is the inode change counter. See the discussion of
+\fBthe inode version counter\fP, below.
 .PP
 The timestamp fields report time measured with a zero point at the
 .IR Epoch ,
@@ -424,6 +430,36 @@ on a directory means that a file
 in that directory can be renamed or deleted only by the owner
 of the file, by the owner of the directory, and by a privileged
 process.
+.SS The inode version counter
+.PP
+The \fIstatx.stx_version\fP field is the inode change counter. Any operation
+that could result in a change to \fIstatx.stx_ctime\fP must result in an
+increase to this value. Soon after a change has been made, an stx_version value
+should appear to be larger than previous readings. This is the case even
+when a ctime change is not evident due to coarse timestamp granularity.
+.PP
+An observer cannot infer anything from amount of increase about the
+nature or magnitude of the change. In fact, a single increment can reflect
+multiple discrete changes if the value was not checked while those changes
+were being processed.
+.PP
+Changes to stx_version are not necessarily atomic with the change itself, but
+well-behaved filesystems should increment stx_version after a change has been
+made visible to observers rather than before. This is especially important for
+read-caching algorithms which could be fooled into associating a newer
+stx_version with an older version of data. Note that this does leave a window
+of time where a change may be visible, but the old stx_version is still being
+reported.
+.PP
+In the event of a system crash, this value can appear to go backward if it was
+queried before ever being written to the backing store. Applications that
+persist stx_version values across a reboot should take care to mitigate this.
+If the filesystem reports \fISTATX_ATTR_VERSION_MONOTONIC\fP in
+\fIstatx.stx_attributes\fP, then it is not subject to this problem.
+.PP
+The stx_version is a Linux extension and is not supported by all filesystems.
+The application must verify that the \fISTATX_VERSION\fP bit is set in the
+returned \fIstatx.stx_mask\fP before relying on this field.
 .SH STANDARDS
 If you need to obtain the definition of the
 .I blkcnt_t
-- 
2.37.3