[PATCH v11 02/15] fs: Add case sensitivity flags to file_kattr

Chuck Lever
2026-04-25T01:53:28Z

Enable upper layers such as NFSD to retrieve case sensitivity
information from file systems by adding FS_XFLAG_CASEFOLD and
FS_XFLAG_CASENONPRESERVING flags.

Filesystems report case-insensitive or case-nonpreserving behavior
by setting these flags directly in fa->fsx_xflags. The default
(flags unset) indicates POSIX semantics: case-sensitive and
case-preserving. Both flags are added to FS_XFLAG_RDONLY_MASK so
FS_IOC_FSSETXATTR silently strips them, keeping the new xflags
strictly a reporting interface. Callers that want to toggle
casefolding continue to use FS_IOC_SETFLAGS with FS_CASEFOLD_FL,
the established UAPI on filesystems that support the operation
(ext4 and f2fs on empty directories).

Case sensitivity information is exported to userspace via the
fa_xflags field in the FS_IOC_FSGETXATTR ioctl and file_getattr()
system call.

Reviewed-by: "Darrick J. Wong" <djwong@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Reviewed-by: Roland Mainz <roland.mainz@nrubsig.org>
Signed-off-by: Chuck Lever <chuck.lever@oracle.com>
---
fs/file_attr.c | 4 ++++
include/linux/fileattr.h | 3 ++-
include/uapi/linux/fs.h | 7 +++++++
3 files changed, 13 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/fs/file_attr.c b/fs/file_attr.c
index f429da66a317..bfb00d256dd5 100644
--- a/fs/file_attr.c
+++ b/fs/file_attr.c
@@ -37,6 +37,8 @@ void fileattr_fill_xflags(struct file_kattr *fa, u32 xflags)
fa->flags |= FS_PROJINHERIT_FL;
if (fa->fsx_xflags & FS_XFLAG_VERITY)
fa->flags |= FS_VERITY_FL;
+ if (fa->fsx_xflags & FS_XFLAG_CASEFOLD)
+ fa->flags |= FS_CASEFOLD_FL;
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(fileattr_fill_xflags);

@@ -67,6 +69,8 @@ void fileattr_fill_flags(struct file_kattr *fa, u32 flags)
fa->fsx_xflags |= FS_XFLAG_PROJINHERIT;
if (fa->flags & FS_VERITY_FL)
fa->fsx_xflags |= FS_XFLAG_VERITY;
+ if (fa->flags & FS_CASEFOLD_FL)
+ fa->fsx_xflags |= FS_XFLAG_CASEFOLD;
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(fileattr_fill_flags);

diff --git a/include/linux/fileattr.h b/include/linux/fileattr.h
index 3780904a63a6..58044b598016 100644
--- a/include/linux/fileattr.h
+++ b/include/linux/fileattr.h
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@

/* Read-only inode flags */
#define FS_XFLAG_RDONLY_MASK \
- (FS_XFLAG_PREALLOC | FS_XFLAG_HASATTR | FS_XFLAG_VERITY)
+ (FS_XFLAG_PREALLOC | FS_XFLAG_HASATTR | FS_XFLAG_VERITY | \
+ FS_XFLAG_CASEFOLD | FS_XFLAG_CASENONPRESERVING)

/* Flags to indicate valid value of fsx_ fields */
#define FS_XFLAG_VALUES_MASK \
diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/fs.h b/include/uapi/linux/fs.h
index 13f71202845e..2ea4c81df08f 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/fs.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/fs.h
@@ -254,6 +254,13 @@ struct file_attr {
#define FS_XFLAG_DAX 0x00008000 /* use DAX for IO */
#define FS_XFLAG_COWEXTSIZE 0x00010000 /* CoW extent size allocator hint */
#define FS_XFLAG_VERITY 0x00020000 /* fs-verity enabled */
+/*
+ * Case handling flags (read-only, cannot be set via ioctl).
+ * Default (neither set) indicates POSIX semantics: case-sensitive
+ * lookups and case-preserving storage.
+ */
+#define FS_XFLAG_CASEFOLD 0x00040000 /* case-insensitive lookups */
+#define FS_XFLAG_CASENONPRESERVING 0x00080000 /* case not preserved */
#define FS_XFLAG_HASATTR 0x80000000 /* no DIFLAG for this */

/* the read-only stuff doesn't really belong here, but any other place is

--
2.53.0