1 The text below describes the locking rules for VFS-related methods.
2 It is (believed to be) up-to-date. *Please*, if you change anything in
3 prototypes or locking protocols - update this file. And update the relevant
4 instances in the tree, don't leave that to maintainers of filesystems/devices/
5 etc. At the very least, put the list of dubious cases in the end of this file.
6 Don't turn it into log - maintainers of out-of-the-tree code are supposed to
7 be able to use diff(1).
8 Thing currently missing here: socket operations. Alexey?
10 --------------------------- dentry_operations --------------------------
12 int (*d_revalidate)(struct dentry *, int);
13 int (*d_hash) (struct dentry *, struct qstr *);
14 int (*d_compare) (struct dentry *, struct qstr *, struct qstr *);
15 int (*d_delete)(struct dentry *);
16 void (*d_release)(struct dentry *);
17 void (*d_iput)(struct dentry *, struct inode *);
18 char *(*d_dname)((struct dentry *dentry, char *buffer, int buflen);
22 dcache_lock rename_lock ->d_lock may block
23 d_revalidate: no no no yes
25 d_compare: no yes no no
26 d_delete: yes no yes no
27 d_release: no no no yes
31 --------------------------- inode_operations ---------------------------
33 int (*create) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,int, struct nameidata *);
34 struct dentry * (*lookup) (struct inode *,struct dentry *, struct nameid
36 int (*link) (struct dentry *,struct inode *,struct dentry *);
37 int (*unlink) (struct inode *,struct dentry *);
38 int (*symlink) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,const char *);
39 int (*mkdir) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,int);
40 int (*rmdir) (struct inode *,struct dentry *);
41 int (*mknod) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,int,dev_t);
42 int (*rename) (struct inode *, struct dentry *,
43 struct inode *, struct dentry *);
44 int (*readlink) (struct dentry *, char __user *,int);
45 int (*follow_link) (struct dentry *, struct nameidata *);
46 void (*truncate) (struct inode *);
47 int (*permission) (struct inode *, int, struct nameidata *);
48 int (*setattr) (struct dentry *, struct iattr *);
49 int (*getattr) (struct vfsmount *, struct dentry *, struct kstat *);
50 int (*setxattr) (struct dentry *, const char *,const void *,size_t,int);
51 ssize_t (*getxattr) (struct dentry *, const char *, void *, size_t);
52 ssize_t (*listxattr) (struct dentry *, char *, size_t);
53 int (*removexattr) (struct dentry *, const char *);
56 all may block, none have BKL
65 rmdir: yes (both) (see below)
66 rename: yes (all) (see below)
69 truncate: yes (see below)
77 Additionally, ->rmdir(), ->unlink() and ->rename() have ->i_mutex on
79 cross-directory ->rename() has (per-superblock) ->s_vfs_rename_sem.
80 ->truncate() is never called directly - it's a callback, not a
81 method. It's called by vmtruncate() - library function normally used by
82 ->setattr(). Locking information above applies to that call (i.e. is
83 inherited from ->setattr() - vmtruncate() is used when ATTR_SIZE had been
86 See Documentation/filesystems/directory-locking for more detailed discussion
87 of the locking scheme for directory operations.
89 --------------------------- super_operations ---------------------------
91 struct inode *(*alloc_inode)(struct super_block *sb);
92 void (*destroy_inode)(struct inode *);
93 void (*read_inode) (struct inode *);
94 void (*dirty_inode) (struct inode *);
95 int (*write_inode) (struct inode *, int);
96 void (*put_inode) (struct inode *);
97 void (*drop_inode) (struct inode *);
98 void (*delete_inode) (struct inode *);
99 void (*put_super) (struct super_block *);
100 void (*write_super) (struct super_block *);
101 int (*sync_fs)(struct super_block *sb, int wait);
102 void (*write_super_lockfs) (struct super_block *);
103 void (*unlockfs) (struct super_block *);
104 int (*statfs) (struct dentry *, struct kstatfs *);
105 int (*remount_fs) (struct super_block *, int *, char *);
106 void (*clear_inode) (struct inode *);
107 void (*umount_begin) (struct super_block *);
108 int (*show_options)(struct seq_file *, struct vfsmount *);
109 ssize_t (*quota_read)(struct super_block *, int, char *, size_t, loff_t);
110 ssize_t (*quota_write)(struct super_block *, int, const char *, size_t, loff_t);
115 alloc_inode: no no no
117 read_inode: no (see below)
118 dirty_inode: no (must not sleep)
121 drop_inode: no !!!inode_lock!!!
123 put_super: yes yes no
124 write_super: no yes read
126 write_super_lockfs: ?
129 remount_fs: yes yes maybe (see below)
131 umount_begin: yes no no
132 show_options: no (vfsmount->sem)
133 quota_read: no no no (see below)
134 quota_write: no no no (see below)
136 ->read_inode() is not a method - it's a callback used in iget().
137 ->remount_fs() will have the s_umount lock if it's already mounted.
138 When called from get_sb_single, it does NOT have the s_umount lock.
139 ->quota_read() and ->quota_write() functions are both guaranteed to
140 be the only ones operating on the quota file by the quota code (via
141 dqio_sem) (unless an admin really wants to screw up something and
142 writes to quota files with quotas on). For other details about locking
143 see also dquot_operations section.
145 --------------------------- file_system_type ---------------------------
147 int (*get_sb) (struct file_system_type *, int,
148 const char *, void *, struct vfsmount *);
149 void (*kill_sb) (struct super_block *);
155 ->get_sb() returns error or 0 with locked superblock attached to the vfsmount
156 (exclusive on ->s_umount).
157 ->kill_sb() takes a write-locked superblock, does all shutdown work on it,
158 unlocks and drops the reference.
160 --------------------------- address_space_operations --------------------------
162 int (*writepage)(struct page *page, struct writeback_control *wbc);
163 int (*readpage)(struct file *, struct page *);
164 int (*sync_page)(struct page *);
165 int (*writepages)(struct address_space *, struct writeback_control *);
166 int (*set_page_dirty)(struct page *page);
167 int (*readpages)(struct file *filp, struct address_space *mapping,
168 struct list_head *pages, unsigned nr_pages);
169 int (*prepare_write)(struct file *, struct page *, unsigned, unsigned);
170 int (*commit_write)(struct file *, struct page *, unsigned, unsigned);
171 sector_t (*bmap)(struct address_space *, sector_t);
172 int (*invalidatepage) (struct page *, unsigned long);
173 int (*releasepage) (struct page *, int);
174 int (*direct_IO)(int, struct kiocb *, const struct iovec *iov,
175 loff_t offset, unsigned long nr_segs);
176 int (*launder_page) (struct page *);
179 All except set_page_dirty may block
181 BKL PageLocked(page) i_sem
182 writepage: no yes, unlocks (see below)
183 readpage: no yes, unlocks
188 prepare_write: no yes yes
189 commit_write: no yes yes
190 write_begin: no locks the page yes
191 write_end: no yes, unlocks yes
192 perform_write: no n/a yes
194 invalidatepage: no yes
199 ->prepare_write(), ->commit_write(), ->sync_page() and ->readpage()
200 may be called from the request handler (/dev/loop).
202 ->readpage() unlocks the page, either synchronously or via I/O
205 ->readpages() populates the pagecache with the passed pages and starts
206 I/O against them. They come unlocked upon I/O completion.
208 ->writepage() is used for two purposes: for "memory cleansing" and for
209 "sync". These are quite different operations and the behaviour may differ
210 depending upon the mode.
212 If writepage is called for sync (wbc->sync_mode != WBC_SYNC_NONE) then
213 it *must* start I/O against the page, even if that would involve
214 blocking on in-progress I/O.
216 If writepage is called for memory cleansing (sync_mode ==
217 WBC_SYNC_NONE) then its role is to get as much writeout underway as
218 possible. So writepage should try to avoid blocking against
219 currently-in-progress I/O.
221 If the filesystem is not called for "sync" and it determines that it
222 would need to block against in-progress I/O to be able to start new I/O
223 against the page the filesystem should redirty the page with
224 redirty_page_for_writepage(), then unlock the page and return zero.
225 This may also be done to avoid internal deadlocks, but rarely.
227 If the filesystem is called for sync then it must wait on any
228 in-progress I/O and then start new I/O.
230 The filesystem should unlock the page synchronously, before returning to the
231 caller, unless ->writepage() returns special WRITEPAGE_ACTIVATE
232 value. WRITEPAGE_ACTIVATE means that page cannot really be written out
233 currently, and VM should stop calling ->writepage() on this page for some
234 time. VM does this by moving page to the head of the active list, hence the
237 Unless the filesystem is going to redirty_page_for_writepage(), unlock the page
238 and return zero, writepage *must* run set_page_writeback() against the page,
239 followed by unlocking it. Once set_page_writeback() has been run against the
240 page, write I/O can be submitted and the write I/O completion handler must run
241 end_page_writeback() once the I/O is complete. If no I/O is submitted, the
242 filesystem must run end_page_writeback() against the page before returning from
245 That is: after 2.5.12, pages which are under writeout are *not* locked. Note,
246 if the filesystem needs the page to be locked during writeout, that is ok, too,
247 the page is allowed to be unlocked at any point in time between the calls to
248 set_page_writeback() and end_page_writeback().
250 Note, failure to run either redirty_page_for_writepage() or the combination of
251 set_page_writeback()/end_page_writeback() on a page submitted to writepage
252 will leave the page itself marked clean but it will be tagged as dirty in the
253 radix tree. This incoherency can lead to all sorts of hard-to-debug problems
254 in the filesystem like having dirty inodes at umount and losing written data.
256 ->sync_page() locking rules are not well-defined - usually it is called
257 with lock on page, but that is not guaranteed. Considering the currently
258 existing instances of this method ->sync_page() itself doesn't look
261 ->writepages() is used for periodic writeback and for syscall-initiated
262 sync operations. The address_space should start I/O against at least
263 *nr_to_write pages. *nr_to_write must be decremented for each page which is
264 written. The address_space implementation may write more (or less) pages
265 than *nr_to_write asks for, but it should try to be reasonably close. If
266 nr_to_write is NULL, all dirty pages must be written.
268 writepages should _only_ write pages which are present on
271 ->set_page_dirty() is called from various places in the kernel
272 when the target page is marked as needing writeback. It may be called
273 under spinlock (it cannot block) and is sometimes called with the page
276 ->bmap() is currently used by legacy ioctl() (FIBMAP) provided by some
277 filesystems and by the swapper. The latter will eventually go away. All
278 instances do not actually need the BKL. Please, keep it that way and don't
281 ->invalidatepage() is called when the filesystem must attempt to drop
282 some or all of the buffers from the page when it is being truncated. It
283 returns zero on success. If ->invalidatepage is zero, the kernel uses
284 block_invalidatepage() instead.
286 ->releasepage() is called when the kernel is about to try to drop the
287 buffers from the page in preparation for freeing it. It returns zero to
288 indicate that the buffers are (or may be) freeable. If ->releasepage is zero,
289 the kernel assumes that the fs has no private interest in the buffers.
291 ->launder_page() may be called prior to releasing a page if
292 it is still found to be dirty. It returns zero if the page was successfully
293 cleaned, or an error value if not. Note that in order to prevent the page
294 getting mapped back in and redirtied, it needs to be kept locked
295 across the entire operation.
297 Note: currently almost all instances of address_space methods are
298 using BKL for internal serialization and that's one of the worst sources
299 of contention. Normally they are calling library functions (in fs/buffer.c)
300 and pass foo_get_block() as a callback (on local block-based filesystems,
301 indeed). BKL is not needed for library stuff and is usually taken by
302 foo_get_block(). It's an overkill, since block bitmaps can be protected by
303 internal fs locking and real critical areas are much smaller than the areas
304 filesystems protect now.
306 ----------------------- file_lock_operations ------------------------------
308 void (*fl_insert)(struct file_lock *); /* lock insertion callback */
309 void (*fl_remove)(struct file_lock *); /* lock removal callback */
310 void (*fl_copy_lock)(struct file_lock *, struct file_lock *);
311 void (*fl_release_private)(struct file_lock *);
319 fl_release_private: yes yes
321 ----------------------- lock_manager_operations ---------------------------
323 int (*fl_compare_owner)(struct file_lock *, struct file_lock *);
324 void (*fl_notify)(struct file_lock *); /* unblock callback */
325 void (*fl_copy_lock)(struct file_lock *, struct file_lock *);
326 void (*fl_release_private)(struct file_lock *);
327 void (*fl_break)(struct file_lock *); /* break_lease callback */
331 fl_compare_owner: yes no
334 fl_release_private: yes yes
337 Currently only NFSD and NLM provide instances of this class. None of the
338 them block. If you have out-of-tree instances - please, show up. Locking
339 in that area will change.
340 --------------------------- buffer_head -----------------------------------
342 void (*b_end_io)(struct buffer_head *bh, int uptodate);
345 called from interrupts. In other words, extreme care is needed here.
346 bh is locked, but that's all warranties we have here. Currently only RAID1,
347 highmem, fs/buffer.c, and fs/ntfs/aops.c are providing these. Block devices
348 call this method upon the IO completion.
350 --------------------------- block_device_operations -----------------------
352 int (*open) (struct inode *, struct file *);
353 int (*release) (struct inode *, struct file *);
354 int (*ioctl) (struct inode *, struct file *, unsigned, unsigned long);
355 int (*media_changed) (struct gendisk *);
356 int (*revalidate_disk) (struct gendisk *);
364 revalidate_disk: no no
366 The last two are called only from check_disk_change().
368 --------------------------- file_operations -------------------------------
370 loff_t (*llseek) (struct file *, loff_t, int);
371 ssize_t (*read) (struct file *, char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);
372 ssize_t (*write) (struct file *, const char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);
373 ssize_t (*aio_read) (struct kiocb *, const struct iovec *, unsigned long, loff_t);
374 ssize_t (*aio_write) (struct kiocb *, const struct iovec *, unsigned long, loff_t);
375 int (*readdir) (struct file *, void *, filldir_t);
376 unsigned int (*poll) (struct file *, struct poll_table_struct *);
377 int (*ioctl) (struct inode *, struct file *, unsigned int,
379 long (*unlocked_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
380 long (*compat_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
381 int (*mmap) (struct file *, struct vm_area_struct *);
382 int (*open) (struct inode *, struct file *);
383 int (*flush) (struct file *);
384 int (*release) (struct inode *, struct file *);
385 int (*fsync) (struct file *, struct dentry *, int datasync);
386 int (*aio_fsync) (struct kiocb *, int datasync);
387 int (*fasync) (int, struct file *, int);
388 int (*lock) (struct file *, int, struct file_lock *);
389 ssize_t (*readv) (struct file *, const struct iovec *, unsigned long,
391 ssize_t (*writev) (struct file *, const struct iovec *, unsigned long,
393 ssize_t (*sendfile) (struct file *, loff_t *, size_t, read_actor_t,
395 ssize_t (*sendpage) (struct file *, struct page *, int, size_t,
397 unsigned long (*get_unmapped_area)(struct file *, unsigned long,
398 unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long);
399 int (*check_flags)(int);
400 int (*dir_notify)(struct file *, unsigned long);
404 All except ->poll() may block.
406 llseek: no (see below)
413 ioctl: yes (see below)
414 unlocked_ioctl: no (see below)
417 open: maybe (see below)
420 fsync: no (see below)
422 fasync: yes (see below)
428 get_unmapped_area: no
432 ->llseek() locking has moved from llseek to the individual llseek
433 implementations. If your fs is not using generic_file_llseek, you
434 need to acquire and release the appropriate locks in your ->llseek().
435 For many filesystems, it is probably safe to acquire the inode
436 semaphore. Note some filesystems (i.e. remote ones) provide no
437 protection for i_size so you will need to use the BKL.
439 ->open() locking is in-transit: big lock partially moved into the methods.
440 The only exception is ->open() in the instances of file_operations that never
441 end up in ->i_fop/->proc_fops, i.e. ones that belong to character devices
442 (chrdev_open() takes lock before replacing ->f_op and calling the secondary
443 method. As soon as we fix the handling of module reference counters all
444 instances of ->open() will be called without the BKL.
446 Note: ext2_release() was *the* source of contention on fs-intensive
447 loads and dropping BKL on ->release() helps to get rid of that (we still
448 grab BKL for cases when we close a file that had been opened r/w, but that
449 can and should be done using the internal locking with smaller critical areas).
450 Current worst offender is ext2_get_block()...
452 ->fasync() is a mess. This area needs a big cleanup and that will probably
455 ->readdir() and ->ioctl() on directories must be changed. Ideally we would
456 move ->readdir() to inode_operations and use a separate method for directory
457 ->ioctl() or kill the latter completely. One of the problems is that for
458 anything that resembles union-mount we won't have a struct file for all
459 components. And there are other reasons why the current interface is a mess...
461 ->ioctl() on regular files is superceded by the ->unlocked_ioctl() that
462 doesn't take the BKL.
464 ->read on directories probably must go away - we should just enforce -EISDIR
465 in sys_read() and friends.
467 ->fsync() has i_mutex on inode.
469 --------------------------- dquot_operations -------------------------------
471 int (*initialize) (struct inode *, int);
472 int (*drop) (struct inode *);
473 int (*alloc_space) (struct inode *, qsize_t, int);
474 int (*alloc_inode) (const struct inode *, unsigned long);
475 int (*free_space) (struct inode *, qsize_t);
476 int (*free_inode) (const struct inode *, unsigned long);
477 int (*transfer) (struct inode *, struct iattr *);
478 int (*write_dquot) (struct dquot *);
479 int (*acquire_dquot) (struct dquot *);
480 int (*release_dquot) (struct dquot *);
481 int (*mark_dirty) (struct dquot *);
482 int (*write_info) (struct super_block *, int);
484 These operations are intended to be more or less wrapping functions that ensure
485 a proper locking wrt the filesystem and call the generic quota operations.
487 What filesystem should expect from the generic quota functions:
489 FS recursion Held locks when called
490 initialize: yes maybe dqonoff_sem
492 alloc_space: ->mark_dirty() -
493 alloc_inode: ->mark_dirty() -
494 free_space: ->mark_dirty() -
495 free_inode: ->mark_dirty() -
497 write_dquot: yes dqonoff_sem or dqptr_sem
498 acquire_dquot: yes dqonoff_sem or dqptr_sem
499 release_dquot: yes dqonoff_sem or dqptr_sem
501 write_info: yes dqonoff_sem
503 FS recursion means calling ->quota_read() and ->quota_write() from superblock
506 ->alloc_space(), ->alloc_inode(), ->free_space(), ->free_inode() are called
507 only directly by the filesystem and do not call any fs functions only
508 the ->mark_dirty() operation.
510 More details about quota locking can be found in fs/dquot.c.
512 --------------------------- vm_operations_struct -----------------------------
514 void (*open)(struct vm_area_struct*);
515 void (*close)(struct vm_area_struct*);
516 int (*fault)(struct vm_area_struct*, struct vm_fault *);
517 struct page *(*nopage)(struct vm_area_struct*, unsigned long, int *);
518 int (*page_mkwrite)(struct vm_area_struct *, struct page *);
521 BKL mmap_sem PageLocked(page)
526 page_mkwrite: no yes no
528 ->page_mkwrite() is called when a previously read-only page is
529 about to become writeable. The file system is responsible for
530 protecting against truncate races. Once appropriate action has been
531 taking to lock out truncate, the page range should be verified to be
532 within i_size. The page mapping should also be checked that it is not
535 ================================================================================
538 (if you break something or notice that it is broken and do not fix it yourself
539 - at least put it here)
541 ipc/shm.c::shm_delete() - may need BKL.
542 ->read() and ->write() in many drivers are (probably) missing BKL.
543 drivers/sgi/char/graphics.c::sgi_graphics_nopage() - may need BKL.