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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
+        "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" []>
+
+<book id="Linux-filesystems-API">
+ <bookinfo>
+  <title>Linux Filesystems API</title>
+
+  <legalnotice>
+   <para>
+     This documentation is free software; you can redistribute
+     it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public
+     License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
+     version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
+     version.
+   </para>
+
+   <para>
+     This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
+     useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
+     warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
+     See the GNU General Public License for more details.
+   </para>
+
+   <para>
+     You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public
+     License along with this program; if not, write to the Free
+     Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
+     MA 02111-1307 USA
+   </para>
+
+   <para>
+     For more details see the file COPYING in the source
+     distribution of Linux.
+   </para>
+  </legalnotice>
+ </bookinfo>
+
+<toc></toc>
+
+  <chapter id="vfs">
+     <title>The Linux VFS</title>
+     <sect1><title>The Filesystem types</title>
+!Iinclude/linux/fs.h
+     </sect1>
+     <sect1><title>The Directory Cache</title>
+!Efs/dcache.c
+!Iinclude/linux/dcache.h
+     </sect1>
+     <sect1><title>Inode Handling</title>
+!Efs/inode.c
+!Efs/bad_inode.c
+     </sect1>
+     <sect1><title>Registration and Superblocks</title>
+!Efs/super.c
+     </sect1>
+     <sect1><title>File Locks</title>
+!Efs/locks.c
+!Ifs/locks.c
+     </sect1>
+     <sect1><title>Other Functions</title>
+!Efs/mpage.c
+!Efs/namei.c
+!Efs/buffer.c
+!Efs/bio.c
+!Efs/seq_file.c
+!Efs/filesystems.c
+!Efs/fs-writeback.c
+!Efs/block_dev.c
+     </sect1>
+  </chapter>
+
+  <chapter id="proc">
+     <title>The proc filesystem</title>
+
+     <sect1><title>sysctl interface</title>
+!Ekernel/sysctl.c
+     </sect1>
+
+     <sect1><title>proc filesystem interface</title>
+!Ifs/proc/base.c
+     </sect1>
+  </chapter>
+
+  <chapter id="sysfs">
+     <title>The Filesystem for Exporting Kernel Objects</title>
+!Efs/sysfs/file.c
+!Efs/sysfs/symlink.c
+!Efs/sysfs/bin.c
+  </chapter>
+
+  <chapter id="debugfs">
+     <title>The debugfs filesystem</title>
+
+     <sect1><title>debugfs interface</title>
+!Efs/debugfs/inode.c
+!Efs/debugfs/file.c
+     </sect1>
+  </chapter>
+
+  <chapter id="LinuxJDBAPI">
+  <chapterinfo>
+  <title>The Linux Journalling API</title>
+
+  <authorgroup>
+  <author>
+     <firstname>Roger</firstname>
+     <surname>Gammans</surname>
+     <affiliation>
+     <address>
+      <email>rgammans@computer-surgery.co.uk</email>
+     </address>
+    </affiliation>
+     </author>
+  </authorgroup>
+
+  <authorgroup>
+   <author>
+    <firstname>Stephen</firstname>
+    <surname>Tweedie</surname>
+    <affiliation>
+     <address>
+      <email>sct@redhat.com</email>
+     </address>
+    </affiliation>
+   </author>
+  </authorgroup>
+
+  <copyright>
+   <year>2002</year>
+   <holder>Roger Gammans</holder>
+  </copyright>
+  </chapterinfo>
+
+  <title>The Linux Journalling API</title>
+
+    <sect1>
+     <title>Overview</title>
+    <sect2>
+     <title>Details</title>
+<para>
+The journalling layer is  easy to use. You need to
+first of all create a journal_t data structure. There are
+two calls to do this dependent on how you decide to allocate the physical
+media on which the journal resides. The journal_init_inode() call
+is for journals stored in filesystem inodes, or the journal_init_dev()
+call can be use for journal stored on a raw device (in a continuous range
+of blocks). A journal_t is a typedef for a struct pointer, so when
+you are finally finished make sure you call journal_destroy() on it
+to free up any used kernel memory.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Once you have got your journal_t object you need to 'mount' or load the journal
+file, unless of course you haven't initialised it yet - in which case you
+need to call journal_create().
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Most of the time however your journal file will already have been created, but
+before you load it you must call journal_wipe() to empty the journal file.
+Hang on, you say , what if the filesystem wasn't cleanly umount()'d . Well, it is the
+job of the client file system to detect this and skip the call to journal_wipe().
+</para>
+
+<para>
+In either case the next call should be to journal_load() which prepares the
+journal file for use. Note that journal_wipe(..,0) calls journal_skip_recovery()
+for you if it detects any outstanding transactions in the journal and similarly
+journal_load() will call journal_recover() if necessary.
+I would advise reading fs/ext3/super.c for examples on this stage.
+[RGG: Why is the journal_wipe() call necessary - doesn't this needlessly
+complicate the API. Or isn't a good idea for the journal layer to hide
+dirty mounts from the client fs]
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Now you can go ahead and start modifying the underlying
+filesystem. Almost.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+
+You still need to actually journal your filesystem changes, this
+is done by wrapping them into transactions. Additionally you
+also need to wrap the modification of each of the buffers
+with calls to the journal layer, so it knows what the modifications
+you are actually making are. To do this use  journal_start() which
+returns a transaction handle.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+journal_start()
+and its counterpart journal_stop(), which indicates the end of a transaction
+are nestable calls, so you can reenter a transaction if necessary,
+but remember you must call journal_stop() the same number of times as
+journal_start() before the transaction is completed (or more accurately
+leaves the update phase). Ext3/VFS makes use of this feature to simplify
+quota support.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Inside each transaction you need to wrap the modifications to the
+individual buffers (blocks). Before you start to modify a buffer you
+need to call journal_get_{create,write,undo}_access() as appropriate,
+this allows the journalling layer to copy the unmodified data if it
+needs to. After all the buffer may be part of a previously uncommitted
+transaction.
+At this point you are at last ready to modify a buffer, and once
+you are have done so you need to call journal_dirty_{meta,}data().
+Or if you've asked for access to a buffer you now know is now longer
+required to be pushed back on the device you can call journal_forget()
+in much the same way as you might have used bforget() in the past.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+A journal_flush() may be called at any time to commit and checkpoint
+all your transactions.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Then at umount time , in your put_super() (2.4) or write_super() (2.5)
+you can then call journal_destroy() to clean up your in-core journal object.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Unfortunately there a couple of ways the journal layer can cause a deadlock.
+The first thing to note is that each task can only have
+a single outstanding transaction at any one time, remember nothing
+commits until the outermost journal_stop(). This means
+you must complete the transaction at the end of each file/inode/address
+etc. operation you perform, so that the journalling system isn't re-entered
+on another journal. Since transactions can't be nested/batched
+across differing journals, and another filesystem other than
+yours (say ext3) may be modified in a later syscall.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+The second case to bear in mind is that journal_start() can
+block if there isn't enough space in the journal for your transaction
+(based on the passed nblocks param) - when it blocks it merely(!) needs to
+wait for transactions to complete and be committed from other tasks,
+so essentially we are waiting for journal_stop(). So to avoid
+deadlocks you must treat journal_start/stop() as if they
+were semaphores and include them in your semaphore ordering rules to prevent
+deadlocks. Note that journal_extend() has similar blocking behaviour to
+journal_start() so you can deadlock here just as easily as on journal_start().
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Try to reserve the right number of blocks the first time. ;-). This will
+be the maximum number of blocks you are going to touch in this transaction.
+I advise having a look at at least ext3_jbd.h to see the basis on which
+ext3 uses to make these decisions.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Another wriggle to watch out for is your on-disk block allocation strategy.
+why? Because, if you undo a delete, you need to ensure you haven't reused any
+of the freed blocks in a later transaction. One simple way of doing this
+is make sure any blocks you allocate only have checkpointed transactions
+listed against them. Ext3 does this in ext3_test_allocatable().
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Lock is also providing through journal_{un,}lock_updates(),
+ext3 uses this when it wants a window with a clean and stable fs for a moment.
+eg.
+</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+
+        journal_lock_updates() //stop new stuff happening..
+        journal_flush()        // checkpoint everything.
+        ..do stuff on stable fs
+        journal_unlock_updates() // carry on with filesystem use.
+</programlisting>
+
+<para>
+The opportunities for abuse and DOS attacks with this should be obvious,
+if you allow unprivileged userspace to trigger codepaths containing these
+calls.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+A new feature of jbd since 2.5.25 is commit callbacks with the new
+journal_callback_set() function you can now ask the journalling layer
+to call you back when the transaction is finally committed to disk, so that
+you can do some of your own management. The key to this is the journal_callback
+struct, this maintains the internal callback information but you can
+extend it like this:-
+</para>
+<programlisting>
+        struct  myfs_callback_s {
+                //Data structure element required by jbd..
+                struct journal_callback for_jbd;
+                // Stuff for myfs allocated together.
+                myfs_inode*    i_commited;
+
+        }
+</programlisting>
+
+<para>
+this would be useful if you needed to know when data was committed to a
+particular inode.
+</para>
+
+    </sect2>
+
+    <sect2>
+     <title>Summary</title>
+<para>
+Using the journal is a matter of wrapping the different context changes,
+being each mount, each modification (transaction) and each changed buffer
+to tell the journalling layer about them.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Here is a some pseudo code to give you an idea of how it works, as
+an example.
+</para>
+
+<programlisting>
+  journal_t* my_jnrl = journal_create();
+  journal_init_{dev,inode}(jnrl,...)
+  if (clean) journal_wipe();
+  journal_load();
+
+   foreach(transaction) { /*transactions must be
+                            completed before
+                            a syscall returns to
+                            userspace*/
+
+          handle_t * xct=journal_start(my_jnrl);
+          foreach(bh) {
+                journal_get_{create,write,undo}_access(xact,bh);
+                if ( myfs_modify(bh) ) { /* returns true
+                                        if makes changes */
+                           journal_dirty_{meta,}data(xact,bh);
+                } else {
+                           journal_forget(bh);
+                }
+          }
+          journal_stop(xct);
+   }
+   journal_destroy(my_jrnl);
+</programlisting>
+    </sect2>
+
+    </sect1>
+
+    <sect1>
+     <title>Data Types</title>
+     <para>
+        The journalling layer uses typedefs to 'hide' the concrete definitions
+        of the structures used. As a client of the JBD layer you can
+        just rely on the using the pointer as a magic cookie  of some sort.
+
+        Obviously the hiding is not enforced as this is 'C'.
+     </para>
+        <sect2><title>Structures</title>
+!Iinclude/linux/jbd.h
+        </sect2>
+    </sect1>
+
+    <sect1>
+     <title>Functions</title>
+     <para>
+        The functions here are split into two groups those that
+        affect a journal as a whole, and those which are used to
+        manage transactions
+     </para>
+        <sect2><title>Journal Level</title>
+!Efs/jbd/journal.c
+!Ifs/jbd/recovery.c
+        </sect2>
+        <sect2><title>Transasction Level</title>
+!Efs/jbd/transaction.c
+        </sect2>
+    </sect1>
+    <sect1>
+     <title>See also</title>
+        <para>
+          <citation>
+           <ulink url="ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/fs/jfs/journal-design.ps.gz">
+                Journaling the Linux ext2fs Filesystem, LinuxExpo 98, Stephen Tweedie
+           </ulink>
+          </citation>
+        </para>
+        <para>
+           <citation>
+           <ulink url="http://olstrans.sourceforge.net/release/OLS2000-ext3/OLS2000-ext3.html">
+                Ext3 Journalling FileSystem, OLS 2000, Dr. Stephen Tweedie
+           </ulink>
+           </citation>
+        </para>
+    </sect1>
+
+  </chapter>
+
+</book>