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authorTakashi Sato <t-sato@yk.jp.nec.com>2009-01-09 16:40:58 -0800
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2009-01-09 16:54:42 -0800
commitc4be0c1dc4cdc37b175579be1460f15ac6495e9a (patch)
tree716ea88318211ed27cadcebda0fd85c1f8246edb /Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt
parent69347a236b22c3962ea812511495e502dedfd50c (diff)
filesystem freeze: add error handling of write_super_lockfs/unlockfs
Currently, ext3 in mainline Linux doesn't have the freeze feature which suspends write requests. So, we cannot take a backup which keeps the filesystem's consistency with the storage device's features (snapshot and replication) while it is mounted. In many case, a commercial filesystem (e.g. VxFS) has the freeze feature and it would be used to get the consistent backup. If Linux's standard filesystem ext3 has the freeze feature, we can do it without a commercial filesystem. So I have implemented the ioctls of the freeze feature. I think we can take the consistent backup with the following steps. 1. Freeze the filesystem with the freeze ioctl. 2. Separate the replication volume or create the snapshot with the storage device's feature. 3. Unfreeze the filesystem with the unfreeze ioctl. 4. Take the backup from the separated replication volume or the snapshot. This patch: VFS: Changed the type of write_super_lockfs and unlockfs from "void" to "int" so that they can return an error. Rename write_super_lockfs and unlockfs of the super block operation freeze_fs and unfreeze_fs to avoid a confusion. ext3, ext4, xfs, gfs2, jfs: Changed the type of write_super_lockfs and unlockfs from "void" to "int" so that write_super_lockfs returns an error if needed, and unlockfs always returns 0. reiserfs: Changed the type of write_super_lockfs and unlockfs from "void" to "int" so that they always return 0 (success) to keep a current behavior. Signed-off-by: Takashi Sato <t-sato@yk.jp.nec.com> Signed-off-by: Masayuki Hamaguchi <m-hamaguchi@ys.jp.nec.com> Cc: <xfs-masters@oss.sgi.com> Cc: <linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org> Cc: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de> Cc: Dave Kleikamp <shaggy@austin.ibm.com> Cc: Dave Chinner <david@fromorbit.com> Cc: Alasdair G Kergon <agk@redhat.com> Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt8
1 files changed, 4 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt
index ef19afa186a..deeeed0faa8 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt
@@ -210,8 +210,8 @@ struct super_operations {
void (*put_super) (struct super_block *);
void (*write_super) (struct super_block *);
int (*sync_fs)(struct super_block *sb, int wait);
- void (*write_super_lockfs) (struct super_block *);
- void (*unlockfs) (struct super_block *);
+ int (*freeze_fs) (struct super_block *);
+ int (*unfreeze_fs) (struct super_block *);
int (*statfs) (struct dentry *, struct kstatfs *);
int (*remount_fs) (struct super_block *, int *, char *);
void (*clear_inode) (struct inode *);
@@ -270,11 +270,11 @@ or bottom half).
a superblock. The second parameter indicates whether the method
should wait until the write out has been completed. Optional.
- write_super_lockfs: called when VFS is locking a filesystem and
+ freeze_fs: called when VFS is locking a filesystem and
forcing it into a consistent state. This method is currently
used by the Logical Volume Manager (LVM).
- unlockfs: called when VFS is unlocking a filesystem and making it writable
+ unfreeze_fs: called when VFS is unlocking a filesystem and making it writable
again.
statfs: called when the VFS needs to get filesystem statistics. This