Some filesystems set MNT_* flags in superblock->s_flags

From: David Howells
Date: Fri Jun 09 2017 - 03:48:57 EST


Al Viro <viro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> * what the hell is ms_flags thing doing in __vfs_new_sb_config()?
> It's a really vile mix of unrelated flags and operations we had in existing
> mount(2) ABI. With MS_KERNMOUNT thrown into that loo^Wmix. Sure, we need
> to parse the garbage fed to mount(2). And we need to pass that garbage to
> "legacy" types as well, but let's not inflict it upon the new mechanisms.

Hmmm... Some ->remount_fs() operations attempt to alter the MS_* flags that
correspond to MNT_* flags. Coda, for example:

static int coda_remount(struct super_block *sb, int *flags, char *data)
{
sync_filesystem(sb);
*flags |= MS_NOATIME;
return 0;
}

But this is quashed in do_remount_sb:

sb->s_flags = (sb->s_flags & ~MS_RMT_MASK) | (flags & MS_RMT_MASK);

And others set them directly in s_flags, v9fs_fill_super() for example sets
MS_NOATIME:

sb->s_flags |= MS_ACTIVE | MS_DIRSYNC | MS_NOATIME;

I'm guessing things like this should be got rid of, but does there need to be
a way to inform mount() that these should be set on the vfsmount?

David