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    From
    SubjectRe: Getting IOCTL's into VFS File System Drivers
    Date
    Followup to:  <3829EC80.8BE5F32B@timpanogas.com>
    By author: "Jeff V. Merkey" <jmerkey@timpanogas.com>
    In newsgroup: linux.dev.kernel
    >
    > Also,
    >
    > Along the same lines, it would be really cool if the fsck capability was
    > made a part of the VFS as a function call (which is how it is in Windows
    > 2000 FS drivers), so Linux could have a single FSCK utility that would
    > do file system fixup on all of the FS's in the kernel, rather than
    > requiring each FS to provide it's own. In the Microsoft Windows 2000
    > Implementation, it's implemented as a single function call that gets
    > invoked automatically (or manually) when a volume mount fails. They did
    > it this way so that all their Windows tools would work with the
    > different file system drivers without having to need a specially written
    > program for each file system. They also have hooks for file system
    > defrag, and backup/restore integrated into their IFS. If we could
    > extend the VFS to do the same types of things, it would mean Linux would
    > only need a single set of "generic" file system repair, defrag, and
    > backup/restore utilities that would work with all the FS drivers in
    > Linux.
    >

    You're kidding, right?!

    This is definitely *not* kernel stuff. fsck is the same complexity no
    matter where it lives, and it is complex enough that it has nothing to
    do in the kernel.

    "A specially written program" *IS* a driver. The fsck driver for a
    filesystem (fsck.<fsname>) belongs in user space.

    Backup/restore, however, is another issue. There is a standard
    interface for that... it's called "the filesystem". It has been
    argued that one thing that a backup utility would need that isn't
    cleanly provided is a root-only open() flag to not set atime. (There
    has been talks about adding hacks backup/restore of non-Unix
    filesystems, but those hacks are inherently filesystem specific
    anyway.)

    -hpa

    --
    <hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!
    "Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."

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