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SubjectRe: [VFS] move active filesystem
On Wed, May 12, 1999 at 01:12:17PM -0400, Alexander Viro wrote:
> On Wed, 12 May 1999, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> > On Wed, May 12, 1999 at 11:55:14AM -0400, Alexander Viro wrote:
> > > It looks sane, but... I don't see where it prevents remounting of /usr to
> > > /usr/local/foo. Could you comment on this?
> >
> > You are correct, it does not prevent that. My reasoning is that root
> > has a large number of ways to screw up the system already and detaching
> > a filesystem from the namespace by a trick like this is pretty minor
> > in comparison. After all, the filesystem may be reattached later.
> > A check could be added for the simplest case (preventing mounting a
> > filesystem on itself, but consider:
[...]
> > Would a check that the current mount point is not a prefix of the new
> > mount point be sufficient to catch all possible loops?

> Look at it that way: currently filesystems form a tree. Parent can be
> found by ->s_root->d_covers->d_inode->i_sb. To prevent loops you need to
> preserve tree structure. So yes, checking that we are not moving the fs
> under itself is OK here - mounts are serialized wrt each other.

provided we have suitable locking, yes I agree.

> > Another question... is this necessarily a bad thing? Yes, it can get you
> > into situations that you can't get into now, but you can always return
> > to a sensible state. I'm having trouble thinking of a use for this that
> > chroot doesn't give you, to be fair.
>
> suppose /foo is remounted on /foo/bar/baz. And your PWD was /foo/bar.
> Bummer. Try to call d_path() after that. Or simply run find.
>
> Another thing to consider: behaviour of NFS-exported filesystems. That has
> nothing to loops. Look at the export table handling in knfsd. AFAICS it
> may bite you if you are moving the stuff around that way.
>
> And another one: interaction with lookups. I have a nasty gut feeling that
> in current form it has really unpleasant races waiting to happen as soon
> as we'll allow to move mountpoints *not* dropping the whole tree under
> them.

Okay, you convinced me. Should the check go in the kernel or in mount(8)?

--
Matthew Wilcox <willy@bofh.ai>
"Windows and MacOS are products, contrived by engineers in the service of
specific companies. Unix, by contrast, is not so much a product as it is a
painstakingly compiled oral history of the hacker subculture." - N Stephenson

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