Messages in this thread |  | | From | Andreas Dilger <> | Date | Wed, 19 Sep 2001 17:06:06 -0600 | Subject | Re: Request: removal of fs/fs.h/super_block.u to enable partition locking |
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On Sep 19, 2001 15:50 -0400, Mark Swanson wrote: > > However you don't need to remove anything for that > > But I can't distribute the file fs with my application, because I can't > expect my user base to patch and recompile their kernel just so they can > run my application. > > Perhaps what is needed is an 'inuse' filesystem or a way to make > filesystem modules without patching the kernel.
You don't need to patch the kernel to add a new filesystem type. It is possible to just use "&inode->u.generic_ip" as your filesystem private inode storage (if you actually need any, which is unlikely with such a simple filesystem). All of the other VFS interfaces are exported to modules, so it is possible to just insert a module to add your fs type.
When I was doing this (compiling a filesystem that is not part of the kernel), we used the pcmcia-cs configure scripts to get all of the relevant kernel config options. This can be done on a running kernel without having the actual kernel sources, and if you do this as part of the startup for your application, you can cache the kernel version string (from /proc/version) to ensure that the module is always OK for the current kernel.
Of course, if your code is good enough it may just make it into the kernel.
> My concern is that ordinary tools like mount check the proc filesystem > to see if a partition is already mounted and it seems likely that tools > like mke2fs do this too. Sysadmins might feel that existing tools > protect them from damaging something in use. I'm looking for a way to > follow this general behavior with raw partitions.
You are correct. mke2fs refuses to run on a device where a filesystem appears to be mounted (either in /proc/mounts or /etc/mtab), unless you force it to do so.
Cheers, Andreas -- Andreas Dilger \ "If a man ate a pound of pasta and a pound of antipasto, \ would they cancel out, leaving him still hungry?" http://www-mddsp.enel.ucalgary.ca/People/adilger/ -- Dogbert
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