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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2017-07-12 09:28:55 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2017-07-12 09:28:55 -0700
commit6b1c776d3efbda31085b6a9f3bc7f774511fafd9 (patch)
treed306d6c2841b88b0a78ccdaf3532bb1e1f8260a0 /Documentation/filesystems
parent58c7ffc0747a3a9145629d4966291f0586703767 (diff)
parentf4439de118283159ff165e52036134a278ebf990 (diff)
downloadlinux-6b1c776d3efbda31085b6a9f3bc7f774511fafd9.tar.bz2
Merge branch 'overlayfs-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mszeredi/vfs
Pull overlayfs updates from Miklos Szeredi: "This work from Amir introduces the inodes index feature, which provides: - hardlinks are not broken on copy up - infrastructure for overlayfs NFS export This also fixes constant st_ino for samefs case for lower hardlinks" * 'overlayfs-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mszeredi/vfs: (33 commits) ovl: mark parent impure and restore timestamp on ovl_link_up() ovl: document copying layers restrictions with inodes index ovl: cleanup orphan index entries ovl: persistent overlay inode nlink for indexed inodes ovl: implement index dir copy up ovl: move copy up lock out ovl: rearrange copy up ovl: add flag for upper in ovl_entry ovl: use struct copy_up_ctx as function argument ovl: base tmpfile in workdir too ovl: factor out ovl_copy_up_inode() helper ovl: extract helper to get temp file in copy up ovl: defer upper dir lock to tempfile link ovl: hash overlay non-dir inodes by copy up origin ovl: cleanup bad and stale index entries on mount ovl: lookup index entry for copy up origin ovl: verify index dir matches upper dir ovl: verify upper root dir matches lower root dir ovl: introduce the inodes index dir feature ovl: generalize ovl_create_workdir() ...
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt34
1 files changed, 34 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt
index c9e884b52698..36f528a7fdd6 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt
@@ -201,6 +201,40 @@ rightmost one and going left. In the above example lower1 will be the
top, lower2 the middle and lower3 the bottom layer.
+Sharing and copying layers
+--------------------------
+
+Lower layers may be shared among several overlay mounts and that is indeed
+a very common practice. An overlay mount may use the same lower layer
+path as another overlay mount and it may use a lower layer path that is
+beneath or above the path of another overlay lower layer path.
+
+Using an upper layer path and/or a workdir path that are already used by
+another overlay mount is not allowed and will fail with EBUSY. Using
+partially overlapping paths is not allowed but will not fail with EBUSY.
+
+Mounting an overlay using an upper layer path, where the upper layer path
+was previously used by another mounted overlay in combination with a
+different lower layer path, is allowed, unless the "inodes index" feature
+is enabled.
+
+With the "inodes index" feature, on the first time mount, an NFS file
+handle of the lower layer root directory, along with the UUID of the lower
+filesystem, are encoded and stored in the "trusted.overlay.origin" extended
+attribute on the upper layer root directory. On subsequent mount attempts,
+the lower root directory file handle and lower filesystem UUID are compared
+to the stored origin in upper root directory. On failure to verify the
+lower root origin, mount will fail with ESTALE. An overlayfs mount with
+"inodes index" enabled will fail with EOPNOTSUPP if the lower filesystem
+does not support NFS export, lower filesystem does not have a valid UUID or
+if the upper filesystem does not support extended attributes.
+
+It is quite a common practice to copy overlay layers to a different
+directory tree on the same or different underlying filesystem, and even
+to a different machine. With the "inodes index" feature, trying to mount
+the copied layers will fail the verification of the lower root file handle.
+
+
Non-standard behavior
---------------------