From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.5 required=3.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,SPF_PASS,USER_AGENT_MUTT autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 25EEDC4360F for ; Wed, 3 Apr 2019 19:47:33 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E04B8205C9 for ; Wed, 3 Apr 2019 19:47:32 +0000 (UTC) Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1726544AbfDCTrb (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 Apr 2019 15:47:31 -0400 Received: from zeniv.linux.org.uk ([195.92.253.2]:35852 "EHLO ZenIV.linux.org.uk" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1726064AbfDCTrb (ORCPT ); Wed, 3 Apr 2019 15:47:31 -0400 Received: from viro by ZenIV.linux.org.uk with local (Exim 4.92 #3 (Red Hat Linux)) id 1hBlqz-0007X3-3z; Wed, 03 Apr 2019 19:47:21 +0000 Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2019 20:47:21 +0100 From: Al Viro To: "Tobin C. Harding" Cc: Jonathan Corbet , "Tobin C. Harding" , Mauro Carvalho Chehab , Neil Brown , Randy Dunlap , linux-doc@vger.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 00/24] Convert vfs.txt to vfs.rst Message-ID: <20190403194720.GY2217@ZenIV.linux.org.uk> References: <20190327051717.23225-1-tobin@kernel.org> <20190402094934.5b242dc0@lwn.net> <20190402164824.GK2217@ZenIV.linux.org.uk> <20190402192520.GA6285@eros.localdomain> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20190402192520.GA6285@eros.localdomain> User-Agent: Mutt/1.10.1 (2018-07-13) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Wed, Apr 03, 2019 at 06:25:20AM +1100, Tobin C. Harding wrote: > On Tue, Apr 02, 2019 at 05:48:24PM +0100, Al Viro wrote: > > On Tue, Apr 02, 2019 at 09:49:34AM -0600, Jonathan Corbet wrote: > > > On Wed, 27 Mar 2019 16:16:53 +1100 > > > "Tobin C. Harding" wrote: > > > > > > > Hi Al, > > > > > > > > This series converts the VFS file Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt to > > > > reStructuredText format. Please consider taking this series through > > > > your tree as apposed to Jon's tree because this set makes a fair amount > > > > of changes to VFS files (and also the VFS tree and docs tree are out of > > > > sync right now with the recent work by Mauro and Neil). > > > > > > Al, do you have any thoughts on how you want to handle this? I was about > > > to apply Jeff Layton's vfs.txt update, but would rather not create > > > conflicts unnecessarily. Let me know if you'd like me to pick this work > > > up. > > > > Frankly, I would rather see that file be eventually replaced by something > > saner, and I'm not talking about the format. > > Are you able to extrapolate on this comment please? Is this something > someone new to the VFS (me) can do with a little nudge in the right > direction or is this something that needs thorough knowledge of the VFS? Put it that way - IMO the best way to do it is not a list of methods with explanations what each does, but a bunch of per-data structure documents describing their life cycles. The fundamental ones for VFS would be * inode * dentry * super_block * (vfs)mount * file * files_struct Having a list of methods is nice, but those would be better off with short description along with "see for details, including the locking, etc."; said short descriptions make little sense without the background...