Re: [PATCHv5 6/6] Documentation: Correct the description of FIEMAP_EXTENT_LAST

From: "Darrick J. Wong" <darrick.wong@oracle.com>
To: Ritesh Harjani <riteshh@linux.ibm.com>
Cc: linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org, jack@suse.cz, tytso@mit.edu,
	adilger.kernel@dilger.ca, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org,
	hch@infradead.org, cmaiolino@redhat.com, david@fromorbit.com
Subject: Re: [PATCHv5 6/6] Documentation: Correct the description of FIEMAP_EXTENT_LAST
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2020 07:20:15 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20200228152015.GC8036@magnolia> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <5a00e8d4283d6849e0b8f408c8365b31fbc1d153.1582880246.git.riteshh@linux.ibm.com>

On Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 02:56:59PM +0530, Ritesh Harjani wrote:
> Currently FIEMAP_EXTENT_LAST is not working consistently across
> different filesystem's fiemap implementations. So add more information
> about how else this flag could set in other implementation.
> 
> Also in general, user should not completely rely on this flag as
> such since it could return false value for e.g.
> when there is a delalloc extent which might get converted during
> writeback, immediately after the fiemap calls return.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Ritesh Harjani <riteshh@linux.ibm.com>

Looks reasonable,
Reviewed-by: Darrick J. Wong <darrick.wong@oracle.com>

--D

> ---
>  Documentation/filesystems/fiemap.txt | 10 +++++-----
>  1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/fiemap.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/fiemap.txt
> index f6d9c99103a4..fedfa9b9dde5 100644
> --- a/Documentation/filesystems/fiemap.txt
> +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/fiemap.txt
> @@ -71,8 +71,7 @@ allocated is less than would be required to map the requested range,
>  the maximum number of extents that can be mapped in the fm_extent[]
>  array will be returned and fm_mapped_extents will be equal to
>  fm_extent_count. In that case, the last extent in the array will not
> -complete the requested range and will not have the FIEMAP_EXTENT_LAST
> -flag set (see the next section on extent flags).
> +complete the requested range.
>  
>  Each extent is described by a single fiemap_extent structure as
>  returned in fm_extents.
> @@ -96,7 +95,7 @@ block size of the file system.  With the exception of extents flagged as
>  FIEMAP_EXTENT_MERGED, adjacent extents will not be merged.
>  
>  The fe_flags field contains flags which describe the extent returned.
> -A special flag, FIEMAP_EXTENT_LAST is always set on the last extent in
> +A special flag, FIEMAP_EXTENT_LAST *may be* set on the last extent in
>  the file so that the process making fiemap calls can determine when no
>  more extents are available, without having to call the ioctl again.
>  
> @@ -115,8 +114,9 @@ data. Note that the opposite is not true - it would be valid for
>  FIEMAP_EXTENT_NOT_ALIGNED to appear alone.
>  
>  * FIEMAP_EXTENT_LAST
> -This is the last extent in the file. A mapping attempt past this
> -extent will return nothing.
> +This is generally the last extent in the file. A mapping attempt past this
> +extent may return nothing. In some implementations this flag is also set on
> +the last dataset queried by the user (via fiemap->fm_length).
>  
>  * FIEMAP_EXTENT_UNKNOWN
>  The location of this extent is currently unknown. This may indicate
> -- 
> 2.21.0
> 