Re: Linux VFS architecture questions

[Kyle Moffett <mrmacman_g4@mac.com>]

On Jan 23, 2006, at 12:00, Pekka Enberg wrote:
> Hi Kyle,
>
> On 1/23/06, Kyle Moffett <mrmacman_g4@mac.com> wrote:
>> Great!  I'm trying to learn about filesystem design and  
>> implementation, which is why I started writing my own hfsplus  
>> filesystem (otherwise I would have just used the in-kernel one).   
>> Do you have any recommended reading (either online or otherwise)  
>> for someone trying to understand the kernel's VFS and blockdev  
>> interfaces?  I _think_ I understand the basics of buffer_head,  
>> super_block, and have some idea of how to use aops, but it's tough  
>> going trying to find out what functions to call to manage cached  
>> disk blocks, or under what conditions the various VFS  functions  
>> are called.  I'm trying to write up a "Linux Disk-Based Filesystem  
>> Developers Guide" based on what I learn, but it's remarkably  
>> sparse so far.
>
> Did you read Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt?

Yeah, that was the first thing I looked at.  Once I've got things  
figured out, I'll probably submit a fairly hefty patch to that file  
to add additional documentation.

> Also, books Linux Kernel Development and Understanding the Linux  
> Kernel have fairly good information on VFS (and related) stuff.

Ah, thanks again!  It looks like both of those are available through  
my university's Safari/ProQuest subscription (http:// 
safari.oreilly.com/), so I'll take a look right away!

Cheers,
Kyle Moffett

--
I lost interest in "blade servers" when I found they didn't throw  
knives at people who weren't supposed to be in your machine room.
   -- Anthony de Boer