[PATCH 2/6] [RFC] Create the .relink file_operation

[Matt Helsley]

On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 12:08:37PM -0700, Brad Boyer wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 23, 2010 at 02:53:28PM -0700, Matt Helsley wrote:
> > Not all filesystems will necessarily be able to support relinking an
> > orphan inode back into the filesystem. Some offlist feedback suggested
> > that instead of overloading .link that relinking should be a separate
> > file operation for this reason.
> > 
> > Since .relink is a superset of .link make the VFS call .relink where
> > possible and .link otherwise.
> > 
> > The next commit will change ext3/4 to enable this operation.
> 
> I may have missed something in one of these patches (patch 1 and any
> original summary if there was one don't appear in my email), but
> what is the point of the new operation? I didn't see any case that
> treats one any different than the other. What is disallowed (and how)
> for a driver which does not implement .relink but has .link?

Did you get patch 3? It shows how ext3/ext4 add the ability to take an
inode that has been unlinked, placed onto the orphan list, and relink it.

Cheers,
	-Matt Helsley