STRUCT EXPORT_OP(9)

NAME
struct export_operations - for nfsd to communicate with file systems

SYNOPSIS
struct export_operations {
  struct dentry *(* decode_fh) (struct super_block *sb, __u32 *fh, int fh_len, int fh_type,int (*acceptable);
  int (* encode_fh) (struct dentry *de, __u32 *fh, int *max_len,int connectable);
  int (* get_name) (struct dentry *parent, char *name,struct dentry *child);
  struct dentry * (* get_parent) (struct dentry *child);
  struct dentry * (* get_dentry) (struct super_block *sb, void *inump);
  struct dentry * (* find_exported_dentry) (struct super_block *sb, void *obj, void *parent,int (*acceptable);
};

MEMBERS

decode_fh
    decode a file handle fragment and return a &struct dentry

encode_fh
    encode a file handle fragment from a dentry

get_name
    find the name for a given inode in a given directory

get_parent
    find the parent of a given directory

get_dentry
    find a dentry for the inode given a file handle sub-fragment

find_exported_dentry
    set by the exporting module to a standard helper function.

DESCRIPTION

The export_operations structure provides a means for nfsd to communicate with a particular exported file system - particularly enabling nfsd and the filesystem to co-operate when dealing with file handles.

export_operations contains two basic operation for dealing with file handles, decode_fh and encode_fh, and allows for some other operations to be defined which standard helper routines use to get specific information from the filesystem.

nfsd encodes information use to determine which filesystem a filehandle applies to in the initial part of the file handle. The remainder, termed a file handle fragment, is controlled completely by the filesystem. The standard helper routines assume that this fragment will contain one or two sub-fragments, one which identifies the file, and one which may be used to identify the (a) directory containing the file.

In some situations, nfsd needs to get a dentry which is connected into a specific part of the file tree. To allow for this, it passes the function acceptable together with a context which can be used to see if the dentry is acceptable. As there can be multiple dentrys for a given file, the filesystem should check each one for acceptability before looking for the next. As soon as an acceptable one is found, it should be returned.

DECODE_FH

 decode_fh is given a &struct super_block (sb), a file handle fragment (fh, fh_len) and an acceptability testing function (acceptable, context). It should return a &struct dentry which refers to the same file that the file handle fragment refers to, and which passes the acceptability test. If it cannot, it should return a NULL pointer if the file was found but no acceptable &dentries were available, or a ERR_PTR error code indicating why it couldn't be found (e.g. ENOENT or ENOMEM).

ENCODE_FH

 encode_fh should store in the file handle fragment fh (using at most max_len bytes) information that can be used by decode_fh to recover the file refered to by the &struct dentry de. If the connectable flag is set, the encode_fh should store sufficient information so that a good attempt can be made to find not only the file but also it's place in the filesystem. This typically means storing a reference to de->d_parent in the filehandle fragment. encode_fh should return the number of bytes stored or a negative error code such as -ENOSPC

GET_NAME

 get_name should find a name for the given child in the given parent directory. The name should be stored in the name (with the understanding that it is already pointing to a a NAME_MAX+1 sized buffer. get_name should return 0 on success, a negative error code or error. get_name will be called without parent->i_mutex held.

GET_PARENT

 get_parent should find the parent directory for the given child which is also a directory. In the event that it cannot be found, or storage space cannot be allocated, a ERR_PTR should be returned.

GET_DENTRY

Given a &super_block (sb) and a pointer to a file-system specific inode identifier, possibly an inode number, (inump) get_dentry should find the identified inode and return a dentry for that inode. Any suitable dentry can be returned including, if necessary, a new dentry created with d_alloc_root. The caller can then find any other extant dentrys by following the d_alias links. If a new dentry was created using d_alloc_root, DCACHE_NFSD_DISCONNECTED should be set, and the dentry should be d_rehashed.

If the inode cannot be found, either a NULL pointer or an ERR_PTR code can be returned. The inump will be whatever was passed to nfsd_find_fh_dentry in either the obj or parent parameters.

LOCKING RULES

get_parent is called with child->d_inode->i_mutex down get_name is not (which is possibly inconsistent)