xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/namei.9 (revision ebbd4fa8c8427d3dd847ba33c45c996e0500e6ff)
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1998, 1999 Eivind Eklund
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31.\"	- eivind@FreeBSD.org
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33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd December 16, 1998
36.Os
37.Dt NAMEI 9
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm namei ,
40.Nm NDINIT
41.Nd convert pathname to a pointer to a locked vnode
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.In sys/param.h
44.In sys/proc.h
45.In sys/namei.h
46.Ft int
47.Fn namei "struct nameidata *ndp"
48.Ft void
49.Fn NDINIT "struct nameidata *ndp" "u_long operation" "u_long operflags" "enum uio_seg segflag" "const char *path" "struct thread *td"
50.Ft void
51.Fn NDFREE "struct nameidata *ndp" "u_int operflags"
52.Sh DESCRIPTION
53.Fn namei
54is used to get from a pathname to a vnode for the object.
55This is a necessity to start doing VFS operations.  The vnode
56returned will have its reference count increased; when you're through
57with it, you have to release it using either
58.Xr vrele 9
59or
60.Xr vput 9 ,
61depending on whether you specified the LOCKLEAF flag or not.
62.Pp
63To initialize the nameidata struct, you usually use
64.Fn NDINIT .
65It takes the following arguments:
66.Pp
67.Bl -tag -width nameidatap
68.It Ar nameidatap
69pointer to the struct nameidata to initialize
70.It Ar operation
71The operation to have
72.Fn namei
73do.  The relevant operations are
74.Dv LOOKUP ,
75.Dv CREATE ,
76.Dv DELETE ,
77and
78.Dv RENAME .
79The latter three are just setup for those
80effects; just calling
81.Fn namei
82will not result in
83.Fn VOP_RENAME
84being called.
85.It Ar operflags
86Operation flags.  Several of these can be effective at the same time.
87.It Ar segflag
88Segment indicator.  This tells if the name of the object is in
89userspace (UIO_USERSPACE) or in the kernel address space (UIO_SYSSPACE).
90.It Ar path
91Pointer to pathname buffer (the file or directory name that will be
92looked up)
93.It Ar td
94Which thread context to use for the
95.Fn namei
96locks.
97.El
98.Sh NAMEI OPERATION FLAGS
99.Fn namei
100takes the following set of 'operation flags' that influence
101how it operates:
102.Bl -tag -width WANTPARENT
103.It Dv LOCKLEAF
104Lock vnode on return.  This is a full lock of the vnode; you'll have to use
105.Xr VOP_UNLOCK 9
106to release the lock (or use
107.Xr vput 9
108to release the lock and do a
109.Xr vrele 9 ,
110all in one).
111.It Dv LOCKPARENT
112Make
113.Fn namei
114also return the parent (directory) vnode (in nd.ni_dvp),
115in locked state, unless the dvp is identical to the vp, in which case the dvp
116is not locked per se (but may be locked due to LOCKLEAF).
117If you get a lock, remember to release the lock (using
118.Xr vput 9
119or
120.Xr VOP_UNLOCK 9
121and
122.Xr vrele 9 . )
123.It Dv WANTPARENT
124Make
125.Fn namei
126also return the parent (directory) vnode, in unlocked
127state.  Remember to release it (using
128.Xr vrele 9 . )
129.It Dv NOCACHE
130Avoid
131.Fn namei
132creating this entry in the namecache if it is not
133already present.  Normally
134.Fn namei
135will add entries to the name cache
136if they're not already there.
137.It Dv FOLLOW
138With this flag,
139.Fn namei
140will follow the symbolic link if the last part
141of the path supplied is a symbolic link (i.e., it will return a vnode
142for whatever the link points at, instead for the link itself).
143.It Dv NOOBJ
144Do not call
145.Fn vfs_object_create
146for the returned vnode even if it is
147just a VREG and we're able to (ie, it is locked).
148.It Dv NOFOLLOW
149Do not follow symbolic links (pseudo).
150This flag is not looked for by the actual code, which looks for
151FOLLOW.
152NOFOLLOW is used to indicate to the source code reader that symlinks
153are intentionally not followed.
154.It Dv SAVENAME
155Do not free the name buffer at the end of the
156.Fn namei
157invocation, instead free it later in
158.Fn NDFREE
159so that the caller may access the name buffer.
160See below for details.
161.It Dv SAVESTART
162Retain an additional reference to the parent directory; do not free
163the name buffer.
164See below for details.
165.El
166.Sh ALLOCATED ELEMENTS
167.Bl -tag -width WANTPARENT
168.It Dv ni_startdir
169Where we did lookup relative to.
170In the normal case, this is either the current directory or the root.
171It is the current directory if the name passed in doesn't start with /
172and we have not gone through any symlinks with an absolute path, and
173the root otherwise.
174.Pp
175In this case, it is only used by
176.Fn lookup ,
177and should not be
178considered valid after a call to
179.Fn namei .
180.Pp
181If SAVESTART is set, this is set to the same as ni_dvp, with an extra
182.Fn VREF .
183.Pp
184To block NDFREE from releasing ni_startdir when it is set, use the
185flag NDF_NO_STARTDIR_RELE.
186.It Dv ni_dvp
187The directory vp for the directory the object we're looking up is in.
188This is available on successful return if LOCKPARENT or WANTPARENT is
189set.  It is locked if LOCKPARENT is set.  Freeing this in NDFREE can
190be inhibited by NDF_NO_DVP_RELE, NDF_NO_DVP_PUT, or NDF_NO_DVP_UNLOCK
191(with the obvious effects).
192.It Dv ni_vp
193The vp for the target of the of the pathname exists, NULL otherwise.
194The vp is returned with increased reference count (VREF'ed).  If
195LOCKLEAF is set, it is also locked.
196.Pp
197Freeing this in NDFREE can be inhibited by NDF_NO_VP_RELE,
198NDF_NO_VP_PUT, or NDF_NO_VP_UNLOCK (with the obvious effects).
199.It Dv ni_cnd.cn_pnbuf
200Path name buffer.  This is allocated through zalloc(namei_zone)
201and freed through zfree(namei_zone, ...).
202.Pp
203This is available to the caller (who must free it using
204.Xr NDFREE 9 )
205if SAVESTART or SAVENAME is set.
206To free only the ni_cnd.cn_pnbuf, there is a special flags NDF_ONLY_PNBUF.
207To not free the cnd, use the flag ND_NO_FREE_PNBUF.
208.El
209.Sh BUGS
210LOCKPARENT does not always result in parent vp being locked (see details in
211description).
212This results in complications everywhere LOCKPARENT is used.
213In order to solve this for the cases that include both LOCKPARENT and LOCKLEAF,
214it will be necessary to go to recursive locking.
215.Sh SEE ALSO
216.Xr VFS 9 ,
217.Xr vnode 9
218.Pp
219.Pa src/sys/kern/vfs_lookup.c
220.Sh AUTHORS
221This man page was written by
222.An Eivind Eklund .
223