xref: /linux/Documentation/filesystems/locking.rst (revision 3a2c4d55e32ad65efebdb6de44eef3bfa08bb49d)
1=======
2Locking
3=======
4
5The text below describes the locking rules for VFS-related methods.
6It is (believed to be) up-to-date. *Please*, if you change anything in
7prototypes or locking protocols - update this file. And update the relevant
8instances in the tree, don't leave that to maintainers of filesystems/devices/
9etc. At the very least, put the list of dubious cases in the end of this file.
10Don't turn it into log - maintainers of out-of-the-tree code are supposed to
11be able to use diff(1).
12
13Thing currently missing here: socket operations. Alexey?
14
15dentry_operations
16=================
17
18prototypes::
19
20	int (*d_revalidate)(struct inode *, const struct qstr *,
21			    struct dentry *, unsigned int);
22	int (*d_weak_revalidate)(struct dentry *, unsigned int);
23	int (*d_hash)(const struct dentry *, struct qstr *);
24	int (*d_compare)(const struct dentry *,
25			unsigned int, const char *, const struct qstr *);
26	int (*d_delete)(struct dentry *);
27	int (*d_init)(struct dentry *);
28	void (*d_release)(struct dentry *);
29	void (*d_iput)(struct dentry *, struct inode *);
30	char *(*d_dname)((struct dentry *dentry, char *buffer, int buflen);
31	struct vfsmount *(*d_automount)(struct path *path);
32	int (*d_manage)(const struct path *, bool);
33	struct dentry *(*d_real)(struct dentry *, enum d_real_type type);
34	bool (*d_unalias_trylock)(const struct dentry *);
35	void (*d_unalias_unlock)(const struct dentry *);
36
37locking rules:
38
39================== ===========	========	==============	========
40ops		   rename_lock	->d_lock	may block	rcu-walk
41================== ===========	========	==============	========
42d_revalidate:	   no		no		yes (ref-walk)	maybe
43d_weak_revalidate: no		no		yes	 	no
44d_hash		   no		no		no		maybe
45d_compare:	   yes		no		no		maybe
46d_delete:	   no		yes		no		no
47d_init:		   no		no		yes		no
48d_release:	   no		no		yes		no
49d_prune:           no		yes		no		no
50d_iput:		   no		no		yes		no
51d_dname:	   no		no		no		no
52d_automount:	   no		no		yes		no
53d_manage:	   no		no		yes (ref-walk)	maybe
54d_real		   no		no		yes 		no
55d_unalias_trylock  yes		no		no 		no
56d_unalias_unlock   yes		no		no 		no
57================== ===========	========	==============	========
58
59inode_operations
60================
61
62prototypes::
63
64	int (*create) (struct mnt_idmap *, struct inode *,struct dentry *,umode_t);
65	struct dentry * (*lookup) (struct inode *,struct dentry *, unsigned int);
66	int (*link) (struct dentry *,struct inode *,struct dentry *);
67	int (*unlink) (struct inode *,struct dentry *);
68	int (*symlink) (struct mnt_idmap *, struct inode *,struct dentry *,const char *);
69	struct dentry *(*mkdir) (struct mnt_idmap *, struct inode *,struct dentry *,umode_t);
70	int (*rmdir) (struct inode *,struct dentry *);
71	int (*mknod) (struct mnt_idmap *, struct inode *,struct dentry *,umode_t,dev_t);
72	int (*rename) (struct mnt_idmap *, struct inode *, struct dentry *,
73			struct inode *, struct dentry *, unsigned int);
74	int (*readlink) (struct dentry *, char __user *,int);
75	const char *(*get_link) (struct dentry *, struct inode *, struct delayed_call *);
76	void (*truncate) (struct inode *);
77	int (*permission) (struct mnt_idmap *, struct inode *, int, unsigned int);
78	struct posix_acl * (*get_inode_acl)(struct inode *, int, bool);
79	int (*setattr) (struct mnt_idmap *, struct dentry *, struct iattr *);
80	int (*getattr) (struct mnt_idmap *, const struct path *, struct kstat *, u32, unsigned int);
81	ssize_t (*listxattr) (struct dentry *, char *, size_t);
82	int (*fiemap)(struct inode *, struct fiemap_extent_info *, u64 start, u64 len);
83	void (*update_time)(struct inode *inode, enum fs_update_time type,
84			    int flags);
85	void (*sync_lazytime)(struct inode *inode);
86	int (*atomic_open)(struct inode *, struct dentry *,
87				struct file *, unsigned open_flag,
88				umode_t create_mode);
89	int (*tmpfile) (struct mnt_idmap *, struct inode *,
90			struct file *, umode_t);
91	int (*fileattr_set)(struct mnt_idmap *idmap,
92			    struct dentry *dentry, struct file_kattr *fa);
93	int (*fileattr_get)(struct dentry *dentry, struct file_kattr *fa);
94	struct posix_acl * (*get_acl)(struct mnt_idmap *, struct dentry *, int);
95	struct offset_ctx *(*get_offset_ctx)(struct inode *inode);
96
97locking rules:
98	all may block
99
100==============	==================================================
101ops		i_rwsem(inode)
102==============	==================================================
103lookup:		shared
104create:		exclusive
105link:		exclusive (both)
106mknod:		exclusive
107symlink:	exclusive
108mkdir:		exclusive
109unlink:		exclusive (both)
110rmdir:		exclusive (both)(see below)
111rename:		exclusive (both parents, some children)	(see below)
112readlink:	no
113get_link:	no
114setattr:	exclusive
115permission:	no (may not block if called in rcu-walk mode)
116get_inode_acl:	no
117get_acl:	no
118getattr:	no
119listxattr:	no
120fiemap:		no
121update_time:	no
122sync_lazytime:	no
123atomic_open:	shared (exclusive if O_CREAT is set in open flags)
124tmpfile:	no
125fileattr_get:	no or exclusive
126fileattr_set:	exclusive
127get_offset_ctx  no
128==============	==================================================
129
130
131	Additionally, ->rmdir(), ->unlink() and ->rename() have ->i_rwsem
132	exclusive on victim.
133	cross-directory ->rename() has (per-superblock) ->s_vfs_rename_sem.
134	->unlink() and ->rename() have ->i_rwsem exclusive on all non-directories
135	involved.
136	->rename() has ->i_rwsem exclusive on any subdirectory that changes parent.
137
138See Documentation/filesystems/directory-locking.rst for more detailed discussion
139of the locking scheme for directory operations.
140
141xattr_handler operations
142========================
143
144prototypes::
145
146	bool (*list)(struct dentry *dentry);
147	int (*get)(const struct xattr_handler *handler, struct dentry *dentry,
148		   struct inode *inode, const char *name, void *buffer,
149		   size_t size);
150	int (*set)(const struct xattr_handler *handler,
151                   struct mnt_idmap *idmap,
152                   struct dentry *dentry, struct inode *inode, const char *name,
153                   const void *buffer, size_t size, int flags);
154
155locking rules:
156	all may block
157
158=====		==============
159ops		i_rwsem(inode)
160=====		==============
161list:		no
162get:		no
163set:		exclusive
164=====		==============
165
166super_operations
167================
168
169prototypes::
170
171	struct inode *(*alloc_inode)(struct super_block *sb);
172	void (*free_inode)(struct inode *);
173	void (*destroy_inode)(struct inode *);
174	void (*dirty_inode) (struct inode *, int flags);
175	int (*write_inode) (struct inode *, struct writeback_control *wbc);
176	int (*drop_inode) (struct inode *);
177	void (*evict_inode) (struct inode *);
178	void (*put_super) (struct super_block *);
179	int (*sync_fs)(struct super_block *sb, int wait);
180	int (*freeze_fs) (struct super_block *);
181	int (*unfreeze_fs) (struct super_block *);
182	int (*statfs) (struct dentry *, struct kstatfs *);
183	void (*umount_begin) (struct super_block *);
184	int (*show_options)(struct seq_file *, struct dentry *);
185	ssize_t (*quota_read)(struct super_block *, int, char *, size_t, loff_t);
186	ssize_t (*quota_write)(struct super_block *, int, const char *, size_t, loff_t);
187
188locking rules:
189	All may block [not true, see below]
190
191======================	============	========================
192ops			s_umount	note
193======================	============	========================
194alloc_inode:
195free_inode:				called from RCU callback
196destroy_inode:
197dirty_inode:
198write_inode:
199drop_inode:				!!!inode->i_lock!!!
200evict_inode:
201put_super:		write
202sync_fs:		read
203freeze_fs:		write
204unfreeze_fs:		write
205statfs:			maybe(read)	(see below)
206umount_begin:		no
207show_options:		no		(namespace_sem)
208quota_read:		no		(see below)
209quota_write:		no		(see below)
210======================	============	========================
211
212->statfs() has s_umount (shared) when called by ustat(2) (native or
213compat), but that's an accident of bad API; s_umount is used to pin
214the superblock down when we only have dev_t given us by userland to
215identify the superblock.  Everything else (statfs(), fstatfs(), etc.)
216doesn't hold it when calling ->statfs() - superblock is pinned down
217by resolving the pathname passed to syscall.
218
219->quota_read() and ->quota_write() functions are both guaranteed to
220be the only ones operating on the quota file by the quota code (via
221dqio_sem) (unless an admin really wants to screw up something and
222writes to quota files with quotas on). For other details about locking
223see also dquot_operations section.
224
225file_system_type
226================
227
228prototypes::
229
230	void (*kill_sb) (struct super_block *);
231
232locking rules:
233
234=======		=========
235ops		may block
236=======		=========
237kill_sb		yes
238=======		=========
239
240->kill_sb() takes a write-locked superblock, does all shutdown work on it,
241unlocks and drops the reference.
242
243address_space_operations
244========================
245prototypes::
246
247	int (*read_folio)(struct file *, struct folio *);
248	int (*writepages)(struct address_space *, struct writeback_control *);
249	bool (*dirty_folio)(struct address_space *, struct folio *folio);
250	void (*readahead)(struct readahead_control *);
251	int (*write_begin)(const struct kiocb *, struct address_space *mapping,
252				loff_t pos, unsigned len,
253				struct folio **foliop, void **fsdata);
254	int (*write_end)(const struct kiocb *, struct address_space *mapping,
255				loff_t pos, unsigned len, unsigned copied,
256				struct folio *folio, void *fsdata);
257	sector_t (*bmap)(struct address_space *, sector_t);
258	void (*invalidate_folio) (struct folio *, size_t start, size_t len);
259	bool (*release_folio)(struct folio *, gfp_t);
260	void (*free_folio)(struct folio *);
261	int (*direct_IO)(struct kiocb *, struct iov_iter *iter);
262	int (*migrate_folio)(struct address_space *, struct folio *dst,
263			struct folio *src, enum migrate_mode);
264	int (*launder_folio)(struct folio *);
265	bool (*is_partially_uptodate)(struct folio *, size_t from, size_t count);
266	int (*error_remove_folio)(struct address_space *, struct folio *);
267	int (*swap_activate)(struct swap_info_struct *sis, struct file *f, sector_t *span)
268	int (*swap_deactivate)(struct file *);
269
270locking rules:
271	All except dirty_folio and free_folio may block
272
273======================	======================== =========	===============
274ops			folio locked		 i_rwsem	invalidate_lock
275======================	======================== =========	===============
276read_folio:		yes, unlocks				shared
277writepages:
278dirty_folio:		maybe
279readahead:		yes, unlocks				shared
280write_begin:		locks the folio		 exclusive
281write_end:		yes, unlocks		 exclusive
282bmap:
283invalidate_folio:	yes					exclusive
284release_folio:		yes
285free_folio:		yes
286direct_IO:
287migrate_folio:		yes (both)
288launder_folio:		yes
289is_partially_uptodate:	yes
290error_remove_folio:	yes
291swap_activate:		no
292swap_deactivate:	no
293======================	======================== =========	===============
294
295->write_begin(), ->write_end() and ->read_folio() may be called from
296the request handler (/dev/loop).
297
298->read_folio() unlocks the folio, either synchronously or via I/O
299completion.
300
301->readahead() unlocks the folios that I/O is attempted on like ->read_folio().
302
303->writepages() is used for periodic writeback and for syscall-initiated
304sync operations.  The address_space should start I/O against at least
305``*nr_to_write`` pages.  ``*nr_to_write`` must be decremented for each page
306which is written.  The address_space implementation may write more (or less)
307pages than ``*nr_to_write`` asks for, but it should try to be reasonably close.
308If nr_to_write is NULL, all dirty pages must be written.
309
310writepages should _only_ write pages which are present in
311mapping->i_pages.
312
313->dirty_folio() is called from various places in the kernel when
314the target folio is marked as needing writeback.  The folio cannot be
315truncated because either the caller holds the folio lock, or the caller
316has found the folio while holding the page table lock which will block
317truncation.
318
319->bmap() is currently used by legacy ioctl() (FIBMAP) provided by some
320filesystems and by the swapper. The latter will eventually go away.  Please,
321keep it that way and don't breed new callers.
322
323->invalidate_folio() is called when the filesystem must attempt to drop
324some or all of the buffers from the page when it is being truncated. It
325returns zero on success.  The filesystem must exclusively acquire
326invalidate_lock before invalidating page cache in truncate / hole punch
327path (and thus calling into ->invalidate_folio) to block races between page
328cache invalidation and page cache filling functions (fault, read, ...).
329
330->release_folio() is called when the MM wants to make a change to the
331folio that would invalidate the filesystem's private data.  For example,
332it may be about to be removed from the address_space or split.  The folio
333is locked and not under writeback.  It may be dirty.  The gfp parameter
334is not usually used for allocation, but rather to indicate what the
335filesystem may do to attempt to free the private data.  The filesystem may
336return false to indicate that the folio's private data cannot be freed.
337If it returns true, it should have already removed the private data from
338the folio.  If a filesystem does not provide a ->release_folio method,
339the pagecache will assume that private data is buffer_heads and call
340try_to_free_buffers().
341
342->free_folio() is called when the kernel has dropped the folio
343from the page cache.
344
345->launder_folio() may be called prior to releasing a folio if
346it is still found to be dirty. It returns zero if the folio was successfully
347cleaned, or an error value if not. Note that in order to prevent the folio
348getting mapped back in and redirtied, it needs to be kept locked
349across the entire operation.
350
351->swap_activate() will be called to prepare the given file for swap.  It
352should perform any validation and preparation necessary to ensure that
353writes can be performed with minimal memory allocation.  It should call
354add_swap_extent(), or the helper iomap_swapfile_activate(), and return
355the number of extents added.  If IO should be submitted through
356the file system it should call swap_fs_activate, otherwise IO will be
357submitted directly to the block device ``sis->bdev``.
358
359->swap_deactivate() will be called in the sys_swapoff()
360path after ->swap_activate() returned success.
361
362file_lock_operations
363====================
364
365prototypes::
366
367	void (*fl_copy_lock)(struct file_lock *, struct file_lock *);
368	void (*fl_release_private)(struct file_lock *);
369
370
371locking rules:
372
373===================	=============	=========
374ops			inode->i_lock	may block
375===================	=============	=========
376fl_copy_lock:		yes		no
377fl_release_private:	maybe		maybe[1]_
378===================	=============	=========
379
380.. [1]:
381   ->fl_release_private for flock or POSIX locks is currently allowed
382   to block. Leases however can still be freed while the i_lock is held and
383   so fl_release_private called on a lease should not block.
384
385lock_manager_operations
386=======================
387
388prototypes::
389
390	void (*lm_notify)(struct file_lock *);  /* unblock callback */
391	int (*lm_grant)(struct file_lock *, struct file_lock *, int);
392	void (*lm_break)(struct file_lock *); /* break_lease callback */
393	int (*lm_change)(struct file_lock **, int);
394	bool (*lm_breaker_owns_lease)(struct file_lock *);
395        bool (*lm_lock_expirable)(struct file_lock *);
396        void (*lm_expire_lock)(void);
397        bool (*lm_breaker_timedout)(struct file_lease *);
398
399locking rules:
400
401======================	=============	=================	=========
402ops			   flc_lock  	blocked_lock_lock	may block
403======================	=============	=================	=========
404lm_notify:		no      	yes			no
405lm_grant:		no		no			no
406lm_break:		yes		no			no
407lm_change		yes		no			no
408lm_breaker_owns_lease:	yes     	no			no
409lm_lock_expirable	yes		no			no
410lm_expire_lock		no		no			yes
411lm_open_conflict	yes		no			no
412lm_breaker_timedout     yes             no                      no
413======================	=============	=================	=========
414
415block_device_operations
416=======================
417prototypes::
418
419	int (*open) (struct block_device *, fmode_t);
420	int (*release) (struct gendisk *, fmode_t);
421	int (*ioctl) (struct block_device *, fmode_t, unsigned, unsigned long);
422	int (*compat_ioctl) (struct block_device *, fmode_t, unsigned, unsigned long);
423	int (*direct_access) (struct block_device *, sector_t, void **,
424				unsigned long *);
425	void (*unlock_native_capacity) (struct gendisk *);
426	int (*getgeo)(struct gendisk *, struct hd_geometry *);
427	void (*swap_slot_free_notify) (struct block_device *, unsigned long);
428
429locking rules:
430
431======================= ===================
432ops			open_mutex
433======================= ===================
434open:			yes
435release:		yes
436ioctl:			no
437compat_ioctl:		no
438direct_access:		no
439unlock_native_capacity:	no
440getgeo:			no
441swap_slot_free_notify:	no	(see below)
442======================= ===================
443
444swap_slot_free_notify is called with swap_lock and sometimes the page lock
445held.
446
447
448file_operations
449===============
450
451prototypes::
452
453	loff_t (*llseek) (struct file *, loff_t, int);
454	ssize_t (*read) (struct file *, char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);
455	ssize_t (*write) (struct file *, const char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);
456	ssize_t (*read_iter) (struct kiocb *, struct iov_iter *);
457	ssize_t (*write_iter) (struct kiocb *, struct iov_iter *);
458	int (*iopoll) (struct kiocb *kiocb, bool spin);
459	int (*iterate_shared) (struct file *, struct dir_context *);
460	__poll_t (*poll) (struct file *, struct poll_table_struct *);
461	long (*unlocked_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
462	long (*compat_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
463	int (*mmap) (struct file *, struct vm_area_struct *);
464	int (*open) (struct inode *, struct file *);
465	int (*flush) (struct file *);
466	int (*release) (struct inode *, struct file *);
467	int (*fsync) (struct file *, loff_t start, loff_t end, int datasync);
468	int (*fasync) (int, struct file *, int);
469	int (*lock) (struct file *, int, struct file_lock *);
470	unsigned long (*get_unmapped_area)(struct file *, unsigned long,
471			unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long);
472	int (*check_flags)(int);
473	int (*flock) (struct file *, int, struct file_lock *);
474	ssize_t (*splice_write)(struct pipe_inode_info *, struct file *, loff_t *,
475			size_t, unsigned int);
476	ssize_t (*splice_read)(struct file *, loff_t *, struct pipe_inode_info *,
477			size_t, unsigned int);
478	int (*setlease)(struct file *, long, struct file_lock **, void **);
479	long (*fallocate)(struct file *, int, loff_t, loff_t);
480	void (*show_fdinfo)(struct seq_file *m, struct file *f);
481	unsigned (*mmap_capabilities)(struct file *);
482	ssize_t (*copy_file_range)(struct file *, loff_t, struct file *,
483			loff_t, size_t, unsigned int);
484	loff_t (*remap_file_range)(struct file *file_in, loff_t pos_in,
485			struct file *file_out, loff_t pos_out,
486			loff_t len, unsigned int remap_flags);
487	int (*fadvise)(struct file *, loff_t, loff_t, int);
488
489locking rules:
490	All may block.
491
492->llseek() locking has moved from llseek to the individual llseek
493implementations.  If your fs is not using generic_file_llseek, you
494need to acquire and release the appropriate locks in your ->llseek().
495For many filesystems, it is probably safe to acquire the inode
496mutex or just to use i_size_read() instead.
497Note: this does not protect the file->f_pos against concurrent modifications
498since this is something the userspace has to take care about.
499
500->iterate_shared() is called with i_rwsem held for reading, and with the
501file f_pos_lock held exclusively
502
503->fasync() is responsible for maintaining the FASYNC bit in filp->f_flags.
504Most instances call fasync_helper(), which does that maintenance, so it's
505not normally something one needs to worry about.  Return values > 0 will be
506mapped to zero in the VFS layer.
507
508->readdir() and ->ioctl() on directories must be changed. Ideally we would
509move ->readdir() to inode_operations and use a separate method for directory
510->ioctl() or kill the latter completely. One of the problems is that for
511anything that resembles union-mount we won't have a struct file for all
512components. And there are other reasons why the current interface is a mess...
513
514->read on directories probably must go away - we should just enforce -EISDIR
515in sys_read() and friends.
516
517->setlease operations should call generic_setlease() before or after setting
518the lease within the individual filesystem to record the result of the
519operation
520
521->fallocate implementation must be really careful to maintain page cache
522consistency when punching holes or performing other operations that invalidate
523page cache contents. Usually the filesystem needs to call
524truncate_inode_pages_range() to invalidate relevant range of the page cache.
525However the filesystem usually also needs to update its internal (and on disk)
526view of file offset -> disk block mapping. Until this update is finished, the
527filesystem needs to block page faults and reads from reloading now-stale page
528cache contents from the disk. Since VFS acquires mapping->invalidate_lock in
529shared mode when loading pages from disk (filemap_fault(), filemap_read(),
530readahead paths), the fallocate implementation must take the invalidate_lock to
531prevent reloading.
532
533->copy_file_range and ->remap_file_range implementations need to serialize
534against modifications of file data while the operation is running. For
535blocking changes through write(2) and similar operations inode->i_rwsem can be
536used. To block changes to file contents via a memory mapping during the
537operation, the filesystem must take mapping->invalidate_lock to coordinate
538with ->page_mkwrite.
539
540dquot_operations
541================
542
543prototypes::
544
545	int (*write_dquot) (struct dquot *);
546	int (*acquire_dquot) (struct dquot *);
547	int (*release_dquot) (struct dquot *);
548	int (*mark_dirty) (struct dquot *);
549	int (*write_info) (struct super_block *, int);
550
551These operations are intended to be more or less wrapping functions that ensure
552a proper locking wrt the filesystem and call the generic quota operations.
553
554What filesystem should expect from the generic quota functions:
555
556==============	============	=========================
557ops		FS recursion	Held locks when called
558==============	============	=========================
559write_dquot:	yes		dqonoff_sem or dqptr_sem
560acquire_dquot:	yes		dqonoff_sem or dqptr_sem
561release_dquot:	yes		dqonoff_sem or dqptr_sem
562mark_dirty:	no		-
563write_info:	yes		dqonoff_sem
564==============	============	=========================
565
566FS recursion means calling ->quota_read() and ->quota_write() from superblock
567operations.
568
569More details about quota locking can be found in fs/quota/dquot.c.
570
571vm_operations_struct
572====================
573
574prototypes::
575
576	void (*open)(struct vm_area_struct *);
577	void (*close)(struct vm_area_struct *);
578	vm_fault_t (*fault)(struct vm_fault *);
579	vm_fault_t (*huge_fault)(struct vm_fault *, unsigned int order);
580	vm_fault_t (*map_pages)(struct vm_fault *, pgoff_t start, pgoff_t end);
581	vm_fault_t (*page_mkwrite)(struct vm_area_struct *, struct vm_fault *);
582	vm_fault_t (*pfn_mkwrite)(struct vm_area_struct *, struct vm_fault *);
583	int (*access)(struct vm_area_struct *, unsigned long, void*, int, int);
584
585locking rules:
586
587=============	==========	===========================
588ops		mmap_lock	PageLocked(page)
589=============	==========	===========================
590open:		write
591close:		read/write
592fault:		read		can return with page locked
593huge_fault:	maybe-read
594map_pages:	maybe-read
595page_mkwrite:	read		can return with page locked
596pfn_mkwrite:	read
597access:		read
598=============	==========	===========================
599
600->fault() is called when a previously not present pte is about to be faulted
601in. The filesystem must find and return the page associated with the passed in
602"pgoff" in the vm_fault structure. If it is possible that the page may be
603truncated and/or invalidated, then the filesystem must lock invalidate_lock,
604then ensure the page is not already truncated (invalidate_lock will block
605subsequent truncate), and then return with VM_FAULT_LOCKED, and the page
606locked. The VM will unlock the page.
607
608->huge_fault() is called when there is no PUD or PMD entry present.  This
609gives the filesystem the opportunity to install a PUD or PMD sized page.
610Filesystems can also use the ->fault method to return a PMD sized page,
611so implementing this function may not be necessary.  In particular,
612filesystems should not call filemap_fault() from ->huge_fault().
613The mmap_lock may not be held when this method is called.
614
615->map_pages() is called when VM asks to map easy accessible pages.
616Filesystem should find and map pages associated with offsets from "start_pgoff"
617till "end_pgoff". ->map_pages() is called with the RCU lock held and must
618not block.  If it's not possible to reach a page without blocking,
619filesystem should skip it. Filesystem should use set_pte_range() to setup
620page table entry. Pointer to entry associated with the page is passed in
621"pte" field in vm_fault structure. Pointers to entries for other offsets
622should be calculated relative to "pte".
623
624->page_mkwrite() is called when a previously read-only pte is about to become
625writeable. The filesystem again must ensure that there are no
626truncate/invalidate races or races with operations such as ->remap_file_range
627or ->copy_file_range, and then return with the page locked. Usually
628mapping->invalidate_lock is suitable for proper serialization. If the page has
629been truncated, the filesystem should not look up a new page like the ->fault()
630handler, but simply return with VM_FAULT_NOPAGE, which will cause the VM to
631retry the fault.
632
633->pfn_mkwrite() is the same as page_mkwrite but when the pte is
634VM_PFNMAP or VM_MIXEDMAP with a page-less entry. Expected return is
635VM_FAULT_NOPAGE. Or one of the VM_FAULT_ERROR types. The default behavior
636after this call is to make the pte read-write, unless pfn_mkwrite returns
637an error.
638
639->access() is called when get_user_pages() fails in
640access_process_vm(), typically used to debug a process through
641/proc/pid/mem or ptrace.  This function is needed only for
642VM_IO | VM_PFNMAP VMAs.
643
644--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
645
646			Dubious stuff
647
648(if you break something or notice that it is broken and do not fix it yourself
649- at least put it here)
650