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authorAndré Fabian Silva Delgado <emulatorman@parabola.nu>2015-08-05 17:04:01 -0300
committerAndré Fabian Silva Delgado <emulatorman@parabola.nu>2015-08-05 17:04:01 -0300
commit57f0f512b273f60d52568b8c6b77e17f5636edc0 (patch)
tree5e910f0e82173f4ef4f51111366a3f1299037a7b /Documentation/filesystems/fiemap.txt
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+============
+Fiemap Ioctl
+============
+
+The fiemap ioctl is an efficient method for userspace to get file
+extent mappings. Instead of block-by-block mapping (such as bmap), fiemap
+returns a list of extents.
+
+
+Request Basics
+--------------
+
+A fiemap request is encoded within struct fiemap:
+
+struct fiemap {
+ __u64 fm_start; /* logical offset (inclusive) at
+ * which to start mapping (in) */
+ __u64 fm_length; /* logical length of mapping which
+ * userspace cares about (in) */
+ __u32 fm_flags; /* FIEMAP_FLAG_* flags for request (in/out) */
+ __u32 fm_mapped_extents; /* number of extents that were
+ * mapped (out) */
+ __u32 fm_extent_count; /* size of fm_extents array (in) */
+ __u32 fm_reserved;
+ struct fiemap_extent fm_extents[0]; /* array of mapped extents (out) */
+};
+
+
+fm_start, and fm_length specify the logical range within the file
+which the process would like mappings for. Extents returned mirror
+those on disk - that is, the logical offset of the 1st returned extent
+may start before fm_start, and the range covered by the last returned
+extent may end after fm_length. All offsets and lengths are in bytes.
+
+Certain flags to modify the way in which mappings are looked up can be
+set in fm_flags. If the kernel doesn't understand some particular
+flags, it will return EBADR and the contents of fm_flags will contain
+the set of flags which caused the error. If the kernel is compatible
+with all flags passed, the contents of fm_flags will be unmodified.
+It is up to userspace to determine whether rejection of a particular
+flag is fatal to its operation. This scheme is intended to allow the
+fiemap interface to grow in the future but without losing
+compatibility with old software.
+
+fm_extent_count specifies the number of elements in the fm_extents[] array
+that can be used to return extents. If fm_extent_count is zero, then the
+fm_extents[] array is ignored (no extents will be returned), and the
+fm_mapped_extents count will hold the number of extents needed in
+fm_extents[] to hold the file's current mapping. Note that there is
+nothing to prevent the file from changing between calls to FIEMAP.
+
+The following flags can be set in fm_flags:
+
+* FIEMAP_FLAG_SYNC
+If this flag is set, the kernel will sync the file before mapping extents.
+
+* FIEMAP_FLAG_XATTR
+If this flag is set, the extents returned will describe the inodes
+extended attribute lookup tree, instead of its data tree.
+
+
+Extent Mapping
+--------------
+
+Extent information is returned within the embedded fm_extents array
+which userspace must allocate along with the fiemap structure. The
+number of elements in the fiemap_extents[] array should be passed via
+fm_extent_count. The number of extents mapped by kernel will be
+returned via fm_mapped_extents. If the number of fiemap_extents
+allocated is less than would be required to map the requested range,
+the maximum number of extents that can be mapped in the fm_extent[]
+array will be returned and fm_mapped_extents will be equal to
+fm_extent_count. In that case, the last extent in the array will not
+complete the requested range and will not have the FIEMAP_EXTENT_LAST
+flag set (see the next section on extent flags).
+
+Each extent is described by a single fiemap_extent structure as
+returned in fm_extents.
+
+struct fiemap_extent {
+ __u64 fe_logical; /* logical offset in bytes for the start of
+ * the extent */
+ __u64 fe_physical; /* physical offset in bytes for the start
+ * of the extent */
+ __u64 fe_length; /* length in bytes for the extent */
+ __u64 fe_reserved64[2];
+ __u32 fe_flags; /* FIEMAP_EXTENT_* flags for this extent */
+ __u32 fe_reserved[3];
+};
+
+All offsets and lengths are in bytes and mirror those on disk. It is valid
+for an extents logical offset to start before the request or its logical
+length to extend past the request. Unless FIEMAP_EXTENT_NOT_ALIGNED is
+returned, fe_logical, fe_physical, and fe_length will be aligned to the
+block size of the file system. With the exception of extents flagged as
+FIEMAP_EXTENT_MERGED, adjacent extents will not be merged.
+
+The fe_flags field contains flags which describe the extent returned.
+A special flag, FIEMAP_EXTENT_LAST is always set on the last extent in
+the file so that the process making fiemap calls can determine when no
+more extents are available, without having to call the ioctl again.
+
+Some flags are intentionally vague and will always be set in the
+presence of other more specific flags. This way a program looking for
+a general property does not have to know all existing and future flags
+which imply that property.
+
+For example, if FIEMAP_EXTENT_DATA_INLINE or FIEMAP_EXTENT_DATA_TAIL
+are set, FIEMAP_EXTENT_NOT_ALIGNED will also be set. A program looking
+for inline or tail-packed data can key on the specific flag. Software
+which simply cares not to try operating on non-aligned extents
+however, can just key on FIEMAP_EXTENT_NOT_ALIGNED, and not have to
+worry about all present and future flags which might imply unaligned
+data. Note that the opposite is not true - it would be valid for
+FIEMAP_EXTENT_NOT_ALIGNED to appear alone.
+
+* FIEMAP_EXTENT_LAST
+This is the last extent in the file. A mapping attempt past this
+extent will return nothing.
+
+* FIEMAP_EXTENT_UNKNOWN
+The location of this extent is currently unknown. This may indicate
+the data is stored on an inaccessible volume or that no storage has
+been allocated for the file yet.
+
+* FIEMAP_EXTENT_DELALLOC
+ - This will also set FIEMAP_EXTENT_UNKNOWN.
+Delayed allocation - while there is data for this extent, its
+physical location has not been allocated yet.
+
+* FIEMAP_EXTENT_ENCODED
+This extent does not consist of plain filesystem blocks but is
+encoded (e.g. encrypted or compressed). Reading the data in this
+extent via I/O to the block device will have undefined results.
+
+Note that it is *always* undefined to try to update the data
+in-place by writing to the indicated location without the
+assistance of the filesystem, or to access the data using the
+information returned by the FIEMAP interface while the filesystem
+is mounted. In other words, user applications may only read the
+extent data via I/O to the block device while the filesystem is
+unmounted, and then only if the FIEMAP_EXTENT_ENCODED flag is
+clear; user applications must not try reading or writing to the
+filesystem via the block device under any other circumstances.
+
+* FIEMAP_EXTENT_DATA_ENCRYPTED
+ - This will also set FIEMAP_EXTENT_ENCODED
+The data in this extent has been encrypted by the file system.
+
+* FIEMAP_EXTENT_NOT_ALIGNED
+Extent offsets and length are not guaranteed to be block aligned.
+
+* FIEMAP_EXTENT_DATA_INLINE
+ This will also set FIEMAP_EXTENT_NOT_ALIGNED
+Data is located within a meta data block.
+
+* FIEMAP_EXTENT_DATA_TAIL
+ This will also set FIEMAP_EXTENT_NOT_ALIGNED
+Data is packed into a block with data from other files.
+
+* FIEMAP_EXTENT_UNWRITTEN
+Unwritten extent - the extent is allocated but its data has not been
+initialized. This indicates the extent's data will be all zero if read
+through the filesystem but the contents are undefined if read directly from
+the device.
+
+* FIEMAP_EXTENT_MERGED
+This will be set when a file does not support extents, i.e., it uses a block
+based addressing scheme. Since returning an extent for each block back to
+userspace would be highly inefficient, the kernel will try to merge most
+adjacent blocks into 'extents'.
+
+
+VFS -> File System Implementation
+---------------------------------
+
+File systems wishing to support fiemap must implement a ->fiemap callback on
+their inode_operations structure. The fs ->fiemap call is responsible for
+defining its set of supported fiemap flags, and calling a helper function on
+each discovered extent:
+
+struct inode_operations {
+ ...
+
+ int (*fiemap)(struct inode *, struct fiemap_extent_info *, u64 start,
+ u64 len);
+
+->fiemap is passed struct fiemap_extent_info which describes the
+fiemap request:
+
+struct fiemap_extent_info {
+ unsigned int fi_flags; /* Flags as passed from user */
+ unsigned int fi_extents_mapped; /* Number of mapped extents */
+ unsigned int fi_extents_max; /* Size of fiemap_extent array */
+ struct fiemap_extent *fi_extents_start; /* Start of fiemap_extent array */
+};
+
+It is intended that the file system should not need to access any of this
+structure directly. Filesystem handlers should be tolerant to signals and return
+EINTR once fatal signal received.
+
+
+Flag checking should be done at the beginning of the ->fiemap callback via the
+fiemap_check_flags() helper:
+
+int fiemap_check_flags(struct fiemap_extent_info *fieinfo, u32 fs_flags);
+
+The struct fieinfo should be passed in as received from ioctl_fiemap(). The
+set of fiemap flags which the fs understands should be passed via fs_flags. If
+fiemap_check_flags finds invalid user flags, it will place the bad values in
+fieinfo->fi_flags and return -EBADR. If the file system gets -EBADR, from
+fiemap_check_flags(), it should immediately exit, returning that error back to
+ioctl_fiemap().
+
+
+For each extent in the request range, the file system should call
+the helper function, fiemap_fill_next_extent():
+
+int fiemap_fill_next_extent(struct fiemap_extent_info *info, u64 logical,
+ u64 phys, u64 len, u32 flags, u32 dev);
+
+fiemap_fill_next_extent() will use the passed values to populate the
+next free extent in the fm_extents array. 'General' extent flags will
+automatically be set from specific flags on behalf of the calling file
+system so that the userspace API is not broken.
+
+fiemap_fill_next_extent() returns 0 on success, and 1 when the
+user-supplied fm_extents array is full. If an error is encountered
+while copying the extent to user memory, -EFAULT will be returned.