ovl: Add an alternative type of whiteout

An xattr whiteout (called "xwhiteout" in the code) is a reguar file of
zero size with the "overlay.whiteout" xattr set. A file like this in a
directory with the "overlay.whiteouts" xattrs set will be treated the
same way as a regular whiteout.

The "overlay.whiteouts" directory xattr is used in order to
efficiently handle overlay checks in readdir(), as we only need to
checks xattrs in affected directories.

The advantage of this kind of whiteout is that they can be escaped
using the standard overlay xattr escaping mechanism. So, a file with a
"overlay.overlay.whiteout" xattr would be unescaped to
"overlay.whiteout", which could then be consumed by another overlayfs
as a whiteout.

Overlayfs itself doesn't create whiteouts like this, but a userspace
mechanism could use this alternative mechanism to convert images that
may contain whiteouts to be used with overlayfs.

To work as a whiteout for both regular overlayfs mounts as well as
userxattr mounts both the "user.overlay.whiteout*" and the
"trusted.overlay.whiteout*" xattrs will need to be created.

Signed-off-by: Alexander Larsson <alexl@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>

1 files changed, 40 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/util.c b/fs/overlayfs/util.c
index f8455fcb8b07..73ac47b49218 100644
--- a/fs/overlayfs/util.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/util.c
@@ -601,6 +601,16 @@ bool ovl_is_whiteout(struct dentry *dentry)
 	return inode && IS_WHITEOUT(inode);
 }
 
+/*
+ * Use this over ovl_is_whiteout for upper and lower files, as it also
+ * handles overlay.whiteout xattr whiteout files.
+ */
+bool ovl_path_is_whiteout(struct ovl_fs *ofs, const struct path *path)
+{
+	return ovl_is_whiteout(path->dentry) ||
+		ovl_path_check_xwhiteout_xattr(ofs, path);
+}
+
 struct file *ovl_path_open(const struct path *path, int flags)
 {
 	struct inode *inode = d_inode(path->dentry);
@@ -716,6 +726,32 @@ bool ovl_path_check_origin_xattr(struct ovl_fs *ofs, const struct path *path)
 	return false;
 }
 
+bool ovl_path_check_xwhiteout_xattr(struct ovl_fs *ofs, const struct path *path)
+{
+	struct dentry *dentry = path->dentry;
+	int res;
+
+	/* xattr.whiteout must be a zero size regular file */
+	if (!d_is_reg(dentry) || i_size_read(d_inode(dentry)) != 0)
+		return false;
+
+	res = ovl_path_getxattr(ofs, path, OVL_XATTR_XWHITEOUT, NULL, 0);
+	return res >= 0;
+}
+
+bool ovl_path_check_xwhiteouts_xattr(struct ovl_fs *ofs, const struct path *path)
+{
+	struct dentry *dentry = path->dentry;
+	int res;
+
+	/* xattr.whiteouts must be a directory */
+	if (!d_is_dir(dentry))
+		return false;
+
+	res = ovl_path_getxattr(ofs, path, OVL_XATTR_XWHITEOUTS, NULL, 0);
+	return res >= 0;
+}
+
 /*
  * Load persistent uuid from xattr into s_uuid if found, or store a new
  * random generated value in s_uuid and in xattr.
@@ -800,6 +836,8 @@ bool ovl_path_check_dir_xattr(struct ovl_fs *ofs, const struct path *path,
 #define OVL_XATTR_UUID_POSTFIX		"uuid"
 #define OVL_XATTR_METACOPY_POSTFIX	"metacopy"
 #define OVL_XATTR_PROTATTR_POSTFIX	"protattr"
+#define OVL_XATTR_XWHITEOUT_POSTFIX	"whiteout"
+#define OVL_XATTR_XWHITEOUTS_POSTFIX	"whiteouts"
 
 #define OVL_XATTR_TAB_ENTRY(x) \
 	[x] = { [false] = OVL_XATTR_TRUSTED_PREFIX x ## _POSTFIX, \
@@ -815,6 +853,8 @@ const char *const ovl_xattr_table[][2] = {
 	OVL_XATTR_TAB_ENTRY(OVL_XATTR_UUID),
 	OVL_XATTR_TAB_ENTRY(OVL_XATTR_METACOPY),
 	OVL_XATTR_TAB_ENTRY(OVL_XATTR_PROTATTR),
+	OVL_XATTR_TAB_ENTRY(OVL_XATTR_XWHITEOUT),
+	OVL_XATTR_TAB_ENTRY(OVL_XATTR_XWHITEOUTS),
 };
 
 int ovl_check_setxattr(struct ovl_fs *ofs, struct dentry *upperdentry,