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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+===========================
+Coda Kernel-Venus Interface
+===========================
+
+.. Note::
+
+ This is one of the technical documents describing a component of
+ Coda -- this document describes the client kernel-Venus interface.
+
+For more information:
+
+ http://www.coda.cs.cmu.edu
+
+For user level software needed to run Coda:
+
+ ftp://ftp.coda.cs.cmu.edu
+
+To run Coda you need to get a user level cache manager for the client,
+named Venus, as well as tools to manipulate ACLs, to log in, etc. The
+client needs to have the Coda filesystem selected in the kernel
+configuration.
+
+The server needs a user level server and at present does not depend on
+kernel support.
+
+ The Venus kernel interface
+
+ Peter J. Braam
+
+ v1.0, Nov 9, 1997
+
+ This document describes the communication between Venus and kernel
+ level filesystem code needed for the operation of the Coda file sys-
+ tem. This document version is meant to describe the current interface
+ (version 1.0) as well as improvements we envisage.
+
+.. Table of Contents
+
+ 1. Introduction
+
+ 2. Servicing Coda filesystem calls
+
+ 3. The message layer
+
+ 3.1 Implementation details
+
+ 4. The interface at the call level
+
+ 4.1 Data structures shared by the kernel and Venus
+ 4.2 The pioctl interface
+ 4.3 root
+ 4.4 lookup
+ 4.5 getattr
+ 4.6 setattr
+ 4.7 access
+ 4.8 create
+ 4.9 mkdir
+ 4.10 link
+ 4.11 symlink
+ 4.12 remove
+ 4.13 rmdir
+ 4.14 readlink
+ 4.15 open
+ 4.16 close
+ 4.17 ioctl
+ 4.18 rename
+ 4.19 readdir
+ 4.20 vget
+ 4.21 fsync
+ 4.22 inactive
+ 4.23 rdwr
+ 4.24 odymount
+ 4.25 ody_lookup
+ 4.26 ody_expand
+ 4.27 prefetch
+ 4.28 signal
+
+ 5. The minicache and downcalls
+
+ 5.1 INVALIDATE
+ 5.2 FLUSH
+ 5.3 PURGEUSER
+ 5.4 ZAPFILE
+ 5.5 ZAPDIR
+ 5.6 ZAPVNODE
+ 5.7 PURGEFID
+ 5.8 REPLACE
+
+ 6. Initialization and cleanup
+
+ 6.1 Requirements
+
+1. Introduction
+===============
+
+ A key component in the Coda Distributed File System is the cache
+ manager, Venus.
+
+ When processes on a Coda enabled system access files in the Coda
+ filesystem, requests are directed at the filesystem layer in the
+ operating system. The operating system will communicate with Venus to
+ service the request for the process. Venus manages a persistent
+ client cache and makes remote procedure calls to Coda file servers and
+ related servers (such as authentication servers) to service these
+ requests it receives from the operating system. When Venus has
+ serviced a request it replies to the operating system with appropriate
+ return codes, and other data related to the request. Optionally the
+ kernel support for Coda may maintain a minicache of recently processed
+ requests to limit the number of interactions with Venus. Venus
+ possesses the facility to inform the kernel when elements from its
+ minicache are no longer valid.
+
+ This document describes precisely this communication between the
+ kernel and Venus. The definitions of so called upcalls and downcalls
+ will be given with the format of the data they handle. We shall also
+ describe the semantic invariants resulting from the calls.
+
+ Historically Coda was implemented in a BSD file system in Mach 2.6.
+ The interface between the kernel and Venus is very similar to the BSD
+ VFS interface. Similar functionality is provided, and the format of
+ the parameters and returned data is very similar to the BSD VFS. This
+ leads to an almost natural environment for implementing a kernel-level
+ filesystem driver for Coda in a BSD system. However, other operating
+ systems such as Linux and Windows 95 and NT have virtual filesystem
+ with different interfaces.
+
+ To implement Coda on these systems some reverse engineering of the
+ Venus/Kernel protocol is necessary. Also it came to light that other
+ systems could profit significantly from certain small optimizations
+ and modifications to the protocol. To facilitate this work as well as
+ to make future ports easier, communication between Venus and the
+ kernel should be documented in great detail. This is the aim of this
+ document.
+
+2. Servicing Coda filesystem calls
+===================================
+
+ The service of a request for a Coda file system service originates in
+ a process P which accessing a Coda file. It makes a system call which
+ traps to the OS kernel. Examples of such calls trapping to the kernel
+ are ``read``, ``write``, ``open``, ``close``, ``create``, ``mkdir``,
+ ``rmdir``, ``chmod`` in a Unix ontext. Similar calls exist in the Win32
+ environment, and are named ``CreateFile``.
+
+ Generally the operating system handles the request in a virtual
+ filesystem (VFS) layer, which is named I/O Manager in NT and IFS
+ manager in Windows 95. The VFS is responsible for partial processing
+ of the request and for locating the specific filesystem(s) which will
+ service parts of the request. Usually the information in the path
+ assists in locating the correct FS drivers. Sometimes after extensive
+ pre-processing, the VFS starts invoking exported routines in the FS
+ driver. This is the point where the FS specific processing of the
+ request starts, and here the Coda specific kernel code comes into
+ play.
+
+ The FS layer for Coda must expose and implement several interfaces.
+ First and foremost the VFS must be able to make all necessary calls to
+ the Coda FS layer, so the Coda FS driver must expose the VFS interface
+ as applicable in the operating system. These differ very significantly
+ among operating systems, but share features such as facilities to
+ read/write and create and remove objects. The Coda FS layer services
+ such VFS requests by invoking one or more well defined services
+ offered by the cache manager Venus. When the replies from Venus have
+ come back to the FS driver, servicing of the VFS call continues and
+ finishes with a reply to the kernel's VFS. Finally the VFS layer
+ returns to the process.
+
+ As a result of this design a basic interface exposed by the FS driver
+ must allow Venus to manage message traffic. In particular Venus must
+ be able to retrieve and place messages and to be notified of the
+ arrival of a new message. The notification must be through a mechanism
+ which does not block Venus since Venus must attend to other tasks even
+ when no messages are waiting or being processed.
+
+ **Interfaces of the Coda FS Driver**
+
+ Furthermore the FS layer provides for a special path of communication
+ between a user process and Venus, called the pioctl interface. The
+ pioctl interface is used for Coda specific services, such as
+ requesting detailed information about the persistent cache managed by
+ Venus. Here the involvement of the kernel is minimal. It identifies
+ the calling process and passes the information on to Venus. When
+ Venus replies the response is passed back to the caller in unmodified
+ form.
+
+ Finally Venus allows the kernel FS driver to cache the results from
+ certain services. This is done to avoid excessive context switches
+ and results in an efficient system. However, Venus may acquire
+ information, for example from the network which implies that cached
+ information must be flushed or replaced. Venus then makes a downcall
+ to the Coda FS layer to request flushes or updates in the cache. The
+ kernel FS driver handles such requests synchronously.
+
+ Among these interfaces the VFS interface and the facility to place,
+ receive and be notified of messages are platform specific. We will
+ not go into the calls exported to the VFS layer but we will state the
+ requirements of the message exchange mechanism.
+
+
+3. The message layer
+=====================
+
+ At the lowest level the communication between Venus and the FS driver
+ proceeds through messages. The synchronization between processes
+ requesting Coda file service and Venus relies on blocking and waking
+ up processes. The Coda FS driver processes VFS- and pioctl-requests
+ on behalf of a process P, creates messages for Venus, awaits replies
+ and finally returns to the caller. The implementation of the exchange
+ of messages is platform specific, but the semantics have (so far)
+ appeared to be generally applicable. Data buffers are created by the
+ FS Driver in kernel memory on behalf of P and copied to user memory in
+ Venus.
+
+ The FS Driver while servicing P makes upcalls to Venus. Such an
+ upcall is dispatched to Venus by creating a message structure. The
+ structure contains the identification of P, the message sequence
+ number, the size of the request and a pointer to the data in kernel
+ memory for the request. Since the data buffer is re-used to hold the
+ reply from Venus, there is a field for the size of the reply. A flags
+ field is used in the message to precisely record the status of the
+ message. Additional platform dependent structures involve pointers to
+ determine the position of the message on queues and pointers to
+ synchronization objects. In the upcall routine the message structure
+ is filled in, flags are set to 0, and it is placed on the *pending*
+ queue. The routine calling upcall is responsible for allocating the
+ data buffer; its structure will be described in the next section.
+
+ A facility must exist to notify Venus that the message has been
+ created, and implemented using available synchronization objects in
+ the OS. This notification is done in the upcall context of the process
+ P. When the message is on the pending queue, process P cannot proceed
+ in upcall. The (kernel mode) processing of P in the filesystem
+ request routine must be suspended until Venus has replied. Therefore
+ the calling thread in P is blocked in upcall. A pointer in the
+ message structure will locate the synchronization object on which P is
+ sleeping.
+
+ Venus detects the notification that a message has arrived, and the FS
+ driver allow Venus to retrieve the message with a getmsg_from_kernel
+ call. This action finishes in the kernel by putting the message on the
+ queue of processing messages and setting flags to READ. Venus is
+ passed the contents of the data buffer. The getmsg_from_kernel call
+ now returns and Venus processes the request.
+
+ At some later point the FS driver receives a message from Venus,
+ namely when Venus calls sendmsg_to_kernel. At this moment the Coda FS
+ driver looks at the contents of the message and decides if:
+
+
+ * the message is a reply for a suspended thread P. If so it removes
+ the message from the processing queue and marks the message as
+ WRITTEN. Finally, the FS driver unblocks P (still in the kernel
+ mode context of Venus) and the sendmsg_to_kernel call returns to
+ Venus. The process P will be scheduled at some point and continues
+ processing its upcall with the data buffer replaced with the reply
+ from Venus.
+
+ * The message is a ``downcall``. A downcall is a request from Venus to
+ the FS Driver. The FS driver processes the request immediately
+ (usually a cache eviction or replacement) and when it finishes
+ sendmsg_to_kernel returns.
+
+ Now P awakes and continues processing upcall. There are some
+ subtleties to take account of. First P will determine if it was woken
+ up in upcall by a signal from some other source (for example an
+ attempt to terminate P) or as is normally the case by Venus in its
+ sendmsg_to_kernel call. In the normal case, the upcall routine will
+ deallocate the message structure and return. The FS routine can proceed
+ with its processing.
+
+
+ **Sleeping and IPC arrangements**
+
+ In case P is woken up by a signal and not by Venus, it will first look
+ at the flags field. If the message is not yet READ, the process P can
+ handle its signal without notifying Venus. If Venus has READ, and
+ the request should not be processed, P can send Venus a signal message
+ to indicate that it should disregard the previous message. Such
+ signals are put in the queue at the head, and read first by Venus. If
+ the message is already marked as WRITTEN it is too late to stop the
+ processing. The VFS routine will now continue. (-- If a VFS request
+ involves more than one upcall, this can lead to complicated state, an
+ extra field "handle_signals" could be added in the message structure
+ to indicate points of no return have been passed.--)
+
+
+
+3.1. Implementation details
+----------------------------
+
+ The Unix implementation of this mechanism has been through the
+ implementation of a character device associated with Coda. Venus
+ retrieves messages by doing a read on the device, replies are sent
+ with a write and notification is through the select system call on the
+ file descriptor for the device. The process P is kept waiting on an
+ interruptible wait queue object.
+
+ In Windows NT and the DPMI Windows 95 implementation a DeviceIoControl
+ call is used. The DeviceIoControl call is designed to copy buffers
+ from user memory to kernel memory with OPCODES. The sendmsg_to_kernel
+ is issued as a synchronous call, while the getmsg_from_kernel call is
+ asynchronous. Windows EventObjects are used for notification of
+ message arrival. The process P is kept waiting on a KernelEvent
+ object in NT and a semaphore in Windows 95.
+
+
+4. The interface at the call level
+===================================
+
+
+ This section describes the upcalls a Coda FS driver can make to Venus.
+ Each of these upcalls make use of two structures: inputArgs and
+ outputArgs. In pseudo BNF form the structures take the following
+ form::
+
+
+ struct inputArgs {
+ u_long opcode;
+ u_long unique; /* Keep multiple outstanding msgs distinct */
+ u_short pid; /* Common to all */
+ u_short pgid; /* Common to all */
+ struct CodaCred cred; /* Common to all */
+
+ <union "in" of call dependent parts of inputArgs>
+ };
+
+ struct outputArgs {
+ u_long opcode;
+ u_long unique; /* Keep multiple outstanding msgs distinct */
+ u_long result;
+
+ <union "out" of call dependent parts of inputArgs>
+ };
+
+
+
+ Before going on let us elucidate the role of the various fields. The
+ inputArgs start with the opcode which defines the type of service
+ requested from Venus. There are approximately 30 upcalls at present
+ which we will discuss. The unique field labels the inputArg with a
+ unique number which will identify the message uniquely. A process and
+ process group id are passed. Finally the credentials of the caller
+ are included.
+
+ Before delving into the specific calls we need to discuss a variety of
+ data structures shared by the kernel and Venus.
+
+
+
+
+4.1. Data structures shared by the kernel and Venus
+----------------------------------------------------
+
+
+ The CodaCred structure defines a variety of user and group ids as
+ they are set for the calling process. The vuid_t and vgid_t are 32 bit
+ unsigned integers. It also defines group membership in an array. On
+ Unix the CodaCred has proven sufficient to implement good security
+ semantics for Coda but the structure may have to undergo modification
+ for the Windows environment when these mature::
+
+ struct CodaCred {
+ vuid_t cr_uid, cr_euid, cr_suid, cr_fsuid; /* Real, effective, set, fs uid */
+ vgid_t cr_gid, cr_egid, cr_sgid, cr_fsgid; /* same for groups */
+ vgid_t cr_groups[NGROUPS]; /* Group membership for caller */
+ };
+
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ It is questionable if we need CodaCreds in Venus. Finally Venus
+ doesn't know about groups, although it does create files with the
+ default uid/gid. Perhaps the list of group membership is superfluous.
+
+
+ The next item is the fundamental identifier used to identify Coda
+ files, the ViceFid. A fid of a file uniquely defines a file or
+ directory in the Coda filesystem within a cell [1]_::
+
+ typedef struct ViceFid {
+ VolumeId Volume;
+ VnodeId Vnode;
+ Unique_t Unique;
+ } ViceFid;
+
+ .. [1] A cell is agroup of Coda servers acting under the aegis of a single
+ system control machine or SCM. See the Coda Administration manual
+ for a detailed description of the role of the SCM.
+
+ Each of the constituent fields: VolumeId, VnodeId and Unique_t are
+ unsigned 32 bit integers. We envisage that a further field will need
+ to be prefixed to identify the Coda cell; this will probably take the
+ form of a Ipv6 size IP address naming the Coda cell through DNS.
+
+ The next important structure shared between Venus and the kernel is
+ the attributes of the file. The following structure is used to
+ exchange information. It has room for future extensions such as
+ support for device files (currently not present in Coda)::
+
+
+ struct coda_timespec {
+ int64_t tv_sec; /* seconds */
+ long tv_nsec; /* nanoseconds */
+ };
+
+ struct coda_vattr {
+ enum coda_vtype va_type; /* vnode type (for create) */
+ u_short va_mode; /* files access mode and type */
+ short va_nlink; /* number of references to file */
+ vuid_t va_uid; /* owner user id */
+ vgid_t va_gid; /* owner group id */
+ long va_fsid; /* file system id (dev for now) */
+ long va_fileid; /* file id */
+ u_quad_t va_size; /* file size in bytes */
+ long va_blocksize; /* blocksize preferred for i/o */
+ struct coda_timespec va_atime; /* time of last access */
+ struct coda_timespec va_mtime; /* time of last modification */
+ struct coda_timespec va_ctime; /* time file changed */
+ u_long va_gen; /* generation number of file */
+ u_long va_flags; /* flags defined for file */
+ dev_t va_rdev; /* device special file represents */
+ u_quad_t va_bytes; /* bytes of disk space held by file */
+ u_quad_t va_filerev; /* file modification number */
+ u_int va_vaflags; /* operations flags, see below */
+ long va_spare; /* remain quad aligned */
+ };
+
+
+4.2. The pioctl interface
+--------------------------
+
+
+ Coda specific requests can be made by application through the pioctl
+ interface. The pioctl is implemented as an ordinary ioctl on a
+ fictitious file /coda/.CONTROL. The pioctl call opens this file, gets
+ a file handle and makes the ioctl call. Finally it closes the file.
+
+ The kernel involvement in this is limited to providing the facility to
+ open and close and pass the ioctl message and to verify that a path in
+ the pioctl data buffers is a file in a Coda filesystem.
+
+ The kernel is handed a data packet of the form::
+
+ struct {
+ const char *path;
+ struct ViceIoctl vidata;
+ int follow;
+ } data;
+
+
+
+ where::
+
+
+ struct ViceIoctl {
+ caddr_t in, out; /* Data to be transferred in, or out */
+ short in_size; /* Size of input buffer <= 2K */
+ short out_size; /* Maximum size of output buffer, <= 2K */
+ };
+
+
+
+ The path must be a Coda file, otherwise the ioctl upcall will not be
+ made.
+
+ .. Note:: The data structures and code are a mess. We need to clean this up.
+
+
+**We now proceed to document the individual calls**:
+
+
+4.3. root
+----------
+
+
+ Arguments
+ in
+
+ empty
+
+ out::
+
+ struct cfs_root_out {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ } cfs_root;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ This call is made to Venus during the initialization of
+ the Coda filesystem. If the result is zero, the cfs_root structure
+ contains the ViceFid of the root of the Coda filesystem. If a non-zero
+ result is generated, its value is a platform dependent error code
+ indicating the difficulty Venus encountered in locating the root of
+ the Coda filesystem.
+
+4.4. lookup
+------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Find the ViceFid and type of an object in a directory if it exists.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_lookup_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ char *name; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_lookup;
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+ struct cfs_lookup_out {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ int vtype;
+ } cfs_lookup;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ This call is made to determine the ViceFid and filetype of
+ a directory entry. The directory entry requested carries name name
+ and Venus will search the directory identified by cfs_lookup_in.VFid.
+ The result may indicate that the name does not exist, or that
+ difficulty was encountered in finding it (e.g. due to disconnection).
+ If the result is zero, the field cfs_lookup_out.VFid contains the
+ targets ViceFid and cfs_lookup_out.vtype the coda_vtype giving the
+ type of object the name designates.
+
+ The name of the object is an 8 bit character string of maximum length
+ CFS_MAXNAMLEN, currently set to 256 (including a 0 terminator.)
+
+ It is extremely important to realize that Venus bitwise ors the field
+ cfs_lookup.vtype with CFS_NOCACHE to indicate that the object should
+ not be put in the kernel name cache.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ The type of the vtype is currently wrong. It should be
+ coda_vtype. Linux does not take note of CFS_NOCACHE. It should.
+
+
+4.5. getattr
+-------------
+
+
+ Summary Get the attributes of a file.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_getattr_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ struct coda_vattr attr; /* XXXXX */
+ } cfs_getattr;
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+ struct cfs_getattr_out {
+ struct coda_vattr attr;
+ } cfs_getattr;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ This call returns the attributes of the file identified by fid.
+
+ Errors
+ Errors can occur if the object with fid does not exist, is
+ unaccessible or if the caller does not have permission to fetch
+ attributes.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ Many kernel FS drivers (Linux, NT and Windows 95) need to acquire
+ the attributes as well as the Fid for the instantiation of an internal
+ "inode" or "FileHandle". A significant improvement in performance on
+ such systems could be made by combining the lookup and getattr calls
+ both at the Venus/kernel interaction level and at the RPC level.
+
+ The vattr structure included in the input arguments is superfluous and
+ should be removed.
+
+
+4.6. setattr
+-------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Set the attributes of a file.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_setattr_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ struct coda_vattr attr;
+ } cfs_setattr;
+
+
+
+
+ out
+
+ empty
+
+ Description
+ The structure attr is filled with attributes to be changed
+ in BSD style. Attributes not to be changed are set to -1, apart from
+ vtype which is set to VNON. Other are set to the value to be assigned.
+ The only attributes which the FS driver may request to change are the
+ mode, owner, groupid, atime, mtime and ctime. The return value
+ indicates success or failure.
+
+ Errors
+ A variety of errors can occur. The object may not exist, may
+ be inaccessible, or permission may not be granted by Venus.
+
+
+4.7. access
+------------
+
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_access_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ int flags;
+ } cfs_access;
+
+
+
+ out
+
+ empty
+
+ Description
+ Verify if access to the object identified by VFid for
+ operations described by flags is permitted. The result indicates if
+ access will be granted. It is important to remember that Coda uses
+ ACLs to enforce protection and that ultimately the servers, not the
+ clients enforce the security of the system. The result of this call
+ will depend on whether a token is held by the user.
+
+ Errors
+ The object may not exist, or the ACL describing the protection
+ may not be accessible.
+
+
+4.8. create
+------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Invoked to create a file
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_create_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ struct coda_vattr attr;
+ int excl;
+ int mode;
+ char *name; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_create;
+
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+ struct cfs_create_out {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ struct coda_vattr attr;
+ } cfs_create;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ This upcall is invoked to request creation of a file.
+ The file will be created in the directory identified by VFid, its name
+ will be name, and the mode will be mode. If excl is set an error will
+ be returned if the file already exists. If the size field in attr is
+ set to zero the file will be truncated. The uid and gid of the file
+ are set by converting the CodaCred to a uid using a macro CRTOUID
+ (this macro is platform dependent). Upon success the VFid and
+ attributes of the file are returned. The Coda FS Driver will normally
+ instantiate a vnode, inode or file handle at kernel level for the new
+ object.
+
+
+ Errors
+ A variety of errors can occur. Permissions may be insufficient.
+ If the object exists and is not a file the error EISDIR is returned
+ under Unix.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ The packing of parameters is very inefficient and appears to
+ indicate confusion between the system call creat and the VFS operation
+ create. The VFS operation create is only called to create new objects.
+ This create call differs from the Unix one in that it is not invoked
+ to return a file descriptor. The truncate and exclusive options,
+ together with the mode, could simply be part of the mode as it is
+ under Unix. There should be no flags argument; this is used in open
+ (2) to return a file descriptor for READ or WRITE mode.
+
+ The attributes of the directory should be returned too, since the size
+ and mtime changed.
+
+
+4.9. mkdir
+-----------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Create a new directory.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_mkdir_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ struct coda_vattr attr;
+ char *name; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_mkdir;
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+ struct cfs_mkdir_out {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ struct coda_vattr attr;
+ } cfs_mkdir;
+
+
+
+
+ Description
+ This call is similar to create but creates a directory.
+ Only the mode field in the input parameters is used for creation.
+ Upon successful creation, the attr returned contains the attributes of
+ the new directory.
+
+ Errors
+ As for create.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ The input parameter should be changed to mode instead of
+ attributes.
+
+ The attributes of the parent should be returned since the size and
+ mtime changes.
+
+
+4.10. link
+-----------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Create a link to an existing file.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_link_in {
+ ViceFid sourceFid; /* cnode to link *to* */
+ ViceFid destFid; /* Directory in which to place link */
+ char *tname; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_link;
+
+
+
+ out
+
+ empty
+
+ Description
+ This call creates a link to the sourceFid in the directory
+ identified by destFid with name tname. The source must reside in the
+ target's parent, i.e. the source must be have parent destFid, i.e. Coda
+ does not support cross directory hard links. Only the return value is
+ relevant. It indicates success or the type of failure.
+
+ Errors
+ The usual errors can occur.
+
+
+4.11. symlink
+--------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ create a symbolic link
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_symlink_in {
+ ViceFid VFid; /* Directory to put symlink in */
+ char *srcname;
+ struct coda_vattr attr;
+ char *tname;
+ } cfs_symlink;
+
+
+
+ out
+
+ none
+
+ Description
+ Create a symbolic link. The link is to be placed in the
+ directory identified by VFid and named tname. It should point to the
+ pathname srcname. The attributes of the newly created object are to
+ be set to attr.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ The attributes of the target directory should be returned since
+ its size changed.
+
+
+4.12. remove
+-------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Remove a file
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_remove_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ char *name; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_remove;
+
+
+
+ out
+
+ none
+
+ Description
+ Remove file named cfs_remove_in.name in directory
+ identified by VFid.
+
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ The attributes of the directory should be returned since its
+ mtime and size may change.
+
+
+4.13. rmdir
+------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Remove a directory
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_rmdir_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ char *name; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_rmdir;
+
+
+
+ out
+
+ none
+
+ Description
+ Remove the directory with name name from the directory
+ identified by VFid.
+
+ .. Note:: The attributes of the parent directory should be returned since
+ its mtime and size may change.
+
+
+4.14. readlink
+---------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Read the value of a symbolic link.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_readlink_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ } cfs_readlink;
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+ struct cfs_readlink_out {
+ int count;
+ caddr_t data; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_readlink;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ This routine reads the contents of symbolic link
+ identified by VFid into the buffer data. The buffer data must be able
+ to hold any name up to CFS_MAXNAMLEN (PATH or NAM??).
+
+ Errors
+ No unusual errors.
+
+
+4.15. open
+-----------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Open a file.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_open_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ int flags;
+ } cfs_open;
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+ struct cfs_open_out {
+ dev_t dev;
+ ino_t inode;
+ } cfs_open;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ This request asks Venus to place the file identified by
+ VFid in its cache and to note that the calling process wishes to open
+ it with flags as in open(2). The return value to the kernel differs
+ for Unix and Windows systems. For Unix systems the Coda FS Driver is
+ informed of the device and inode number of the container file in the
+ fields dev and inode. For Windows the path of the container file is
+ returned to the kernel.
+
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ Currently the cfs_open_out structure is not properly adapted to
+ deal with the Windows case. It might be best to implement two
+ upcalls, one to open aiming at a container file name, the other at a
+ container file inode.
+
+
+4.16. close
+------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Close a file, update it on the servers.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_close_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ int flags;
+ } cfs_close;
+
+
+
+ out
+
+ none
+
+ Description
+ Close the file identified by VFid.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ The flags argument is bogus and not used. However, Venus' code
+ has room to deal with an execp input field, probably this field should
+ be used to inform Venus that the file was closed but is still memory
+ mapped for execution. There are comments about fetching versus not
+ fetching the data in Venus vproc_vfscalls. This seems silly. If a
+ file is being closed, the data in the container file is to be the new
+ data. Here again the execp flag might be in play to create confusion:
+ currently Venus might think a file can be flushed from the cache when
+ it is still memory mapped. This needs to be understood.
+
+
+4.17. ioctl
+------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Do an ioctl on a file. This includes the pioctl interface.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_ioctl_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ int cmd;
+ int len;
+ int rwflag;
+ char *data; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_ioctl;
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+
+ struct cfs_ioctl_out {
+ int len;
+ caddr_t data; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_ioctl;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ Do an ioctl operation on a file. The command, len and
+ data arguments are filled as usual. flags is not used by Venus.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ Another bogus parameter. flags is not used. What is the
+ business about PREFETCHING in the Venus code?
+
+
+
+4.18. rename
+-------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Rename a fid.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_rename_in {
+ ViceFid sourceFid;
+ char *srcname;
+ ViceFid destFid;
+ char *destname;
+ } cfs_rename;
+
+
+
+ out
+
+ none
+
+ Description
+ Rename the object with name srcname in directory
+ sourceFid to destname in destFid. It is important that the names
+ srcname and destname are 0 terminated strings. Strings in Unix
+ kernels are not always null terminated.
+
+
+4.19. readdir
+--------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Read directory entries.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_readdir_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ int count;
+ int offset;
+ } cfs_readdir;
+
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+ struct cfs_readdir_out {
+ int size;
+ caddr_t data; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_readdir;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ Read directory entries from VFid starting at offset and
+ read at most count bytes. Returns the data in data and returns
+ the size in size.
+
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ This call is not used. Readdir operations exploit container
+ files. We will re-evaluate this during the directory revamp which is
+ about to take place.
+
+
+4.20. vget
+-----------
+
+
+ Summary
+ instructs Venus to do an FSDB->Get.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_vget_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ } cfs_vget;
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+ struct cfs_vget_out {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ int vtype;
+ } cfs_vget;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ This upcall asks Venus to do a get operation on an fsobj
+ labelled by VFid.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ This operation is not used. However, it is extremely useful
+ since it can be used to deal with read/write memory mapped files.
+ These can be "pinned" in the Venus cache using vget and released with
+ inactive.
+
+
+4.21. fsync
+------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Tell Venus to update the RVM attributes of a file.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_fsync_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ } cfs_fsync;
+
+
+
+ out
+
+ none
+
+ Description
+ Ask Venus to update RVM attributes of object VFid. This
+ should be called as part of kernel level fsync type calls. The
+ result indicates if the syncing was successful.
+
+ .. Note:: Linux does not implement this call. It should.
+
+
+4.22. inactive
+---------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Tell Venus a vnode is no longer in use.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_inactive_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ } cfs_inactive;
+
+
+
+ out
+
+ none
+
+ Description
+ This operation returns EOPNOTSUPP.
+
+ .. Note:: This should perhaps be removed.
+
+
+4.23. rdwr
+-----------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Read or write from a file
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct cfs_rdwr_in {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ int rwflag;
+ int count;
+ int offset;
+ int ioflag;
+ caddr_t data; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_rdwr;
+
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+ struct cfs_rdwr_out {
+ int rwflag;
+ int count;
+ caddr_t data; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } cfs_rdwr;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ This upcall asks Venus to read or write from a file.
+
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ It should be removed since it is against the Coda philosophy that
+ read/write operations never reach Venus. I have been told the
+ operation does not work. It is not currently used.
+
+
+
+4.24. odymount
+---------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Allows mounting multiple Coda "filesystems" on one Unix mount point.
+
+ Arguments
+ in::
+
+ struct ody_mount_in {
+ char *name; /* Place holder for data. */
+ } ody_mount;
+
+
+
+ out::
+
+ struct ody_mount_out {
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ } ody_mount;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ Asks Venus to return the rootfid of a Coda system named
+ name. The fid is returned in VFid.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ This call was used by David for dynamic sets. It should be
+ removed since it causes a jungle of pointers in the VFS mounting area.
+ It is not used by Coda proper. Call is not implemented by Venus.
+
+
+4.25. ody_lookup
+-----------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Looks up something.
+
+ Arguments
+ in
+
+ irrelevant
+
+
+ out
+
+ irrelevant
+
+
+ .. Note:: Gut it. Call is not implemented by Venus.
+
+
+4.26. ody_expand
+-----------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ expands something in a dynamic set.
+
+ Arguments
+ in
+
+ irrelevant
+
+ out
+
+ irrelevant
+
+ .. Note:: Gut it. Call is not implemented by Venus.
+
+
+4.27. prefetch
+---------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Prefetch a dynamic set.
+
+ Arguments
+
+ in
+
+ Not documented.
+
+ out
+
+ Not documented.
+
+ Description
+ Venus worker.cc has support for this call, although it is
+ noted that it doesn't work. Not surprising, since the kernel does not
+ have support for it. (ODY_PREFETCH is not a defined operation).
+
+
+ .. Note:: Gut it. It isn't working and isn't used by Coda.
+
+
+
+4.28. signal
+-------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Send Venus a signal about an upcall.
+
+ Arguments
+ in
+
+ none
+
+ out
+
+ not applicable.
+
+ Description
+ This is an out-of-band upcall to Venus to inform Venus
+ that the calling process received a signal after Venus read the
+ message from the input queue. Venus is supposed to clean up the
+ operation.
+
+ Errors
+ No reply is given.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ We need to better understand what Venus needs to clean up and if
+ it is doing this correctly. Also we need to handle multiple upcall
+ per system call situations correctly. It would be important to know
+ what state changes in Venus take place after an upcall for which the
+ kernel is responsible for notifying Venus to clean up (e.g. open
+ definitely is such a state change, but many others are maybe not).
+
+
+5. The minicache and downcalls
+===============================
+
+
+ The Coda FS Driver can cache results of lookup and access upcalls, to
+ limit the frequency of upcalls. Upcalls carry a price since a process
+ context switch needs to take place. The counterpart of caching the
+ information is that Venus will notify the FS Driver that cached
+ entries must be flushed or renamed.
+
+ The kernel code generally has to maintain a structure which links the
+ internal file handles (called vnodes in BSD, inodes in Linux and
+ FileHandles in Windows) with the ViceFid's which Venus maintains. The
+ reason is that frequent translations back and forth are needed in
+ order to make upcalls and use the results of upcalls. Such linking
+ objects are called cnodes.
+
+ The current minicache implementations have cache entries which record
+ the following:
+
+ 1. the name of the file
+
+ 2. the cnode of the directory containing the object
+
+ 3. a list of CodaCred's for which the lookup is permitted.
+
+ 4. the cnode of the object
+
+ The lookup call in the Coda FS Driver may request the cnode of the
+ desired object from the cache, by passing its name, directory and the
+ CodaCred's of the caller. The cache will return the cnode or indicate
+ that it cannot be found. The Coda FS Driver must be careful to
+ invalidate cache entries when it modifies or removes objects.
+
+ When Venus obtains information that indicates that cache entries are
+ no longer valid, it will make a downcall to the kernel. Downcalls are
+ intercepted by the Coda FS Driver and lead to cache invalidations of
+ the kind described below. The Coda FS Driver does not return an error
+ unless the downcall data could not be read into kernel memory.
+
+
+5.1. INVALIDATE
+----------------
+
+
+ No information is available on this call.
+
+
+5.2. FLUSH
+-----------
+
+
+
+ Arguments
+ None
+
+ Summary
+ Flush the name cache entirely.
+
+ Description
+ Venus issues this call upon startup and when it dies. This
+ is to prevent stale cache information being held. Some operating
+ systems allow the kernel name cache to be switched off dynamically.
+ When this is done, this downcall is made.
+
+
+5.3. PURGEUSER
+---------------
+
+
+ Arguments
+ ::
+
+ struct cfs_purgeuser_out {/* CFS_PURGEUSER is a venus->kernel call */
+ struct CodaCred cred;
+ } cfs_purgeuser;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ Remove all entries in the cache carrying the Cred. This
+ call is issued when tokens for a user expire or are flushed.
+
+
+5.4. ZAPFILE
+-------------
+
+
+ Arguments
+ ::
+
+ struct cfs_zapfile_out { /* CFS_ZAPFILE is a venus->kernel call */
+ ViceFid CodaFid;
+ } cfs_zapfile;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ Remove all entries which have the (dir vnode, name) pair.
+ This is issued as a result of an invalidation of cached attributes of
+ a vnode.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ Call is not named correctly in NetBSD and Mach. The minicache
+ zapfile routine takes different arguments. Linux does not implement
+ the invalidation of attributes correctly.
+
+
+
+5.5. ZAPDIR
+------------
+
+
+ Arguments
+ ::
+
+ struct cfs_zapdir_out { /* CFS_ZAPDIR is a venus->kernel call */
+ ViceFid CodaFid;
+ } cfs_zapdir;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ Remove all entries in the cache lying in a directory
+ CodaFid, and all children of this directory. This call is issued when
+ Venus receives a callback on the directory.
+
+
+5.6. ZAPVNODE
+--------------
+
+
+
+ Arguments
+ ::
+
+ struct cfs_zapvnode_out { /* CFS_ZAPVNODE is a venus->kernel call */
+ struct CodaCred cred;
+ ViceFid VFid;
+ } cfs_zapvnode;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ Remove all entries in the cache carrying the cred and VFid
+ as in the arguments. This downcall is probably never issued.
+
+
+5.7. PURGEFID
+--------------
+
+
+ Arguments
+ ::
+
+ struct cfs_purgefid_out { /* CFS_PURGEFID is a venus->kernel call */
+ ViceFid CodaFid;
+ } cfs_purgefid;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ Flush the attribute for the file. If it is a dir (odd
+ vnode), purge its children from the namecache and remove the file from the
+ namecache.
+
+
+
+5.8. REPLACE
+-------------
+
+
+ Summary
+ Replace the Fid's for a collection of names.
+
+ Arguments
+ ::
+
+ struct cfs_replace_out { /* cfs_replace is a venus->kernel call */
+ ViceFid NewFid;
+ ViceFid OldFid;
+ } cfs_replace;
+
+
+
+ Description
+ This routine replaces a ViceFid in the name cache with
+ another. It is added to allow Venus during reintegration to replace
+ locally allocated temp fids while disconnected with global fids even
+ when the reference counts on those fids are not zero.
+
+
+6. Initialization and cleanup
+==============================
+
+
+ This section gives brief hints as to desirable features for the Coda
+ FS Driver at startup and upon shutdown or Venus failures. Before
+ entering the discussion it is useful to repeat that the Coda FS Driver
+ maintains the following data:
+
+
+ 1. message queues
+
+ 2. cnodes
+
+ 3. name cache entries
+
+ The name cache entries are entirely private to the driver, so they
+ can easily be manipulated. The message queues will generally have
+ clear points of initialization and destruction. The cnodes are
+ much more delicate. User processes hold reference counts in Coda
+ filesystems and it can be difficult to clean up the cnodes.
+
+ It can expect requests through:
+
+ 1. the message subsystem
+
+ 2. the VFS layer
+
+ 3. pioctl interface
+
+ Currently the pioctl passes through the VFS for Coda so we can
+ treat these similarly.
+
+
+6.1. Requirements
+------------------
+
+
+ The following requirements should be accommodated:
+
+ 1. The message queues should have open and close routines. On Unix
+ the opening of the character devices are such routines.
+
+ - Before opening, no messages can be placed.
+
+ - Opening will remove any old messages still pending.
+
+ - Close will notify any sleeping processes that their upcall cannot
+ be completed.
+
+ - Close will free all memory allocated by the message queues.
+
+
+ 2. At open the namecache shall be initialized to empty state.
+
+ 3. Before the message queues are open, all VFS operations will fail.
+ Fortunately this can be achieved by making sure than mounting the
+ Coda filesystem cannot succeed before opening.
+
+ 4. After closing of the queues, no VFS operations can succeed. Here
+ one needs to be careful, since a few operations (lookup,
+ read/write, readdir) can proceed without upcalls. These must be
+ explicitly blocked.
+
+ 5. Upon closing the namecache shall be flushed and disabled.
+
+ 6. All memory held by cnodes can be freed without relying on upcalls.
+
+ 7. Unmounting the file system can be done without relying on upcalls.
+
+ 8. Mounting the Coda filesystem should fail gracefully if Venus cannot
+ get the rootfid or the attributes of the rootfid. The latter is
+ best implemented by Venus fetching these objects before attempting
+ to mount.
+
+ .. Note::
+
+ NetBSD in particular but also Linux have not implemented the
+ above requirements fully. For smooth operation this needs to be
+ corrected.
+
+
+