Here is an updated patch.
--
From: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
Subject: [PATCH] truncate: introduce new sequence
Introduce a new truncate calling sequence into fs/mm subsystems. Rather than
setattr > vmtruncate > truncate, have filesystems call their truncate sequence
from ->setattr if filesystem specific operations are required. vmtruncate is
deprecated, and truncate_pagecache and inode_newsize_ok helpers introduced
previously should be used.
simple_setattr is introduced for simple in-ram filesystems to implement
the new truncate sequence. Eventually all filesystems should be converted
to implement a setattr, and the default code in notify_change should go
away.
simple_setsize is also introduced to perform just the ATTR_SIZE portion
of simple_setattr (ie. changing i_size and trimming pagecache).
To implement the new truncate sequence:
- filesystem specific manipulations (eg freeing blocks) must be done in
the setattr method rather than ->truncate.
- vmtruncate can not be used by core code to trim blocks past i_size in
the event of write failure after allocation, so this must be performed
in the fs code.
- convert usage of helpers block_write_begin, nobh_write_begin,
cont_write_begin, and *blockdev_direct_IO* to use _newtrunc postfixed
variants. These avoid calling vmtruncate to trim blocks (see previous).
- inode_setattr should not be used. generic_setattr is a new function
to be used to copy simple attributes into the generic inode.
- make use of the better opportunity to handle errors with the new sequence.
Big problem with the previous calling sequence: the filesystem is not called
until i_size has already changed. This means it is not allowed to fail the
call, and also it does not know what the previous i_size was. Also, generic
code calling vmtruncate to truncate allocated blocks in case of error had
no good way to return a meaningful error (or, for example, atomically handle
block deallocation).
Cc: Christoph Hellwig ...
