[PATCH v5 2/8] man/man2/fspick.2: document "new" mount API
From: Aleksa Sarai <hidden>
Date: 2025-09-24 15:32:08
Also in:
linux-fsdevel, linux-man, lkml
Subsystem:
the rest · Maintainer:
Linus Torvalds
This is loosely based on the original documentation written by David Howells and later maintained by Christian Brauner, but has been rewritten to be more from a user perspective (as well as fixing a few critical mistakes). Co-authored-by: David Howells [off-list ref] Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> Co-authored-by: Christian Brauner [off-list ref] Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org> Signed-off-by: Aleksa Sarai <redacted> --- man/man2/fspick.2 | 343 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 343 insertions(+)
diff --git a/man/man2/fspick.2 b/man/man2/fspick.2
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+++ b/man/man2/fspick.2@@ -0,0 +1,343 @@ +.\" Copyright, the authors of the Linux man-pages project +.\" +.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft +.\" +.TH fspick 2 (date) "Linux man-pages (unreleased)" +.SH NAME +fspick \- select filesystem for reconfiguration +.SH LIBRARY +Standard C library +.RI ( libc ,\~ \-lc ) +.SH SYNOPSIS +.nf +.BR "#include <fcntl.h>" " /* Definition of " AT_* " constants */" +.B #include <sys/mount.h> +.P +.BI "int fspick(int " dirfd ", const char *" path ", unsigned int " flags ); +.fi +.SH DESCRIPTION +The +.BR fspick () +system call is part of +the suite of file-descriptor-based mount facilities in Linux. +.P +.BR fspick () +creates a new filesystem configuration context +for the extant filesystem instance +associated with the path described by +.I dirfd +and +.IR path , +places it into reconfiguration mode +(similar to +.BR mount (8) +with the +.I \-o\~remount +option). +A new file descriptor +associated with the filesystem configuration context +is then returned. +The calling process must have the +.B \%CAP_SYS_ADMIN +capability in order to create a new filesystem configuration context. +.P +The resultant file descriptor can be used with +.BR fsconfig (2) +to specify the desired set of changes to +filesystem parameters of the filesystem instance. +Once the desired set of changes have been configured, +the changes can be effectuated by calling +.BR fsconfig (2) +with the +.B \%FSCONFIG_CMD_RECONFIGURE +command. +In contrast to +the behaviour of +.B MS_REMOUNT +with +.BR mount (2), +.BR fspick () +instantiates the filesystem configuration context +with a copy of +the extant filesystem's filesystem parameters; +thus, +subsequent +.B \%FSCONFIG_CMD_RECONFIGURE +operations +will only update filesystem parameters +explicitly modified with +.BR fsconfig (2). +.P +As with "*at()" system calls, +.BR fspick () +uses the +.I dirfd +argument in conjunction with the +.I path +argument to determine the path to operate on, as follows: +.IP \[bu] 3 +If the pathname given in +.I path +is absolute, then +.I dirfd +is ignored. +.IP \[bu] +If the pathname given in +.I path +is relative and +.I dirfd +is the special value +.BR \%AT_FDCWD , +then +.I path +is interpreted relative to +the current working directory +of the calling process (like +.BR open (2)). +.IP \[bu] +If the pathname given in +.I path +is relative, +then it is interpreted relative to +the directory referred to by the file descriptor +.I dirfd +(rather than relative to +the current working directory +of the calling process, +as is done by +.BR open (2) +for a relative pathname). +In this case, +.I dirfd +must be a directory +that was opened for reading +.RB ( O_RDONLY ) +or using the +.B O_PATH +flag. +.IP \[bu] +If +.I path +is an empty string, +and +.I flags +contains +.BR \%FSPICK_EMPTY_PATH , +then the file descriptor +.I dirfd +is operated on directly. +In this case, +.I dirfd +may refer to any type of file, +not just a directory. +.P +See +.BR openat (2) +for an explanation of why the +.I dirfd +argument is useful. +.P +.I flags +can be used to control aspects of how +.I path +is resolved and +properties of the returned file descriptor. +A value for +.I flags +is constructed by bitwise ORing +zero or more of the following constants: +.RS +.TP +.B FSPICK_CLOEXEC +Set the close-on-exec +.RB ( FD_CLOEXEC ) +flag on the new file descriptor. +See the description of the +.B O_CLOEXEC +flag in +.BR open (2) +for reasons why this may be useful. +.TP +.B FSPICK_EMPTY_PATH +If +.I path +is an empty string, +operate on the file referred to by +.I dirfd +(which may have been obtained from +.BR open (2), +.BR fsmount (2), +or +.BR open_tree (2)). +In this case, +.I dirfd +may refer to any type of file, +not just a directory. +If +.I dirfd +is +.BR \%AT_FDCWD , +.BR fspick () +will operate on the current working directory +of the calling process. +.TP +.B FSPICK_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW +Do not follow symbolic links +in the terminal component of +.IR path . +If +.I path +references a symbolic link, +the returned filesystem context will reference +the filesystem that the symbolic link itself resides on. +.TP +.B FSPICK_NO_AUTOMOUNT +Do not automount the terminal ("basename") component of +.I path +if it is a directory that is an automount point. +This allows you to reconfigure an automount point, +rather than the location that would be mounted. +This flag has no effect +if the automount point has already been mounted over. +.RE +.P +As with filesystem contexts created with +.BR fsopen (2), +the file descriptor returned by +.BR fspick () +may be queried for message strings at any time by calling +.BR read (2) +on the file descriptor. +(See the "Message retrieval interface" subsection in +.BR fsopen (2) +for more details on the message format.) +.SH RETURN VALUE +On success, a new file descriptor is returned. +On error, \-1 is returned, and +.I errno +is set to indicate the error. +.SH ERRORS +.TP +.B EACCES +Search permission is denied +for one of the directories +in the path prefix of +.IR path . +(See also +.BR path_resolution (7).) +.TP +.B EBADF +.I path +is relative but +.I dirfd +is neither +.B \%AT_FDCWD +nor a valid file descriptor. +.TP +.B EFAULT +.I path +is NULL +or a pointer to a location +outside the calling process's accessible address space. +.TP +.B EINVAL +Invalid flag specified in +.IR flags . +.TP +.B ELOOP +Too many symbolic links encountered when resolving +.IR path . +.TP +.B EMFILE +The calling process has too many open files to create more. +.TP +.B ENAMETOOLONG +.I path +is longer than +.BR PATH_MAX . +.TP +.B ENFILE +The system has too many open files to create more. +.TP +.B ENOENT +A component of +.I path +does not exist, +or is a dangling symbolic link. +.TP +.B ENOENT +.I path +is an empty string, but +.B \%FSPICK_EMPTY_PATH +is not specified in +.IR flags . +.TP +.B ENOTDIR +A component of the path prefix of +.I path +is not a directory; +or +.I path +is relative and +.I dirfd +is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory. +.TP +.B ENOMEM +The kernel could not allocate sufficient memory to complete the operation. +.TP +.B EPERM +The calling process does not have the required +.B \%CAP_SYS_ADMIN +capability. +.SH STANDARDS +Linux. +.SH HISTORY +Linux 5.2. +.\" commit cf3cba4a429be43e5527a3f78859b1bfd9ebc5fb +.\" commit 400913252d09f9cfb8cce33daee43167921fc343 +glibc 2.36. +.SH EXAMPLES +The following example sets the read-only flag +on the filesystem instance referenced by +the mount object attached at +.IR /tmp . +.P +.in +4n +.EX +int fsfd = fspick(AT_FDCWD, "/tmp", FSPICK_CLOEXEC); +fsconfig(fsfd, FSCONFIG_SET_FLAG, "ro", NULL, 0); +fsconfig(fsfd, FSCONFIG_CMD_RECONFIGURE, NULL, NULL, 0); +.EE +.in +.P +The above procedure is roughly equivalent to +the following mount operation using +.BR mount (2): +.P +.in +4n +.EX +mount(NULL, "/tmp", NULL, MS_REMOUNT | MS_RDONLY, NULL); +.EE +.in +.P +With the notable caveat that +in this example, +.BR mount (2) +will clear all other filesystem parameters +(such as +.B MS_DIRSYNC +or +.BR MS_SYNCHRONOUS ); +.BR fsconfig (2) +will only modify the +.I ro +parameter. +.SH SEE ALSO +.BR fsconfig (2), +.BR fsmount (2), +.BR fsopen (2), +.BR mount (2), +.BR mount_setattr (2), +.BR move_mount (2), +.BR open_tree (2), +.BR mount_namespaces (7)
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2.51.0