Re: [RFC] Null Namespaces
From: Li Chen <hidden>
Date: 2026-07-04 13:21:25
Also in:
linux-arch, linux-fsdevel, lkml
Hi John, Sorry for the silence. I got pulled into some work stuff recently and only caught up with these threads now. I still have not studied every patch line by line, but I wanted to say that I really appreciate you pushing on this. The embryonic-process framing lines up well with the direction I have been trying to move toward after the earlier feedback: make the not-yet-runnable state explicit, and keep task creation separate from the state installed into the new task. For my next process-builder RFC, I plan to keep the first step small: a pidfd-based builder for posix_spawn-style semantics, with limited action support; it will not yet have the pristine/no-source backend. So cwd/root, non-CLOEXEC fds, and other selected source state can still be inherited unless actions or attributes say otherwise. I think the lower-authority/null-namespace side should be an explicit mode, not the default for the posix_spawn-compatible path. Otherwise it would change existing expectations around cwd/root, inherited fds, and other source state. Longer term, I would like to add that lower-authority side as follow-up work: pristine/no-source process creation, where resources are installed deliberately instead of starting from the parent's fs/fd/mm state. I had an earlier experimental local branch that tried to separate pristine task allocation from source-state installation, but that is not the RFC I plan to send first. For that later mode, Christian's nullfs/failfs direction also looks like the more practical way to express the low-authority fs state. Thanks again for pushing this forward. Regards, Li