The text below describes the locking rules for VFS-related methods.
  It is (believed to be) up-to-date. *Please*, if you change anything in
  prototypes or locking protocols - update this file. And update the relevant
  instances in the tree, don't leave that to maintainers of filesystems/devices/
  etc. At the very least, put the list of dubious cases in the end of this file.
  Don't turn it into log - maintainers of out-of-the-tree code are supposed to
  be able to use diff(1).
  	Thing currently missing here: socket operations. Alexey?
  
  --------------------------- dentry_operations --------------------------
  prototypes:

  	int (*d_revalidate)(struct dentry *, struct nameidata *);

  	int (*d_hash)(const struct dentry *, const struct inode *,
  			struct qstr *);

  	int (*d_compare)(const struct dentry *, const struct inode *,
  			const struct dentry *, const struct inode *,
  			unsigned int, const char *, const struct qstr *);

  	int (*d_delete)(struct dentry *);
  	void (*d_release)(struct dentry *);
  	void (*d_iput)(struct dentry *, struct inode *);

  	char *(*d_dname)((struct dentry *dentry, char *buffer, int buflen);

  	struct vfsmount *(*d_automount)(struct path *path);

  	int (*d_manage)(struct dentry *, bool);

  
  locking rules:

  		rename_lock	->d_lock	may block	rcu-walk
  d_revalidate:	no		no		yes (ref-walk)	maybe
  d_hash		no		no		no		maybe
  d_compare:	yes		no		no		maybe
  d_delete:	no		yes		no		no
  d_release:	no		no		yes		no

  d_prune:        no              yes             no              no

  d_iput:		no		no		yes		no
  d_dname:	no		no		no		no

  d_automount:	no		no		yes		no

  d_manage:	no		no		yes (ref-walk)	maybe

  
  --------------------------- inode_operations --------------------------- 
  prototypes:

  	int (*create) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,umode_t, struct nameidata *);

  	struct dentry * (*lookup) (struct inode *,struct dentry *, struct nameid
  ata *);
  	int (*link) (struct dentry *,struct inode *,struct dentry *);
  	int (*unlink) (struct inode *,struct dentry *);
  	int (*symlink) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,const char *);

  	int (*mkdir) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,umode_t);

  	int (*rmdir) (struct inode *,struct dentry *);

  	int (*mknod) (struct inode *,struct dentry *,umode_t,dev_t);

  	int (*rename) (struct inode *, struct dentry *,
  			struct inode *, struct dentry *);
  	int (*readlink) (struct dentry *, char __user *,int);

  	void * (*follow_link) (struct dentry *, struct nameidata *);
  	void (*put_link) (struct dentry *, struct nameidata *, void *);

  	void (*truncate) (struct inode *);

  	int (*permission) (struct inode *, int, unsigned int);

  	int (*get_acl)(struct inode *, int);

  	int (*setattr) (struct dentry *, struct iattr *);
  	int (*getattr) (struct vfsmount *, struct dentry *, struct kstat *);
  	int (*setxattr) (struct dentry *, const char *,const void *,size_t,int);
  	ssize_t (*getxattr) (struct dentry *, const char *, void *, size_t);
  	ssize_t (*listxattr) (struct dentry *, char *, size_t);
  	int (*removexattr) (struct dentry *, const char *);

  	void (*truncate_range)(struct inode *, loff_t, loff_t);

  	int (*fiemap)(struct inode *, struct fiemap_extent_info *, u64 start, u64 len);

  
  locking rules:

  	all may block

  		i_mutex(inode)

  lookup:		yes
  create:		yes
  link:		yes (both)
  mknod:		yes
  symlink:	yes
  mkdir:		yes
  unlink:		yes (both)
  rmdir:		yes (both)	(see below)
  rename:		yes (all)	(see below)
  readlink:	no
  follow_link:	no

  put_link:	no

  truncate:	yes		(see below)
  setattr:	yes

  permission:	no (may not block if called in rcu-walk mode)

  get_acl:	no

  getattr:	no
  setxattr:	yes
  getxattr:	no
  listxattr:	no
  removexattr:	yes

  truncate_range:	yes

  fiemap:		no

  	Additionally, ->rmdir(), ->unlink() and ->rename() have ->i_mutex on

  victim.
  	cross-directory ->rename() has (per-superblock) ->s_vfs_rename_sem.
  	->truncate() is never called directly - it's a callback, not a

  method. It's called by vmtruncate() - deprecated library function used by

  ->setattr(). Locking information above applies to that call (i.e. is
  inherited from ->setattr() - vmtruncate() is used when ATTR_SIZE had been
  passed).
  
  See Documentation/filesystems/directory-locking for more detailed discussion
  of the locking scheme for directory operations.
  
  --------------------------- super_operations ---------------------------
  prototypes:
  	struct inode *(*alloc_inode)(struct super_block *sb);
  	void (*destroy_inode)(struct inode *);

  	void (*dirty_inode) (struct inode *, int flags);

  	int (*write_inode) (struct inode *, struct writeback_control *wbc);

  	int (*drop_inode) (struct inode *);
  	void (*evict_inode) (struct inode *);

  	void (*put_super) (struct super_block *);
  	void (*write_super) (struct super_block *);
  	int (*sync_fs)(struct super_block *sb, int wait);

  	int (*freeze_fs) (struct super_block *);
  	int (*unfreeze_fs) (struct super_block *);

  	int (*statfs) (struct dentry *, struct kstatfs *);

  	int (*remount_fs) (struct super_block *, int *, char *);

  	void (*umount_begin) (struct super_block *);

  	int (*show_options)(struct seq_file *, struct dentry *);

  	ssize_t (*quota_read)(struct super_block *, int, char *, size_t, loff_t);
  	ssize_t (*quota_write)(struct super_block *, int, const char *, size_t, loff_t);

  	int (*bdev_try_to_free_page)(struct super_block*, struct page*, gfp_t);

  
  locking rules:

  	All may block [not true, see below]

  			s_umount
  alloc_inode:
  destroy_inode:

  dirty_inode:

  write_inode:

  drop_inode:				!!!inode->i_lock!!!

  evict_inode:

  put_super:		write
  write_super:		read
  sync_fs:		read
  freeze_fs:		read
  unfreeze_fs:		read

  statfs:			maybe(read)	(see below)
  remount_fs:		write

  umount_begin:		no
  show_options:		no		(namespace_sem)
  quota_read:		no		(see below)
  quota_write:		no		(see below)

  bdev_try_to_free_page:	no		(see below)

  ->statfs() has s_umount (shared) when called by ustat(2) (native or
  compat), but that's an accident of bad API; s_umount is used to pin
  the superblock down when we only have dev_t given us by userland to
  identify the superblock.  Everything else (statfs(), fstatfs(), etc.)
  doesn't hold it when calling ->statfs() - superblock is pinned down
  by resolving the pathname passed to syscall.

  ->quota_read() and ->quota_write() functions are both guaranteed to
  be the only ones operating on the quota file by the quota code (via
  dqio_sem) (unless an admin really wants to screw up something and
  writes to quota files with quotas on). For other details about locking
  see also dquot_operations section.

  ->bdev_try_to_free_page is called from the ->releasepage handler of
  the block device inode.  See there for more details.

  
  --------------------------- file_system_type ---------------------------
  prototypes:

  	int (*get_sb) (struct file_system_type *, int,
  		       const char *, void *, struct vfsmount *);

  	struct dentry *(*mount) (struct file_system_type *, int,
  		       const char *, void *);

  	void (*kill_sb) (struct super_block *);
  locking rules:

  		may block

  mount		yes
  kill_sb		yes

  ->mount() returns ERR_PTR or the root dentry; its superblock should be locked
  on return.

  ->kill_sb() takes a write-locked superblock, does all shutdown work on it,
  unlocks and drops the reference.
  
  --------------------------- address_space_operations --------------------------
  prototypes:
  	int (*writepage)(struct page *page, struct writeback_control *wbc);
  	int (*readpage)(struct file *, struct page *);
  	int (*sync_page)(struct page *);
  	int (*writepages)(struct address_space *, struct writeback_control *);
  	int (*set_page_dirty)(struct page *page);
  	int (*readpages)(struct file *filp, struct address_space *mapping,
  			struct list_head *pages, unsigned nr_pages);

  	int (*write_begin)(struct file *, struct address_space *mapping,
  				loff_t pos, unsigned len, unsigned flags,
  				struct page **pagep, void **fsdata);
  	int (*write_end)(struct file *, struct address_space *mapping,
  				loff_t pos, unsigned len, unsigned copied,
  				struct page *page, void *fsdata);

  	sector_t (*bmap)(struct address_space *, sector_t);
  	int (*invalidatepage) (struct page *, unsigned long);
  	int (*releasepage) (struct page *, int);

  	void (*freepage)(struct page *);

  	int (*direct_IO)(int, struct kiocb *, const struct iovec *iov,
  			loff_t offset, unsigned long nr_segs);

  	int (*get_xip_mem)(struct address_space *, pgoff_t, int, void **,
  				unsigned long *);
  	int (*migratepage)(struct address_space *, struct page *, struct page *);
  	int (*launder_page)(struct page *);
  	int (*is_partially_uptodate)(struct page *, read_descriptor_t *, unsigned long);
  	int (*error_remove_page)(struct address_space *, struct page *);

  
  locking rules:

  	All except set_page_dirty and freepage may block

  			PageLocked(page)	i_mutex
  writepage:		yes, unlocks (see below)
  readpage:		yes, unlocks
  sync_page:		maybe
  writepages:
  set_page_dirty		no
  readpages:
  write_begin:		locks the page		yes
  write_end:		yes, unlocks		yes
  bmap:
  invalidatepage:		yes
  releasepage:		yes
  freepage:		yes
  direct_IO:
  get_xip_mem:					maybe
  migratepage:		yes (both)
  launder_page:		yes
  is_partially_uptodate:	yes
  error_remove_page:	yes

  	->write_begin(), ->write_end(), ->sync_page() and ->readpage()

  may be called from the request handler (/dev/loop).
  
  	->readpage() unlocks the page, either synchronously or via I/O
  completion.
  
  	->readpages() populates the pagecache with the passed pages and starts
  I/O against them.  They come unlocked upon I/O completion.
  
  	->writepage() is used for two purposes: for "memory cleansing" and for
  "sync".  These are quite different operations and the behaviour may differ
  depending upon the mode.
  
  If writepage is called for sync (wbc->sync_mode != WBC_SYNC_NONE) then
  it *must* start I/O against the page, even if that would involve
  blocking on in-progress I/O.
  
  If writepage is called for memory cleansing (sync_mode ==
  WBC_SYNC_NONE) then its role is to get as much writeout underway as
  possible.  So writepage should try to avoid blocking against
  currently-in-progress I/O.
  
  If the filesystem is not called for "sync" and it determines that it
  would need to block against in-progress I/O to be able to start new I/O
  against the page the filesystem should redirty the page with
  redirty_page_for_writepage(), then unlock the page and return zero.
  This may also be done to avoid internal deadlocks, but rarely.

  If the filesystem is called for sync then it must wait on any

  in-progress I/O and then start new I/O.

  The filesystem should unlock the page synchronously, before returning to the
  caller, unless ->writepage() returns special WRITEPAGE_ACTIVATE
  value. WRITEPAGE_ACTIVATE means that page cannot really be written out
  currently, and VM should stop calling ->writepage() on this page for some
  time. VM does this by moving page to the head of the active list, hence the
  name.

  
  Unless the filesystem is going to redirty_page_for_writepage(), unlock the page
  and return zero, writepage *must* run set_page_writeback() against the page,
  followed by unlocking it.  Once set_page_writeback() has been run against the
  page, write I/O can be submitted and the write I/O completion handler must run
  end_page_writeback() once the I/O is complete.  If no I/O is submitted, the
  filesystem must run end_page_writeback() against the page before returning from
  writepage.
  
  That is: after 2.5.12, pages which are under writeout are *not* locked.  Note,
  if the filesystem needs the page to be locked during writeout, that is ok, too,
  the page is allowed to be unlocked at any point in time between the calls to
  set_page_writeback() and end_page_writeback().
  
  Note, failure to run either redirty_page_for_writepage() or the combination of
  set_page_writeback()/end_page_writeback() on a page submitted to writepage
  will leave the page itself marked clean but it will be tagged as dirty in the
  radix tree.  This incoherency can lead to all sorts of hard-to-debug problems
  in the filesystem like having dirty inodes at umount and losing written data.
  
  	->sync_page() locking rules are not well-defined - usually it is called
  with lock on page, but that is not guaranteed. Considering the currently
  existing instances of this method ->sync_page() itself doesn't look
  well-defined...
  
  	->writepages() is used for periodic writeback and for syscall-initiated
  sync operations.  The address_space should start I/O against at least
  *nr_to_write pages.  *nr_to_write must be decremented for each page which is
  written.  The address_space implementation may write more (or less) pages
  than *nr_to_write asks for, but it should try to be reasonably close.  If
  nr_to_write is NULL, all dirty pages must be written.
  
  writepages should _only_ write pages which are present on
  mapping->io_pages.
  
  	->set_page_dirty() is called from various places in the kernel
  when the target page is marked as needing writeback.  It may be called
  under spinlock (it cannot block) and is sometimes called with the page
  not locked.
  
  	->bmap() is currently used by legacy ioctl() (FIBMAP) provided by some

  filesystems and by the swapper. The latter will eventually go away.  Please,
  keep it that way and don't breed new callers.

  
  	->invalidatepage() is called when the filesystem must attempt to drop
  some or all of the buffers from the page when it is being truncated.  It
  returns zero on success.  If ->invalidatepage is zero, the kernel uses
  block_invalidatepage() instead.
  
  	->releasepage() is called when the kernel is about to try to drop the
  buffers from the page in preparation for freeing it.  It returns zero to
  indicate that the buffers are (or may be) freeable.  If ->releasepage is zero,
  the kernel assumes that the fs has no private interest in the buffers.

  	->freepage() is called when the kernel is done dropping the page
  from the page cache.

  	->launder_page() may be called prior to releasing a page if
  it is still found to be dirty. It returns zero if the page was successfully
  cleaned, or an error value if not. Note that in order to prevent the page
  getting mapped back in and redirtied, it needs to be kept locked
  across the entire operation.

  ----------------------- file_lock_operations ------------------------------
  prototypes:

  	void (*fl_copy_lock)(struct file_lock *, struct file_lock *);
  	void (*fl_release_private)(struct file_lock *);
  
  
  locking rules:

  			file_lock_lock	may block
  fl_copy_lock:		yes		no
  fl_release_private:	maybe		no

  
  ----------------------- lock_manager_operations ---------------------------
  prototypes:

  	int (*lm_compare_owner)(struct file_lock *, struct file_lock *);
  	void (*lm_notify)(struct file_lock *);  /* unblock callback */
  	int (*lm_grant)(struct file_lock *, struct file_lock *, int);
  	void (*lm_release_private)(struct file_lock *);
  	void (*lm_break)(struct file_lock *); /* break_lease callback */
  	int (*lm_change)(struct file_lock **, int);

  
  locking rules:

  			file_lock_lock	may block

  lm_compare_owner:	yes		no
  lm_notify:		yes		no
  lm_grant:		no		no
  lm_release_private:	maybe		no
  lm_break:		yes		no
  lm_change		yes		no

  --------------------------- buffer_head -----------------------------------
  prototypes:
  	void (*b_end_io)(struct buffer_head *bh, int uptodate);
  
  locking rules:
  	called from interrupts. In other words, extreme care is needed here.
  bh is locked, but that's all warranties we have here. Currently only RAID1,
  highmem, fs/buffer.c, and fs/ntfs/aops.c are providing these. Block devices
  call this method upon the IO completion.
  
  --------------------------- block_device_operations -----------------------
  prototypes:

  	int (*open) (struct block_device *, fmode_t);
  	int (*release) (struct gendisk *, fmode_t);
  	int (*ioctl) (struct block_device *, fmode_t, unsigned, unsigned long);
  	int (*compat_ioctl) (struct block_device *, fmode_t, unsigned, unsigned long);
  	int (*direct_access) (struct block_device *, sector_t, void **, unsigned long *);

  	int (*media_changed) (struct gendisk *);

  	void (*unlock_native_capacity) (struct gendisk *);

  	int (*revalidate_disk) (struct gendisk *);

  	int (*getgeo)(struct block_device *, struct hd_geometry *);
  	void (*swap_slot_free_notify) (struct block_device *, unsigned long);

  
  locking rules:

  			bd_mutex
  open:			yes
  release:		yes
  ioctl:			no
  compat_ioctl:		no
  direct_access:		no
  media_changed:		no
  unlock_native_capacity:	no
  revalidate_disk:	no
  getgeo:			no
  swap_slot_free_notify:	no	(see below)

  
  media_changed, unlock_native_capacity and revalidate_disk are called only from
  check_disk_change().
  
  swap_slot_free_notify is called with swap_lock and sometimes the page lock
  held.

  
  --------------------------- file_operations -------------------------------
  prototypes:
  	loff_t (*llseek) (struct file *, loff_t, int);
  	ssize_t (*read) (struct file *, char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);

  	ssize_t (*write) (struct file *, const char __user *, size_t, loff_t *);

  	ssize_t (*aio_read) (struct kiocb *, const struct iovec *, unsigned long, loff_t);
  	ssize_t (*aio_write) (struct kiocb *, const struct iovec *, unsigned long, loff_t);

  	int (*readdir) (struct file *, void *, filldir_t);
  	unsigned int (*poll) (struct file *, struct poll_table_struct *);

  	long (*unlocked_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
  	long (*compat_ioctl) (struct file *, unsigned int, unsigned long);
  	int (*mmap) (struct file *, struct vm_area_struct *);
  	int (*open) (struct inode *, struct file *);
  	int (*flush) (struct file *);
  	int (*release) (struct inode *, struct file *);

  	int (*fsync) (struct file *, loff_t start, loff_t end, int datasync);

  	int (*aio_fsync) (struct kiocb *, int datasync);
  	int (*fasync) (int, struct file *, int);
  	int (*lock) (struct file *, int, struct file_lock *);
  	ssize_t (*readv) (struct file *, const struct iovec *, unsigned long,
  			loff_t *);
  	ssize_t (*writev) (struct file *, const struct iovec *, unsigned long,
  			loff_t *);
  	ssize_t (*sendfile) (struct file *, loff_t *, size_t, read_actor_t,
  			void __user *);
  	ssize_t (*sendpage) (struct file *, struct page *, int, size_t,
  			loff_t *, int);
  	unsigned long (*get_unmapped_area)(struct file *, unsigned long,
  			unsigned long, unsigned long, unsigned long);
  	int (*check_flags)(int);

  	int (*flock) (struct file *, int, struct file_lock *);
  	ssize_t (*splice_write)(struct pipe_inode_info *, struct file *, loff_t *,
  			size_t, unsigned int);
  	ssize_t (*splice_read)(struct file *, loff_t *, struct pipe_inode_info *,
  			size_t, unsigned int);
  	int (*setlease)(struct file *, long, struct file_lock **);

  	long (*fallocate)(struct file *, int, loff_t, loff_t);

  };
  
  locking rules:

  	All may block except for ->setlease.

  	No VFS locks held on entry except for ->setlease.

  
  ->setlease has the file_list_lock held and must not sleep.

  
  ->llseek() locking has moved from llseek to the individual llseek
  implementations.  If your fs is not using generic_file_llseek, you
  need to acquire and release the appropriate locks in your ->llseek().
  For many filesystems, it is probably safe to acquire the inode

  mutex or just to use i_size_read() instead.
  Note: this does not protect the file->f_pos against concurrent modifications
  since this is something the userspace has to take care about.

  ->fasync() is responsible for maintaining the FASYNC bit in filp->f_flags.
  Most instances call fasync_helper(), which does that maintenance, so it's
  not normally something one needs to worry about.  Return values > 0 will be
  mapped to zero in the VFS layer.

  
  ->readdir() and ->ioctl() on directories must be changed. Ideally we would
  move ->readdir() to inode_operations and use a separate method for directory
  ->ioctl() or kill the latter completely. One of the problems is that for
  anything that resembles union-mount we won't have a struct file for all
  components. And there are other reasons why the current interface is a mess...

  ->read on directories probably must go away - we should just enforce -EISDIR
  in sys_read() and friends.

  --------------------------- dquot_operations -------------------------------
  prototypes:

  	int (*write_dquot) (struct dquot *);
  	int (*acquire_dquot) (struct dquot *);
  	int (*release_dquot) (struct dquot *);
  	int (*mark_dirty) (struct dquot *);
  	int (*write_info) (struct super_block *, int);
  
  These operations are intended to be more or less wrapping functions that ensure
  a proper locking wrt the filesystem and call the generic quota operations.
  
  What filesystem should expect from the generic quota functions:
  
  		FS recursion	Held locks when called

  write_dquot:	yes		dqonoff_sem or dqptr_sem
  acquire_dquot:	yes		dqonoff_sem or dqptr_sem
  release_dquot:	yes		dqonoff_sem or dqptr_sem
  mark_dirty:	no		-
  write_info:	yes		dqonoff_sem
  
  FS recursion means calling ->quota_read() and ->quota_write() from superblock
  operations.

  More details about quota locking can be found in fs/dquot.c.
  
  --------------------------- vm_operations_struct -----------------------------
  prototypes:
  	void (*open)(struct vm_area_struct*);
  	void (*close)(struct vm_area_struct*);

  	int (*fault)(struct vm_area_struct*, struct vm_fault *);

  	int (*page_mkwrite)(struct vm_area_struct *, struct vm_fault *);

  	int (*access)(struct vm_area_struct *, unsigned long, void*, int, int);

  
  locking rules:

  		mmap_sem	PageLocked(page)
  open:		yes
  close:		yes
  fault:		yes		can return with page locked
  page_mkwrite:	yes		can return with page locked
  access:		yes

  	->fault() is called when a previously not present pte is about
  to be faulted in. The filesystem must find and return the page associated
  with the passed in "pgoff" in the vm_fault structure. If it is possible that
  the page may be truncated and/or invalidated, then the filesystem must lock
  the page, then ensure it is not already truncated (the page lock will block
  subsequent truncate), and then return with VM_FAULT_LOCKED, and the page
  locked. The VM will unlock the page.
  
  	->page_mkwrite() is called when a previously read-only pte is
  about to become writeable. The filesystem again must ensure that there are
  no truncate/invalidate races, and then return with the page locked. If
  the page has been truncated, the filesystem should not look up a new page
  like the ->fault() handler, but simply return with VM_FAULT_NOPAGE, which
  will cause the VM to retry the fault.

  	->access() is called when get_user_pages() fails in
  acces_process_vm(), typically used to debug a process through
  /proc/pid/mem or ptrace.  This function is needed only for
  VM_IO | VM_PFNMAP VMAs.

  ================================================================================
  			Dubious stuff
  
  (if you break something or notice that it is broken and do not fix it yourself
  - at least put it here)