This is patchset makes fatfs stop using the VFS '->write_super()' method
for writing out the FSINFO block.
The final goal is to get rid of the 'sync_supers()' kernel thread. This
kernel thread wakes up every 5 seconds (by default) and calls
'->write_super()' for all mounted file-systems. And the bad thing is that
this is done even if all the superblocks are clean. Moreover, some
file-systems do not even need this end they do not register the
'->write_super()' method at all (e.g., btrfs).
So 'sync_supers()' most often just generates useless wake-ups and wastes
power. I am trying to make all file-systems independent of
'->write_super()' and plan to remove 'sync_supers()' and '->write_super'
completely once there are no more users.
The '->write_supers()' method is mostly used by baroque file-systems like
hfs, udf, etc. Modern file-systems like btrfs and xfs do not use it.
This justifies removing this stuff from VFS completely and make every FS
self-manage own superblock.
Tested with xfstests.
This patch:
Preparation for further changes. It introduces a special inode
('fsinfo_inode') in FAT file-system which we'll later use for managing the
FSINFO block. Note, this there is already one special inode ('fat_inode')
which is used for managing the FAT tables.
Introduce new 'MSDOS_FSINFO_INO' constant for this special inode. It is
safe to do because FAT file-system does not store inode numbers on the
media but generates them run-time.
I've also cleaned up the comment to existing 'MSDOS_ROOT_INO' constant,
while on it.
Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy <artem.bityutskiy@linux.intel.com>
Cc: OGAWA Hirofumi <hirofumi@mail.parknet.co.jp>
Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Artem Bityutskiy
020ac5b6be