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Documentation / filesystems / exofs.txt


Based on kernel version 4.16.1. Page generated on 2018-04-09 11:53 EST.

1	===============================================================================
2	WHAT IS EXOFS?
3	===============================================================================
4	
5	exofs is a file system that uses an OSD and exports the API of a normal Linux
6	file system. Users access exofs like any other local file system, and exofs
7	will in turn issue commands to the local OSD initiator.
8	
9	OSD is a new T10 command set that views storage devices not as a large/flat
10	array of sectors but as a container of objects, each having a length, quota,
11	time attributes and more. Each object is addressed by a 64bit ID, and is
12	contained in a 64bit ID partition. Each object has associated attributes
13	attached to it, which are integral part of the object and provide metadata about
14	the object. The standard defines some common obligatory attributes, but user
15	attributes can be added as needed.
16	
17	===============================================================================
18	ENVIRONMENT
19	===============================================================================
20	
21	To use this file system, you need to have an object store to run it on.  You
22	may download a target from:
23	http://open-osd.org
24	
25	See Documentation/scsi/osd.txt for how to setup a working osd environment.
26	
27	===============================================================================
28	USAGE
29	===============================================================================
30	
31	1. Download and compile exofs and open-osd initiator:
32	  You need an external Kernel source tree or kernel headers from your
33	  distribution. (anything based on 2.6.26 or later).
34	
35	  a. download open-osd including exofs source using:
36	     [parent-directory]$ git clone git://git.open-osd.org/open-osd.git
37	
38	  b. Build the library module like this:
39	     [parent-directory]$ make -C KSRC=$(KER_DIR) open-osd
40	
41	     This will build both the open-osd initiator as well as the exofs kernel
42	     module. Use whatever parameters you compiled your Kernel with and
43	     $(KER_DIR) above pointing to the Kernel you compile against. See the file
44	     open-osd/top-level-Makefile for an example.
45	
46	2. Get the OSD initiator and target set up properly, and login to the target.
47	  See Documentation/scsi/osd.txt for farther instructions. Also see ./do-osd
48	  for example script that does all these steps.
49	
50	3. Insmod the exofs.ko module:
51	   [exofs]$ insmod exofs.ko
52	
53	4. Make sure the directory where you want to mount exists. If not, create it.
54	   (For example, mkdir /mnt/exofs)
55	
56	5. At first run you will need to invoke the mkfs.exofs application
57	
58	   As an example, this will create the file system on:
59	   /dev/osd0 partition ID 65536
60	
61	   mkfs.exofs --pid=65536 --format /dev/osd0
62	
63	   The --format is optional. If not specified, no OSD_FORMAT will be
64	   performed and a clean file system will be created in the specified pid,
65	   in the available space of the target. (Use --format=size_in_meg to limit
66	   the total LUN space available)
67	
68	   If pid already exists, it will be deleted and a new one will be created in
69	   its place. Be careful.
70	
71	   An exofs lives inside a single OSD partition. You can create multiple exofs
72	   filesystems on the same device using multiple pids.
73	
74	   (run mkfs.exofs without any parameters for usage help message)
75	
76	6. Mount the file system.
77	
78	   For example, to mount /dev/osd0, partition ID 0x10000 on /mnt/exofs:
79	
80		mount -t exofs -o pid=65536 /dev/osd0 /mnt/exofs/
81	
82	7. For reference (See do-exofs example script):
83		do-exofs start - an example of how to perform the above steps.
84		do-exofs stop - an example of how to unmount the file system.
85		do-exofs format - an example of how to format and mkfs a new exofs.
86	
87	8. Extra compilation flags (uncomment in fs/exofs/Kbuild):
88		CONFIG_EXOFS_DEBUG - for debug messages and extra checks.
89	
90	===============================================================================
91	exofs mount options
92	===============================================================================
93	Similar to any mount command:
94		mount -t exofs -o exofs_options /dev/osdX mount_exofs_directory
95	
96	Where:
97	    -t exofs: specifies the exofs file system
98	
99	    /dev/osdX: X is a decimal number. /dev/osdX was created after a successful
100	               login into an OSD target.
101	
102	    mount_exofs_directory: The directory to mount the file system on
103	
104	    exofs specific options: Options are separated by commas (,)
105			pid=<integer> - The partition number to mount/create as
106	                                container of the filesystem.
107	                                This option is mandatory. integer can be
108	                                Hex by pre-pending an 0x to the number.
109			osdname=<id>  - Mount by a device's osdname.
110	                                osdname is usually a 36 character uuid of the
111	                                form "d2683732-c906-4ee1-9dbd-c10c27bb40df".
112	                                It is one of the device's uuid specified in the
113	                                mkfs.exofs format command.
114	                                If this option is specified then the /dev/osdX
115	                                above can be empty and is ignored.
116	                to=<integer>  - Timeout in ticks for a single command.
117	                                default is (60 * HZ) [for debugging only]
118	
119	===============================================================================
120	DESIGN
121	===============================================================================
122	
123	* The file system control block (AKA on-disk superblock) resides in an object
124	  with a special ID (defined in common.h).
125	  Information included in the file system control block is used to fill the
126	  in-memory superblock structure at mount time. This object is created before
127	  the file system is used by mkexofs.c. It contains information such as:
128		- The file system's magic number
129		- The next inode number to be allocated
130	
131	* Each file resides in its own object and contains the data (and it will be
132	  possible to extend the file over multiple objects, though this has not been
133	  implemented yet).
134	
135	* A directory is treated as a file, and essentially contains a list of <file
136	  name, inode #> pairs for files that are found in that directory. The object
137	  IDs correspond to the files' inode numbers and will be allocated according to
138	  a bitmap (stored in a separate object). Now they are allocated using a
139	  counter.
140	
141	* Each file's control block (AKA on-disk inode) is stored in its object's
142	  attributes. This applies to both regular files and other types (directories,
143	  device files, symlinks, etc.).
144	
145	* Credentials are generated per object (inode and superblock) when they are
146	  created in memory (read from disk or created). The credential works for all
147	  operations and is used as long as the object remains in memory.
148	
149	* Async OSD operations are used whenever possible, but the target may execute
150	  them out of order. The operations that concern us are create, delete,
151	  readpage, writepage, update_inode, and truncate. The following pairs of
152	  operations should execute in the order written, and we need to prevent them
153	  from executing in reverse order:
154		- The following are handled with the OBJ_CREATED and OBJ_2BCREATED
155		  flags. OBJ_CREATED is set when we know the object exists on the OSD -
156		  in create's callback function, and when we successfully do a
157		  read_inode.
158		  OBJ_2BCREATED is set in the beginning of the create function, so we
159		  know that we should wait.
160			- create/delete: delete should wait until the object is created
161			  on the OSD.
162			- create/readpage: readpage should be able to return a page
163			  full of zeroes in this case. If there was a write already
164			  en-route (i.e. create, writepage, readpage) then the page
165			  would be locked, and so it would really be the same as
166			  create/writepage.
167			- create/writepage: if writepage is called for a sync write, it
168			  should wait until the object is created on the OSD.
169			  Otherwise, it should just return.
170			- create/truncate: truncate should wait until the object is
171			  created on the OSD.
172			- create/update_inode: update_inode should wait until the
173			  object is created on the OSD.
174		- Handled by VFS locks:
175			- readpage/delete: shouldn't happen because of page lock.
176			- writepage/delete: shouldn't happen because of page lock.
177			- readpage/writepage: shouldn't happen because of page lock.
178	
179	===============================================================================
180	LICENSE/COPYRIGHT
181	===============================================================================
182	The exofs file system is based on ext2 v0.5b (distributed with the Linux kernel
183	version 2.6.10).  All files include the original copyrights, and the license
184	is GPL version 2 (only version 2, as is true for the Linux kernel).  The
185	Linux kernel can be downloaded from www.kernel.org.
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