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| author | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
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| committer | Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> | 2026-08-30 09:22:00 -0700 |
| commit | 034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c (patch) | |
| tree | 2536f4b2d7893ccd916b5abdf3c454ad6edc03c2 /Documentation/filesystems/ext2.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.tar.gz linux-stable-034dd340b08be1f2f0477ad16131d609f9dbd53c.zip | |
Merge tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-tracegrafted
Pull tracing fixes from Steven Rostedt:
- Fix error output of boot instance creation failure
Currently if a boot instance creation fails, instead of printing out
the name of the instance that failed, it prints "(null)". That is
because it prints "cur_str" that had already been processed by
strsep(). Print the saved name instead.
While at it, print the error code of the failure.
- Fix use-after-free for same named historgrams
Histograms can be named so that they can be used in multiple events.
But if the named histogram has a variable attached, the second event
that uses the named histogram which duplicates it and needs to free
the original after duplication leaves the old variable in place and
still visible. If another histogram uses than variable, it will use
the stale one which will try to reference the freed duplicate
histogram and crash the kernel.
Free the duplicate variables along with the duplicated histogram
data.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in event self test
The events self tests uses a kthread for testing but does not check
if it succeeded in creating a kthread. If the kthread creation were
to fail, the code will still try to call kthread_stop() on the error
returned.
- Fix race between reading trace_pipe and updating subbuffer size
If a user is reading the trace_pipe file at the same time they update
the ring buffer sub-buffer size, can cause the trace_pipe read to
read stale data. Add trace_access_lock() around updating the ring
buffer sub-buffer size.
- Fix eventfs_inode on failure path in creation of the events directory
In the creation of the "events" directory, if after allocating the
eventfs_inode a failure is detected, it calls cleanup_ei() which
calls free_ei(). The free_ei() will test if eventfs_inode being freed
has no children. It is a bug if it does. But on the failure case of
the creation of the "events" directory, the children lists have not
yet been initialized and the free will trigger a warning because
list_empty() on an uninitialized list returns false.
Move the initialization into init_ei() where it makes more sense and
makes sure that a created eventfs_inode has its lists initialized
upon creation.
- Check return value of kthread_run() in ftrace direct sample code
The sample code that shows how to use the ftrace direct calls does
not test the return of kthread_run() to see if it succeeds. Return a
failure if the kthread_run() doesn't succeed.
- Clear user events state on fork in case of alloc failure
On fork, the child gets a pointer to the parent's user events state.
It makes a copy of it then updates the child's pointer to it. But if
the allocation fails, the duplication function leaves the child with
a pointer to its parent's descriptor. When the child cleans up its
data, it will free the parent's descriptor while the parent is still
using it.
In the duplication function, set the child's user_event_mm to NULL
before testing if the allocation succeeded, and when it exits it will
not free the parent's descriptor.
- Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
simple_ring_buffer_swap_reader_page() starts with retry set to 8 and
post-decrements it only after a failed link replacement. On the final
attempt, a successful replacement leaves retry at zero, while a
failed replacement leaves it at -1.
But the check for success expects the retry value to be non-zero and
exits with an error on zero. This is the opposite result. Fix it.
- Fail nicely when the remote swap_reader_page() returns an error
Currently, if the swap_reader_page() of a remote buffer fails, it
triggers a WARN_ON_ONCE() and continues normally. Instead, have it
exit with an error and a pr_warn() print instead of a full WARNING.
* tag 'trace-v7.3-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/trace/linux-trace:
ring-buffer: Stop remote reader update when page swap fails
tracing: Fix retry exhaustion in simple ring buffer reader swap
tracing/user_events: Clear copied tracing state before fork duplication
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-multi-modify
samples/ftrace: Fix kthread_stop() on ERR_PTR in ftrace-direct-modify
eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei()
tracing: Fix use-after-free in trace_pipe read on sub-buffer order change
tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()
tracing: Fix use-after-free with same-name named triggers
tracing: Fix logged instance name on creation failure
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/ext2.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/filesystems/ext2.rst | 398 |
1 files changed, 398 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/ext2.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/ext2.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..95f48c1fc --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/ext2.rst @@ -0,0 +1,398 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + + +============================== +The Second Extended Filesystem +============================== + +ext2 was originally released in January 1993. Written by R\'emy Card, +Theodore Ts'o and Stephen Tweedie, it was a major rewrite of the +Extended Filesystem. It is currently still (April 2001) the predominant +filesystem in use by Linux. There are also implementations available +for NetBSD, FreeBSD, the GNU HURD, Windows 95/98/NT, OS/2 and RISC OS. + +Options +======= + +Most defaults are determined by the filesystem superblock, and can be +set using tune2fs(8). Kernel-determined defaults are indicated by (*). + +==================== === ================================================ +bsddf (*) Makes ``df`` act like BSD. +minixdf Makes ``df`` act like Minix. + +check=none, nocheck (*) Don't do extra checking of bitmaps on mount + (check=normal and check=strict options removed) + +dax Use direct access (no page cache). See + Documentation/filesystems/dax.rst. + +debug Extra debugging information is sent to the + kernel syslog. Useful for developers. + +errors=continue Keep going on a filesystem error. +errors=remount-ro Remount the filesystem read-only on an error. +errors=panic Panic and halt the machine if an error occurs. + +grpid, bsdgroups Give objects the same group ID as their parent. +nogrpid, sysvgroups New objects have the group ID of their creator. + +nouid32 Use 16-bit UIDs and GIDs. + +oldalloc Enable the old block allocator. Orlov should + have better performance, we'd like to get some + feedback if it's the contrary for you. +orlov (*) Use the Orlov block allocator. + (See http://lwn.net/Articles/14633/ and + http://lwn.net/Articles/14446/.) + +resuid=n The user ID which may use the reserved blocks. +resgid=n The group ID which may use the reserved blocks. + +sb=n Use alternate superblock at this location. + +user_xattr Enable "user." POSIX Extended Attributes + (requires CONFIG_EXT2_FS_XATTR). +nouser_xattr Don't support "user." extended attributes. + +acl Enable POSIX Access Control Lists support + (requires CONFIG_EXT2_FS_POSIX_ACL). +noacl Don't support POSIX ACLs. + +quota, usrquota Enable user disk quota support + (requires CONFIG_QUOTA). + +grpquota Enable group disk quota support + (requires CONFIG_QUOTA). +==================== === ================================================ + +noquota option ls silently ignored by ext2. + + +Specification +============= + +ext2 shares many properties with traditional Unix filesystems. It has +the concepts of blocks, inodes and directories. It has space in the +specification for Access Control Lists (ACLs), fragments, undeletion and +compression though these are not yet implemented (some are available as +separate patches). There is also a versioning mechanism to allow new +features (such as journalling) to be added in a maximally compatible +manner. + +Blocks +------ + +The space in the device or file is split up into blocks. These are +a fixed size, of 1024, 2048 or 4096 bytes (8192 bytes on Alpha systems), +which is decided when the filesystem is created. Smaller blocks mean +less wasted space per file, but require slightly more accounting overhead, +and also impose other limits on the size of files and the filesystem. + +Block Groups +------------ + +Blocks are clustered into block groups in order to reduce fragmentation +and minimise the amount of head seeking when reading a large amount +of consecutive data. Information about each block group is kept in a +descriptor table stored in the block(s) immediately after the superblock. +Two blocks near the start of each group are reserved for the block usage +bitmap and the inode usage bitmap which show which blocks and inodes +are in use. Since each bitmap is limited to a single block, this means +that the maximum size of a block group is 8 times the size of a block. + +The block(s) following the bitmaps in each block group are designated +as the inode table for that block group and the remainder are the data +blocks. The block allocation algorithm attempts to allocate data blocks +in the same block group as the inode which contains them. + +The Superblock +-------------- + +The superblock contains all the information about the configuration of +the filing system. The primary copy of the superblock is stored at an +offset of 1024 bytes from the start of the device, and it is essential +to mounting the filesystem. Since it is so important, backup copies of +the superblock are stored in block groups throughout the filesystem. +The first version of ext2 (revision 0) stores a copy at the start of +every block group, along with backups of the group descriptor block(s). +Because this can consume a considerable amount of space for large +filesystems, later revisions can optionally reduce the number of backup +copies by only putting backups in specific groups (this is the sparse +superblock feature). The groups chosen are 0, 1 and powers of 3, 5 and 7. + +The information in the superblock contains fields such as the total +number of inodes and blocks in the filesystem and how many are free, +how many inodes and blocks are in each block group, when the filesystem +was mounted (and if it was cleanly unmounted), when it was modified, +what version of the filesystem it is (see the Revisions section below) +and which OS created it. + +If the filesystem is revision 1 or higher, then there are extra fields, +such as a volume name, a unique identification number, the inode size, +and space for optional filesystem features to store configuration info. + +All fields in the superblock (as in all other ext2 structures) are stored +on the disc in little endian format, so a filesystem is portable between +machines without having to know what machine it was created on. + +Inodes +------ + +The inode (index node) is a fundamental concept in the ext2 filesystem. +Each object in the filesystem is represented by an inode. The inode +structure contains pointers to the filesystem blocks which contain the +data held in the object and all of the metadata about an object except +its name. The metadata about an object includes the permissions, owner, +group, flags, size, number of blocks used, access time, change time, +modification time, deletion time, number of links, fragments, version +(for NFS) and extended attributes (EAs) and/or Access Control Lists (ACLs). + +There are some reserved fields which are currently unused in the inode +structure and several which are overloaded. One field is reserved for the +directory ACL if the inode is a directory and alternately for the top 32 +bits of the file size if the inode is a regular file (allowing file sizes +larger than 2GB). The translator field is unused under Linux, but is used +by the HURD to reference the inode of a program which will be used to +interpret this object. Most of the remaining reserved fields have been +used up for both Linux and the HURD for larger owner and group fields, +The HURD also has a larger mode field so it uses another of the remaining +fields to store the extra more bits. + +There are pointers to the first 12 blocks which contain the file's data +in the inode. There is a pointer to an indirect block (which contains +pointers to the next set of blocks), a pointer to a doubly-indirect +block (which contains pointers to indirect blocks) and a pointer to a +trebly-indirect block (which contains pointers to doubly-indirect blocks). + +The flags field contains some ext2-specific flags which aren't catered +for by the standard chmod flags. These flags can be listed with lsattr +and changed with the chattr command, and allow specific filesystem +behaviour on a per-file basis. There are flags for secure deletion, +undeletable, compression, synchronous updates, immutability, append-only, +dumpable, no-atime, indexed directories, and data-journaling. Not all +of these are supported yet. + +Directories +----------- + +A directory is a filesystem object and has an inode just like a file. +It is a specially formatted file containing records which associate +each name with an inode number. Later revisions of the filesystem also +encode the type of the object (file, directory, symlink, device, fifo, +socket) to avoid the need to check the inode itself for this information +(support for taking advantage of this feature does not yet exist in +Glibc 2.2). + +The inode allocation code tries to assign inodes which are in the same +block group as the directory in which they are first created. + +The current implementation of ext2 uses a singly-linked list to store +the filenames in the directory; a pending enhancement uses hashing of the +filenames to allow lookup without the need to scan the entire directory. + +The current implementation never removes empty directory blocks once they +have been allocated to hold more files. + +Special files +------------- + +Symbolic links are also filesystem objects with inodes. They deserve +special mention because the data for them is stored within the inode +itself if the symlink is less than 60 bytes long. It uses the fields +which would normally be used to store the pointers to data blocks. +This is a worthwhile optimisation as it we avoid allocating a full +block for the symlink, and most symlinks are less than 60 characters long. + +Character and block special devices never have data blocks assigned to +them. Instead, their device number is stored in the inode, again reusing +the fields which would be used to point to the data blocks. + +Reserved Space +-------------- + +In ext2, there is a mechanism for reserving a certain number of blocks +for a particular user (normally the super-user). This is intended to +allow for the system to continue functioning even if non-privileged users +fill up all the space available to them (this is independent of filesystem +quotas). It also keeps the filesystem from filling up entirely which +helps combat fragmentation. + +Filesystem check +---------------- + +At boot time, most systems run a consistency check (e2fsck) on their +filesystems. The superblock of the ext2 filesystem contains several +fields which indicate whether fsck should actually run (since checking +the filesystem at boot can take a long time if it is large). fsck will +run if the filesystem was not cleanly unmounted, if the maximum mount +count has been exceeded or if the maximum time between checks has been +exceeded. + +Feature Compatibility +--------------------- + +The compatibility feature mechanism used in ext2 is sophisticated. +It safely allows features to be added to the filesystem, without +unnecessarily sacrificing compatibility with older versions of the +filesystem code. The feature compatibility mechanism is not supported by +the original revision 0 (EXT2_GOOD_OLD_REV) of ext2, but was introduced in +revision 1. There are three 32-bit fields, one for compatible features +(COMPAT), one for read-only compatible (RO_COMPAT) features and one for +incompatible (INCOMPAT) features. + +These feature flags have specific meanings for the kernel as follows: + +A COMPAT flag indicates that a feature is present in the filesystem, +but the on-disk format is 100% compatible with older on-disk formats, so +a kernel which didn't know anything about this feature could read/write +the filesystem without any chance of corrupting the filesystem (or even +making it inconsistent). This is essentially just a flag which says +"this filesystem has a (hidden) feature" that the kernel or e2fsck may +want to be aware of (more on e2fsck and feature flags later). The ext3 +HAS_JOURNAL feature is a COMPAT flag because the ext3 journal is simply +a regular file with data blocks in it so the kernel does not need to +take any special notice of it if it doesn't understand ext3 journaling. + +An RO_COMPAT flag indicates that the on-disk format is 100% compatible +with older on-disk formats for reading (i.e. the feature does not change +the visible on-disk format). However, an old kernel writing to such a +filesystem would/could corrupt the filesystem, so this is prevented. The +most common such feature, SPARSE_SUPER, is an RO_COMPAT feature because +sparse groups allow file data blocks where superblock/group descriptor +backups used to live, and ext2_free_blocks() refuses to free these blocks, +which would leading to inconsistent bitmaps. An old kernel would also +get an error if it tried to free a series of blocks which crossed a group +boundary, but this is a legitimate layout in a SPARSE_SUPER filesystem. + +An INCOMPAT flag indicates the on-disk format has changed in some +way that makes it unreadable by older kernels, or would otherwise +cause a problem if an old kernel tried to mount it. FILETYPE is an +INCOMPAT flag because older kernels would think a filename was longer +than 256 characters, which would lead to corrupt directory listings. +The COMPRESSION flag is an obvious INCOMPAT flag - if the kernel +doesn't understand compression, you would just get garbage back from +read() instead of it automatically decompressing your data. The ext3 +RECOVER flag is needed to prevent a kernel which does not understand the +ext3 journal from mounting the filesystem without replaying the journal. + +For e2fsck, it needs to be more strict with the handling of these +flags than the kernel. If it doesn't understand ANY of the COMPAT, +RO_COMPAT, or INCOMPAT flags it will refuse to check the filesystem, +because it has no way of verifying whether a given feature is valid +or not. Allowing e2fsck to succeed on a filesystem with an unknown +feature is a false sense of security for the user. Refusing to check +a filesystem with unknown features is a good incentive for the user to +update to the latest e2fsck. This also means that anyone adding feature +flags to ext2 also needs to update e2fsck to verify these features. + +Metadata +-------- + +It is frequently claimed that the ext2 implementation of writing +asynchronous metadata is faster than the ffs synchronous metadata +scheme but less reliable. Both methods are equally resolvable by their +respective fsck programs. + +If you're exceptionally paranoid, there are 3 ways of making metadata +writes synchronous on ext2: + +- per-file if you have the program source: use the O_SYNC flag to open() +- per-file if you don't have the source: use "chattr +S" on the file +- per-filesystem: add the "sync" option to mount (or in /etc/fstab) + +the first and last are not ext2 specific but do force the metadata to +be written synchronously. See also Journaling below. + +Limitations +----------- + +There are various limits imposed by the on-disk layout of ext2. Other +limits are imposed by the current implementation of the kernel code. +Many of the limits are determined at the time the filesystem is first +created, and depend upon the block size chosen. The ratio of inodes to +data blocks is fixed at filesystem creation time, so the only way to +increase the number of inodes is to increase the size of the filesystem. +No tools currently exist which can change the ratio of inodes to blocks. + +Most of these limits could be overcome with slight changes in the on-disk +format and using a compatibility flag to signal the format change (at +the expense of some compatibility). + +===================== ======= ======= ======= ======== +Filesystem block size 1kB 2kB 4kB 8kB +===================== ======= ======= ======= ======== +File size limit 16GB 256GB 2048GB 2048GB +Filesystem size limit 2047GB 8192GB 16384GB 32768GB +===================== ======= ======= ======= ======== + +There is a 2.4 kernel limit of 2048GB for a single block device, so no +filesystem larger than that can be created at this time. There is also +an upper limit on the block size imposed by the page size of the kernel, +so 8kB blocks are only allowed on Alpha systems (and other architectures +which support larger pages). + +There is an upper limit of 32000 subdirectories in a single directory. + +There is a "soft" upper limit of about 10-15k files in a single directory +with the current linear linked-list directory implementation. This limit +stems from performance problems when creating and deleting (and also +finding) files in such large directories. Using a hashed directory index +(under development) allows 100k-1M+ files in a single directory without +performance problems (although RAM size becomes an issue at this point). + +The (meaningless) absolute upper limit of files in a single directory +(imposed by the file size, the realistic limit is obviously much less) +is over 130 trillion files. It would be higher except there are not +enough 4-character names to make up unique directory entries, so they +have to be 8 character filenames, even then we are fairly close to +running out of unique filenames. + +Journaling +---------- + +A journaling extension to the ext2 code has been developed by Stephen +Tweedie. It avoids the risks of metadata corruption and the need to +wait for e2fsck to complete after a crash, without requiring a change +to the on-disk ext2 layout. In a nutshell, the journal is a regular +file which stores whole metadata (and optionally data) blocks that have +been modified, prior to writing them into the filesystem. This means +it is possible to add a journal to an existing ext2 filesystem without +the need for data conversion. + +When changes to the filesystem (e.g. a file is renamed) they are stored in +a transaction in the journal and can either be complete or incomplete at +the time of a crash. If a transaction is complete at the time of a crash +(or in the normal case where the system does not crash), then any blocks +in that transaction are guaranteed to represent a valid filesystem state, +and are copied into the filesystem. If a transaction is incomplete at +the time of the crash, then there is no guarantee of consistency for +the blocks in that transaction so they are discarded (which means any +filesystem changes they represent are also lost). +Check Documentation/filesystems/ext4/ if you want to read more about +ext4 and journaling. + +References +========== + +======================= =============================================== +The kernel source file:/usr/src/linux/fs/ext2/ +e2fsprogs (e2fsck) http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/ +Design & Implementation http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/ext2intro.html +Journaling (ext3) ftp://ftp.uk.linux.org/pub/linux/sct/fs/jfs/ +Filesystem Resizing http://ext2resize.sourceforge.net/ +Compression [1]_ http://e2compr.sourceforge.net/ +======================= =============================================== + +Implementations for: + +======================= =========================================================== +Windows 95/98/NT/2000 http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs +Windows 95 [1]_ http://www.yipton.net/content/fsdext2/ +DOS client [1]_ ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/ext2/ +OS/2 [2]_ ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/filesystems/ext2/ +RISC OS client http://www.esw-heim.tu-clausthal.de/~marco/smorbrod/IscaFS/ +======================= =========================================================== + +.. [1] no longer actively developed/supported (as of Apr 2001) +.. [2] no longer actively developed/supported (as of Mar 2009) |
