Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262490AbUKRPox (ORCPT ); Thu, 18 Nov 2004 10:44:53 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262503AbUKRPnI (ORCPT ); Thu, 18 Nov 2004 10:43:08 -0500 Received: from linux01.gwdg.de ([134.76.13.21]:23702 "EHLO linux01.gwdg.de") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262488AbUKRPlm (ORCPT ); Thu, 18 Nov 2004 10:41:42 -0500 Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 16:40:52 +0100 (MET) From: Jan Engelhardt To: "Theodore Ts'o" cc: "Stephen C. Tweedie" , Andrew Morton , r6144 , linux-kernel , "ext2-devel@lists.sourceforge.net" , phillips@istop.com, Alex Tomas , Christopher Li , Christopher Li Subject: Re: Fw: [POSSIBLE-BUG] telldir() broken on ext3 dir_index'd directories just after the first entry. In-Reply-To: <20041118140645.GA5306@thunk.org> Message-ID: References: <20041116183813.11cbf280.akpm@osdl.org> <20041117223436.GB5334@thunk.org> <1100736003.11047.14.camel@sisko.sctweedie.blueyonder.co.uk> <20041118045336.GA5236@thunk.org> <20041118140645.GA5306@thunk.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8BIT Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1473 Lines: 38 >> >So instead what we need to do is wire '.' and '..' to have hash values >> >of (0,0) and (2,0), respectively, without ignoring other existing >> >dirents with colliding hashes. (In those cases the programs will >> >break, but they are statistically rare, and there's not much we can do >> >in those cases anyway.) >> >> IMO it's better to fix the mess all at once to have it weeded out for some >> months. > >Programs that assume that '.' and '..' are the first and second [...] >But there's really not much we can do. > >Before, we hard-wired '.' and '..' to always be first [...] >We don't really have a choice here. > >(Actually, I guess we could define a new hash function [...] >So again, making a best effort, but breaking programs >that are fundamentally broken is the best we can do.) Looks like there's only way -- or: two ways and one choice: - Either leave it all as it is ATM (kind of unsatisfying) or - (unintentionally) break all apps now, or announce that they could brake if they relied on special features (as outlined above), and at the same time implement proper directory traversal. Jan Engelhardt -- Gesellschaft für Wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung Am Fassberg, 37077 Göttingen, www.gwdg.de - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/