From: Miklos Szeredi Subject: Re: [fuse-devel] [PATCH 01/25] VFS: move attr_kill logic from notify_change into helper function Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2007 21:37:00 +0200 Message-ID: References: <200708061354.l76Ds6sq002260@dantu.rdu.redhat.com> <20070806141333.0f54ab17.jlayton@redhat.com> <1186427063.6616.59.camel@localhost> Cc: miklos@szeredi.hu, jlayton@redhat.com, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, codalist@telemann.coda.cs.cmu.edu, cluster-devel@redhat.com, jfs-discussion@lists.sourceforge.net, mikulas@artax.karlin.mff.cuni.cz, zippel@linux-m68k.org, xfs@oss.sgi.com, joel.becker@oracle.com, wli@holomorphy.com, reiserfs-devel@vger.kernel.org, dhowells@redhat.com, fuse-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, jffs-dev@axis.com, user-mode-linux-user@lists.sourceforge.net, v9fs-developer@lists.sourceforge.net, linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org, linux-cifs-client@lists.samba.org, ocfs2-devel@oss.oracle.com, bfennema@falcon.csc.calpoly.edu To: trond.myklebust@fys.uio.no Return-path: In-reply-to: <1186427063.6616.59.camel@localhost> (message from Trond Myklebust on Mon, 06 Aug 2007 15:04:23 -0400) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ext4.vger.kernel.org > > Your patch is changing the API in a very unsafe way, since there will > > be no error or warning on an unconverted fs. And that could lead to > > security holes. > > > > If we would rename the setattr method to setattr_new as well as > > changing it's behavior, that would be fine. But I guess we do not > > want to do that. > > Which "unconverted fses"? If we're talking out of tree stuff, then too > bad: it is _their_ responsibility to keep up with kernel changes. It is usually a good idea to not change the semantics of an API in a backward incompatible way without changing the syntax as well. This is true regardless of whether we care about out-of-tree code or not (and we should care to some degree). And especially true if the change in question is security sensitive. Miklos