Re: [PATCH v6 1/4] openat2: new OPENAT2_REGULAR flag support

On Mon, Mar 30, 2026 at 5:49 PM Jeff Layton <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 2026-03-28 at 23:22 +0600, Dorjoy Chowdhury wrote:
> > This flag indicates the path should be opened if it's a regular file.
> > This is useful to write secure programs that want to avoid being
> > tricked into opening device nodes with special semantics while thinking
> > they operate on regular files. This is a requested feature from the
> > uapi-group[1].
> >
> > A corresponding error code EFTYPE has been introduced. For example, if
> > openat2 is called on path /dev/null with OPENAT2_REGULAR in the flag
> > param, it will return -EFTYPE. EFTYPE is already used in BSD systems
> > like FreeBSD, macOS.
> >
> > When used in combination with O_CREAT, either the regular file is
> > created, or if the path already exists, it is opened if it's a regular
> > file. Otherwise, -EFTYPE is returned.
> >
> > When OPENAT2_REGULAR is combined with O_DIRECTORY, -EINVAL is returned
> > as it doesn't make sense to open a path that is both a directory and a
> > regular file.
> >
> > [1]: https://uapi-group.org/kernel-features/#ability-to-only-open-regular-files
> >
> > Signed-off-by: Dorjoy Chowdhury <[email protected]>
> > ---
> >  arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/errno.h        |  2 ++
> >  arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h        |  1 +
> >  arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/errno.h         |  2 ++
> >  arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h       |  2 ++
> >  arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h       |  1 +
> >  arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h        |  2 ++
> >  arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h        |  1 +
> >  fs/ceph/file.c                             |  4 ++++
> >  fs/fcntl.c                                 |  4 ++--
> >  fs/gfs2/inode.c                            |  6 ++++++
> >  fs/namei.c                                 |  4 ++++
> >  fs/nfs/dir.c                               |  4 ++++
> >  fs/open.c                                  |  8 +++++---
> >  fs/smb/client/dir.c                        | 14 +++++++++++++-
> >  include/linux/fcntl.h                      |  2 ++
> >  include/uapi/asm-generic/errno.h           |  2 ++
> >  include/uapi/asm-generic/fcntl.h           |  4 ++++
> >  tools/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/errno.h  |  2 ++
> >  tools/arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/errno.h   |  2 ++
> >  tools/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h |  2 ++
> >  tools/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h  |  2 ++
> >  tools/include/uapi/asm-generic/errno.h     |  2 ++
> >  22 files changed, 67 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> >
> > diff --git a/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/errno.h b/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > index 6791f6508632..1a99f38813c7 100644
> > --- a/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > +++ b/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > @@ -127,4 +127,6 @@
> >
> >  #define EHWPOISON    139     /* Memory page has hardware error */
> >
> > +#define EFTYPE               140     /* Wrong file type for the intended operation */
> > +
> >  #endif
> > diff --git a/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h b/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h
> > index 50bdc8e8a271..fe488bf7c18e 100644
> > --- a/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h
> > +++ b/arch/alpha/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h
> > @@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
> >
> >  #define O_PATH               040000000
> >  #define __O_TMPFILE  0100000000
> > +#define OPENAT2_REGULAR      0200000000
> >
> >  #define F_GETLK              7
> >  #define F_SETLK              8
> > diff --git a/arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/errno.h b/arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > index c01ed91b1ef4..1835a50b69ce 100644
> > --- a/arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > +++ b/arch/mips/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > @@ -126,6 +126,8 @@
> >
> >  #define EHWPOISON    168     /* Memory page has hardware error */
> >
> > +#define EFTYPE               169     /* Wrong file type for the intended operation */
> > +
> >  #define EDQUOT               1133    /* Quota exceeded */
> >
> >
> > diff --git a/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h b/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > index 8cbc07c1903e..93194fbb0a80 100644
> > --- a/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > +++ b/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > @@ -124,4 +124,6 @@
> >
> >  #define EHWPOISON    257     /* Memory page has hardware error */
> >
> > +#define EFTYPE               258     /* Wrong file type for the intended operation */
> > +
> >  #endif
> > diff --git a/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h b/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h
> > index 03dee816cb13..d46812f2f0f4 100644
> > --- a/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h
> > +++ b/arch/parisc/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h
> > @@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
> >
> >  #define O_PATH               020000000
> >  #define __O_TMPFILE  040000000
> > +#define OPENAT2_REGULAR      0100000000
> >
> >  #define F_GETLK64    8
> >  #define F_SETLK64    9
> > diff --git a/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h b/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > index 4a41e7835fd5..71940ec9130b 100644
> > --- a/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > +++ b/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/errno.h
> > @@ -117,4 +117,6 @@
> >
> >  #define EHWPOISON    135     /* Memory page has hardware error */
> >
> > +#define EFTYPE               136     /* Wrong file type for the intended operation */
> > +
> >  #endif
> > diff --git a/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h b/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h
> > index 67dae75e5274..bb6e9fa94bc9 100644
> > --- a/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h
> > +++ b/arch/sparc/include/uapi/asm/fcntl.h
> > @@ -37,6 +37,7 @@
> >
> >  #define O_PATH               0x1000000
> >  #define __O_TMPFILE  0x2000000
> > +#define OPENAT2_REGULAR      0x4000000
> >
> >  #define F_GETOWN     5       /*  for sockets. */
> >  #define F_SETOWN     6       /*  for sockets. */
> > diff --git a/fs/ceph/file.c b/fs/ceph/file.c
> > index 66bbf6d517a9..6d8d4c7765e6 100644
> > --- a/fs/ceph/file.c
> > +++ b/fs/ceph/file.c
> > @@ -977,6 +977,10 @@ int ceph_atomic_open(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry,
> >                       ceph_init_inode_acls(newino, &as_ctx);
> >                       file->f_mode |= FMODE_CREATED;
> >               }
> > +             if ((flags & OPENAT2_REGULAR) && !d_is_reg(dentry)) {
> > +                     err = -EFTYPE;
> > +                     goto out_req;
> > +             }
>
> ^^^
> This doesn't look quite right. Here's a larger chunk of the code:
>
> -------------------------8<--------------------------
>         if (d_in_lookup(dentry)) {
>                 dn = ceph_finish_lookup(req, dentry, err);
>                 if (IS_ERR(dn))
>                         err = PTR_ERR(dn);
>         } else {
>                 /* we were given a hashed negative dentry */
>                 dn = NULL;
>         }
>         if (err)
>                 goto out_req;
>         if (dn || d_really_is_negative(dentry) || d_is_symlink(dentry)) {
>                 /* make vfs retry on splice, ENOENT, or symlink */
>                 doutc(cl, "finish_no_open on dn %p\n", dn);
>                 err = finish_no_open(file, dn);
>         } else {
>                 if (IS_ENCRYPTED(dir) &&
>                     !fscrypt_has_permitted_context(dir, d_inode(dentry))) {
>                         pr_warn_client(cl,
>                                 "Inconsistent encryption context (parent %llx:%llx child %llx:%llx)\n",
>                                 ceph_vinop(dir), ceph_vinop(d_inode(dentry)));
>                         goto out_req;
>                 }
>
>                 doutc(cl, "finish_open on dn %p\n", dn);
>                 if (req->r_op == CEPH_MDS_OP_CREATE && req->r_reply_info.has_create_ino) {
>                         struct inode *newino = d_inode(dentry);
>
>                         cache_file_layout(dir, newino);
>                         ceph_init_inode_acls(newino, &as_ctx);
>                         file->f_mode |= FMODE_CREATED;
>                 }
>                 err = finish_open(file, dentry, ceph_open);
>         }
> -------------------------8<--------------------------
>
> It looks like this won't handle it correctly if the pathwalk terminates
> on a symlink (re: d_is_symlink() case). You should either set up a test
> ceph cluster on your own, or reach out to the ceph community and ask
> them to test this.
>

Thanks for reviewing. The d_is_symlink() case seems to be calling
finish_no_open so shouldn't this be okay?

> >               err = finish_open(file, dentry, ceph_open);
> >       }
> >  out_req:
> > diff --git a/fs/fcntl.c b/fs/fcntl.c
> > index beab8080badf..240bb511557a 100644
> > --- a/fs/fcntl.c
> > +++ b/fs/fcntl.c
> > @@ -1169,9 +1169,9 @@ static int __init fcntl_init(void)
> >        * Exceptions: O_NONBLOCK is a two bit define on parisc; O_NDELAY
> >        * is defined as O_NONBLOCK on some platforms and not on others.
> >        */
> > -     BUILD_BUG_ON(20 - 1 /* for O_RDONLY being 0 */ !=
> > +     BUILD_BUG_ON(21 - 1 /* for O_RDONLY being 0 */ !=
> >               HWEIGHT32(
> > -                     (VALID_OPEN_FLAGS & ~(O_NONBLOCK | O_NDELAY)) |
> > +                     (VALID_OPENAT2_FLAGS & ~(O_NONBLOCK | O_NDELAY)) |
> >                       __FMODE_EXEC));
> >
> >       fasync_cache = kmem_cache_create("fasync_cache",
> > diff --git a/fs/gfs2/inode.c b/fs/gfs2/inode.c
> > index 8344040ecaf7..4604e2e8a9cc 100644
> > --- a/fs/gfs2/inode.c
> > +++ b/fs/gfs2/inode.c
> > @@ -738,6 +738,12 @@ static int gfs2_create_inode(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry,
> >       inode = gfs2_dir_search(dir, &dentry->d_name, !S_ISREG(mode) || excl);
> >       error = PTR_ERR(inode);
> >       if (!IS_ERR(inode)) {
> > +             if (file && (file->f_flags & OPENAT2_REGULAR) && !S_ISREG(inode->i_mode)) {
>
> Isn't OPENAT2_REGULAR getting masked off in ->f_flags now?
>
Yes, I thought the masking off was happening after this codepath got
executed. Maybe it's better anyway to pass another flags param to this
function and forward the flags from the gfs2_atomic_open function and
in other call sites pass 0 ? What do you think?

Regards,
Dorjoy