Re: [PATCH RFC v2 17/18] fs: look up the superblock via the device table in user_get_super()

On Tue, Jun 16, 2026 at 04:08:33PM +0200, Christian Brauner wrote:
> user_get_super() still finds the superblock for a device number by
> walking the global super_blocks list under sb_lock. Every superblock is
> registered in the device table under its s_dev since sget_fc() inserts
> it there, including superblocks on anonymous devices, so use the table
> instead.
> 
> The refcount-pinning cursor helpers super_dev_{get,first,next}() only
> touch table state and do not depend on CONFIG_BLOCK, so drop the
> CONFIG_BLOCK guard around them: their new caller serves anonymous
> devices as well (ustat() on e.g. tmpfs) and is built without
> CONFIG_BLOCK. The guard falls in this patch rather than separately
> since without this caller the helpers would be unused without
> CONFIG_BLOCK.
> 
> The pinned entry holds a passive reference on the superblock so
> super_lock() can be called directly; once the superblock is locked grab
> a passive reference for the caller before dropping the pin.
> 
> The device table contains more than the old walk could find: a
> superblock is also registered for every additional device it claims
> (the xfs log and realtime devices, btrfs member devices, the ext4
> external journal, erofs blob devices). Don't filter those out:
> specifying any device a filesystem uses now resolves to that
> filesystem, so ustat() and quotactl() work on e.g. the xfs log device
> or a btrfs member device (the latter used to fail outright as btrfs
> superblocks carry an anonymous s_dev that never matches a member
> device). When several superblocks share a device (erofs blob devices)
> the first live superblock wins.

Does erofs have a means to find the other superblocks that share a
device given a notification coming in on one of them?  As hch says, it
feels weird to have a lookup mechanism when there's also an upcall
mechanism.

<shrug> I've been on vacation for a while so maybe I missed that there's
another use for the bdev->sb lookup?  There are 1600 more emails for me
to go through... :P

--D

> 
> The cursor also keeps scanning past dying superblocks where the old
> walk gave up after the first s_dev match, so a mount racing with the
> unmount of the same device (or with the reuse of a recycled anonymous
> dev_t) finds the live superblock where the old walk could spuriously
> return NULL.
> 
> This removes the last s_dev-keyed walk of the super_blocks list and
> takes ustat() and quotactl()'s block device lookup off sb_lock
> entirely.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <[email protected]>
> ---
>  fs/super.c | 28 ++++++++--------------------
>  1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/super.c b/fs/super.c
> index 2d0a07861bfc..93f24aea75c4 100644
> --- a/fs/super.c
> +++ b/fs/super.c
> @@ -501,7 +501,6 @@ static int super_dev_register(struct super_block *sb)
>  	return err;
>  }
>  
> -#ifdef CONFIG_BLOCK
>  static struct super_dev *super_dev_get(struct rhlist_head *pos)
>  {
>  	struct super_dev *sb_dev;
> @@ -535,7 +534,6 @@ static struct super_dev *super_dev_next(struct super_dev *prev)
>  	super_dev_put(prev);
>  	return sb_dev;
>  }
> -#endif
>  
>  static void kill_super_notify(struct super_block *sb)
>  {
> @@ -1044,29 +1042,19 @@ EXPORT_SYMBOL(iterate_supers_type);
>  
>  struct super_block *user_get_super(dev_t dev, bool excl)
>  {
> -	struct super_block *sb;
> -
> -	spin_lock(&sb_lock);
> -	list_for_each_entry(sb, &super_blocks, s_list) {
> -		bool locked;
> +	struct super_dev *sb_dev;
>  
> -		if (sb->s_dev != dev)
> -			continue;
> +	for (sb_dev = super_dev_first(dev); sb_dev; sb_dev = super_dev_next(sb_dev)) {
> +		struct super_block *sb = sb_dev->sd_sb;
>  
> -		if (!refcount_inc_not_zero(&sb->s_passive))
> +		if (!super_lock(sb, excl))
>  			continue;
>  
> -		spin_unlock(&sb_lock);
> -
> -		locked = super_lock(sb, excl);
> -		if (locked)
> -			return sb;
> -
> -		put_super(sb);
> -		spin_lock(&sb_lock);
> -		break;
> +		/* The pinned entry holds a passive reference, take our own. */
> +		refcount_inc(&sb->s_passive);
> +		super_dev_put(sb_dev);
> +		return sb;
>  	}
> -	spin_unlock(&sb_lock);
>  	return NULL;
>  }
>  
> 
> -- 
> 2.47.3
> 
>