VFS: introduce start_removing_dentry()

start_removing_dentry() is similar to start_removing() but instead of
providing a name for lookup, the target dentry is given.

start_removing_dentry() checks that the dentry is still hashed and in
the parent, and if so it locks and increases the refcount so that
end_removing() can be used to finish the operation.

This is used in cachefiles, overlayfs, smb/server, and apparmor.

There will be other users including ecryptfs.

As start_removing_dentry() takes an extra reference to the dentry (to be
put by end_removing()), there is no need to explicitly take an extra
reference to stop d_delete() from using dentry_unlink_inode() to negate
the dentry - as in cachefiles_delete_object(), and ksmbd_vfs_unlink().

cachefiles_bury_object() now gets an extra ref to the victim, which is
drops.  As it includes the needed end_removing() calls, the caller
doesn't need them.

Reviewed-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>
Reviewed-by: Namjae Jeon <linkinjeon@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: NeilBrown <neil@brown.name>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20251113002050.676694-9-neilb@ownmail.net
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>

1 files changed, 33 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/fs/namei.c b/fs/namei.c
index 696e4b794416..bfc443bec8a9 100644
--- a/fs/namei.c
+++ b/fs/namei.c
@@ -3323,6 +3323,39 @@ struct dentry *start_removing_noperm(struct dentry *parent,
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(start_removing_noperm);
 
+/**
+ * start_removing_dentry - prepare to remove a given dentry
+ * @parent: directory from which dentry should be removed
+ * @child:  the dentry to be removed
+ *
+ * A lock is taken to protect the dentry again other dirops and
+ * the validity of the dentry is checked: correct parent and still hashed.
+ *
+ * If the dentry is valid and positive, a reference is taken and
+ * returned.  If not an error is returned.
+ *
+ * end_removing() should be called when removal is complete, or aborted.
+ *
+ * Returns: the valid dentry, or an error.
+ */
+struct dentry *start_removing_dentry(struct dentry *parent,
+				     struct dentry *child)
+{
+	inode_lock_nested(parent->d_inode, I_MUTEX_PARENT);
+	if (unlikely(IS_DEADDIR(parent->d_inode) ||
+		     child->d_parent != parent ||
+		     d_unhashed(child))) {
+		inode_unlock(parent->d_inode);
+		return ERR_PTR(-EINVAL);
+	}
+	if (d_is_negative(child)) {
+		inode_unlock(parent->d_inode);
+		return ERR_PTR(-ENOENT);
+	}
+	return dget(child);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(start_removing_dentry);
+
 #ifdef CONFIG_UNIX98_PTYS
 int path_pts(struct path *path)
 {