Now that we provide a unique 64-bit mount ID interface in statx(2), we can now provide a race-free way for name_to_handle_at(2) to provide a file handle and corresponding mount without needing to worry about racing with /proc/mountinfo parsing or having to open a file just to do statx(2). While this is not necessary if you are using AT_EMPTY_PATH and don't care about an extra statx(2) call, users that pass full paths into name_to_handle_at(2) need to know which mount the file handle comes from (to make sure they don't try to open_by_handle_at a file handle from a different filesystem) and switching to AT_EMPTY_PATH would require allocating a file for every name_to_handle_at(2) call, turning err = name_to_handle_at(-EBADF, "/foo/bar/baz", &handle, &mntid, AT_HANDLE_MNT_ID_UNIQUE); into int fd = openat(-EBADF, "/foo/bar/baz", O_PATH | O_CLOEXEC); err1 = name_to_handle_at(fd, "", &handle, &unused_mntid, AT_EMPTY_PATH); err2 = statx(fd, "", AT_EMPTY_PATH, STATX_MNT_ID_UNIQUE, &statxbuf); mntid = statxbuf.stx_mnt_id; close(fd); Also, this series adds a patch to clarify how AT_* flag allocation should work going forwards. Signed-off-by: Aleksa Sarai <cyphar@xxxxxxxxxx> --- Changes in v3: - Added a patch describing how AT_* flags should be allocated in the future, based on Amir's suggestions. - Included AT_* aliases for RENAME_* flags to further indicate that renameat2(2) is an *at(2) syscall and to indicate that those flags have been allocated already in the per-syscall range. - Switched AT_HANDLE_MNT_ID_UNIQUE to use 0x01 (to reuse (AT_)RENAME_NOREPLACE). - v2: <https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240523-exportfs-u64-mount-id-v2-1-f9f959f17eb1@xxxxxxxxxx> Changes in v2: - Fixed a few minor compiler warnings and a buggy copy_to_user() check. - Rename AT_HANDLE_UNIQUE_MOUNT_ID -> AT_HANDLE_MNT_ID_UNIQUE to match statx. - Switched to using an AT_* bit from 0xFF and defining that range as being "per-syscall" for future usage. - Sync tools/ copy of <linux/fcntl.h> to include changes. - v1: <https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240520-exportfs-u64-mount-id-v1-1-f55fd9215b8e@xxxxxxxxxx> --- Aleksa Sarai (2): uapi: explain how per-syscall AT_* flags should be allocated fhandle: expose u64 mount id to name_to_handle_at(2) fs/fhandle.c | 29 ++++++-- include/linux/syscalls.h | 2 +- include/uapi/linux/fcntl.h | 81 ++++++++++++++------- tools/perf/trace/beauty/include/uapi/linux/fcntl.h | 84 +++++++++++++++------- 4 files changed, 140 insertions(+), 56 deletions(-) --- base-commit: c7b9563b58a77423d4c6e026ff831a69612b02fc change-id: 20240515-exportfs-u64-mount-id-9ebb5c58b53c Best regards, -- Aleksa Sarai <cyphar@xxxxxxxxxx>