This series of 4 proposed patches (take 3) changes fs/ioctl.c and Unionfs as follows. This series is against v2.6.24-rc1-423-g97855b4. Patch 1: just applies coding standards to fs/ioctl.c (while I'm at it, I figured it's worth cleaning VFS files one at a time). Patch 2: does two things: (a) Renames the old vfs_ioctl to do_ioctl, because the comment above it clearly indicates that it is an internal function not to be exported to modules; therefore it should have a more traditional do_XXX "internal function" name. The new do_ioctl is exported in fs.h but not to modules. (b) Renames the old (static) do_ioctl to vfs_ioctl because the names vfs_XXX should preferably be reserved to callable VFS functions which modules may call, as other vfs_XXX functions already do. Export the new vfs_ioctl to (GPL) modules so others can use it (including Unionfs and eCryptfs). Patch 3: factors out the switch statements' cases for FIBMAP/FIONBIO/FIOASYNC, into three small static helper functions. Patch 4: demonstrates how Unionfs can use the new vfs_ioctl. I successfully tested unionfs with this new exported vfs_ioctl. (eCryptfs could do the same.) I'd like to propose that the first 3 patches be merged in -mm and even mainline, pending review. Erez Zadok (4): VFS: apply coding standards to fs/ioctl.c VFS: swap do_ioctl and vfs_ioctl names VFS: factor out three helpers for FIBMAP/FIONBIO/FIOASYNC file ioctls Unionfs: use vfs_ioctl fs/compat_ioctl.c | 2 fs/ioctl.c | 224 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------- fs/unionfs/commonfops.c | 36 +------ include/linux/fs.h | 4 4 files changed, 141 insertions(+), 125 deletions(-) Cheers, Erez. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-fsdevel" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html