> > > > > Maybe I am not seeing something or having a different thinking you have, but > > > this is the behavior we have now, without my patches. And we can't really change > > > it; the user view of this implementation. > > > That's why I didn't try to change the result, so the truncation still happens. > > > > I understand that we're not generally supposed to change existing > > userspace interfaces, but the fact remains that allowing truncated > > responses causes *filesystem corruption*. > > > > We know that the most well known FIBMAP callers are bootloaders, and we > > know what they do with the information they get -- they use it to record > > the block map of boot files. So if the IPL/grub/whatever installer > > queries the boot file and the boot file is at block 12345678901 (a > > 34-bit number), this interface truncates that to 3755744309 (a 32-bit > > number) and that's where the bootloader will think its boot files are. > > The installation succeeds, the user reboots and *kaboom* the system no > > longer boots because the contents of block 3755744309 is not a bootloader. > > > > Worse yet, grub1 used FIBMAP data to record the location of the grub > > environment file and installed itself between the MBR and the start of > > partition 1. If the environment file is at offset 1234578901, grub will > > write status data to its environment file (which it thinks is at > > 3755744309) and *KABOOM* we've just destroyed whatever was in that > > block. > > > > Far better for the bootloader installation script to hit an error and > > force the admin to deal with the situation than for the system to become > > unbootable. That's *why* the (newer) iomap bmap implementation does not > > return truncated mappings, even though the classic implementation does. > > > > The classic code returning truncated results is a broken behavior. > > How long as it been broken for? And if we do fix it, I'd just like for > a nice commit lot describing potential risks of not applying it. *If* > the issue exists as-is today, the above contains a lot of information > for addressing potential issues, even if theoretical. > It's broken since forever. This has always been the FIBMAP behavior. > Luis -- Carlos
