ovl: redirect on rename-dir

Current code returns EXDEV when a directory would need to be copied up to
move.  We could copy up the directory tree in this case, but there's
another, simpler solution: point to old lower directory from moved upper
directory.

This is achieved with a "trusted.overlay.redirect" xattr storing the path
relative to the root of the overlay.  After such attribute has been set,
the directory can be moved without further actions required.

This is a backward incompatible feature, old kernels won't be able to
correctly mount an overlay containing redirected directories.

Signed-off-by: Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 19 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt
index 7aeb8e8d80cf..fb6f3070c6fe 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.txt
@@ -130,6 +130,23 @@ directory.
 Readdir on directories that are not merged is simply handled by the
 underlying directory (upper or lower).
 
+renaming directories
+--------------------
+
+When renaming a directory that is on the lower layer or merged (i.e. the
+directory was not created on the upper layer to start with) overlayfs can
+handle it in two different ways:
+
+1) return EXDEV error: this error is returned by rename(2) when trying to
+   move a file or directory across filesystem boundaries.  Hence
+   applications are usually prepared to hande this error (mv(1) for example
+   recursively copies the directory tree).  This is the default behavior.
+
+2) If the "redirect_dir" feature is enabled, then the directory will be
+   copied up (but not the contents).  Then the "trusted.overlay.redirect"
+   extended attribute is set to the path of the original location from the
+   root of the overlay.  Finally the directory is moved to the new
+   location.
 
 Non-directories
 ---------------
@@ -189,8 +206,8 @@ If a file with multiple hard links is copied up, then this will
 "break" the link.  Changes will not be propagated to other names
 referring to the same inode.
 
-Directory trees are not copied up.  If rename(2) is performed on a directory
-which is on the lower layer or is merged, then -EXDEV will be returned.
+Unless "redirect_dir" feature is enabled, rename(2) on a lower or merged
+directory will fail with EXDEV.
 
 Changes to underlying filesystems
 ---------------------------------