Request: removal of fs/fs.h/super_block.u to enable partition locking

[Mark Swanson]

Why?

So I can write and distribute a GPL'd 'inuse' filesystem module
that essentially registers a partition as in-use.

I am writing an application that uses raw I/O and I need
some way of locking a partition. The only
way I know of (sortof) doing this is by registering a filesystem
for the partition so system utilities won't overwrite the partition
because they will see it is busy by examining /proc/partitions.

lockf()
on /dev/hda1 doesn't stop root from mounting the partition
as a swap partition or accidentally formatting it
even though the root partition was mounted with 'mand' to 
enable mandatory locking and a 'chmod 2660 /dev/hda1' was done 
to enable mandatory locking on the file.

I'm trying to look out for tired sys-admins who might 
destroy my application's partition not knowing
what a particular empty-looking partition is used for.

Thoughts?

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