Re: 2.4.15-pre9 breakage (inode.c)

[Alexander Viro]

On Sat, 24 Nov 2001, Andrea Arcangeli wrote:

> if the method or the s_op isn't defined it will do nothing, if it is
> defined it'd better do something not wrong because the fs just did an
> iget within read_super. I don't see obvious troubles and the above looks
> better than making iput more complex (and nitpicking slower 8).

2.4.15-pre8:

	if (!list_empty(&inode->i_hash)) {
		FOO
		return;
	} else {
		BAR
	}

2.4.15+patch:
	
	if (!list_empty(&inode->i_hash)) {
		FOO
		if (!sb || sb->s_flags & MS_ACTIVE)
			return;
		write_inode_now(inode, 1);
		spin_lock(&inode_lock);
		inodes_stat.nr_unused--;
		list_del_init(&inode->i_hash);
	}
	BAR

Notice that it fixes _all_ problems with stale inodes, with only one rule
for fs code - "don't call iput() when ->clear_inode() doesn't work".  Your
variant requires funnier things - "if at some point ->clear_inode()
may stop working make sure to call invalidate_inodes()" in addition to
the rule above.

Frankly, I'd prefer fix that provides less possibilities for fsckup
in fs code and requires less analysis.