new file mode 100644
@@ -0,0 +1,206 @@
+Overview
+========
+
+EROFS file-system stands for Enhanced Read-Only File System. Different
+from other read-only file systems, it aims to be designed for flexibility,
+scalability, but be kept simple and high performance.
+
+It is designed as a better filesystem solution for the following scenarios:
+ - read-only storage media or
+
+ - part of a fully trusted read-only solution, which means it needs to be
+ immutable and bit-for-bit identical to the official golden image for
+ their releases due to security and other considerations and
+
+ - hope to save some extra storage space with guaranteed end-to-end performance
+ by using reduced metadata and transparent file compression, especially
+ for those embedded devices with limited memory (ex, smartphone);
+
+Here is the main features of EROFS:
+ - Little endian on-disk design;
+
+ - Currently 4KB block size (nobh) and therefore maximum 16TB address space;
+
+ - Metadata & data could be mixed by design;
+
+ - 2 inode versions for different requirements:
+ v1 v2
+ Inode metadata size: 32 bytes 64 bytes
+ Max file size: 4 GB 16 EB (also limited by max. vol size)
+ Max uids/gids: 65536 4294967296
+ File creation time: no yes (64 + 32-bit timestamp)
+ Max hardlinks: 65536 4294967296
+ Metadata reserved: 4 bytes 14 bytes
+
+ - Support extended attributes (xattrs) as an option;
+
+ - Support xattr inline and tail-end data inline for all files;
+
+ - Support transparent file compression as an option:
+ LZ4 algorithm with 4 KB fixed-output compression for high performance;
+
+The following git tree provides the file system user-space tools under
+development (ex, formatting tool mkfs.erofs):
+>> git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/xiang/erofs-utils.git
+
+Bugs and patches are welcome, please kindly help us and send to the following
+linux-erofs mailing list:
+>> linux-erofs mailing list <linux-erofs@lists.ozlabs.org>
+
+Note that EROFS is still working in progress as a Linux staging driver,
+Cc the staging mailing list as well is highly recommended:
+>> Linux Driver Project Developer List <devel@driverdev.osuosl.org>
+
+Mount options
+=============
+
+fault_injection=%d Enable fault injection in all supported types with
+ specified injection rate. Supported injection type:
+ Type_Name Type_Value
+ FAULT_KMALLOC 0x000000001
+(no)user_xattr Setup Extended User Attributes. Note: xattr is enabled
+ by default if CONFIG_EROFS_FS_XATTR is selected.
+(no)acl Setup POSIX Access Control List. Note: acl is enabled
+ by default if CONFIG_EROFS_FS_POSIX_ACL is selected.
+
+On-disk details
+===============
+
+Summary
+-------
+Different from other read-only file systems, an EROFS volume is designed
+to be as simple as possible:
+
+ |-> aligned with the block size
+ ____________________________________________________________
+ | |SB| | ... | Metadata | ... | Data | Metadata | ... | Data |
+ |_|__|_|_____|__________|_____|______|__________|_____|______|
+ 0 +1K
+
+All data areas should be aligned with the block size, but metadata areas
+may not. All metadatas can be now observed in two different spaces (views):
+ 1. Inode metadata space
+ Each valid inode should be aligned with an inode slot, which is a fixed
+ value (32 bytes) and designed to be kept in line with v1 inode size.
+
+ Each inode can be directly found with the following formula:
+ inode offset = meta_blkaddr * block_size + 32 * nid
+
+ |-> aligned with 8B
+ |-> followed closely
+ + meta_blkaddr blocks |-> another slot
+ _____________________________________________________________________
+ | ... | inode | xattrs | extents | data inline | ... | inode ...
+ |________|_______|(optional)|(optional)|__(optional)_|_____|__________
+ |-> aligned with the inode slot size
+ . .
+ . .
+ . .
+ . .
+ . .
+ . .
+ .____________________________________________________|-> aligned with 4B
+ | xattr_ibody_header | shared xattrs | inline xattrs |
+ |____________________|_______________|_______________|
+ |-> 12 bytes <-|->x * 4 bytes<-| .
+ . . .
+ . . .
+ . . .
+ ._______________________________.______________________.
+ | id | id | id | id | ... | id | ent | ... | ent| ... |
+ |____|____|____|____|______|____|_____|_____|____|_____|
+ |-> aligned with 4B
+ |-> aligned with 4B
+
+ Inode could be 32 or 64 bytes, which can be distinguished from a common
+ field which all inode versions have -- i_advise:
+
+ __________________ __________________
+ | i_advise | | i_advise |
+ |__________________| |__________________|
+ | ... | | ... |
+ | | | |
+ |__________________| 32 bytes | |
+ | |
+ |__________________| 64 bytes
+
+ Xattrs, extents, data inline are followed by the corresponding inode with
+ proper alignes, and they could be optional for different data mappings,
+ _currently_ there are totally 3 valid data mappings supported:
+
+ 1) flat file data without data inline (no extent);
+ 2) fixed-output size data compression (must have extents);
+ 3) flat file data with tail-end data inline (no extent);
+
+ The size of the optional xattrs is indicated by i_xattr_count in inode
+ header. Large xattrs or xattrs shared by many different files can be
+ stored in shared xattrs metadata rather than inlined right after inode.
+
+ 2. Shared xattrs metadata space
+ Shared xattrs space is similar to the above inode space, started with
+ a specific block indicated by xattr_blkaddr, organized one by one with
+ proper align.
+
+ Each share xattr can also be directly found by the following formula:
+ xattr offset = xattr_blkaddr * block_size + 4 * xattr_id
+
+ |-> aligned by 4 bytes
+ + xattr_blkaddr blocks |-> aligned with 4 bytes
+ _________________________________________________________________________
+ | ... | xattr_entry | xattr data | ... | xattr_entry | xattr data ...
+ |________|_____________|_____________|_____|______________|_______________
+
+Directories
+-----------
+All directories are now organized in a compact on-disk format. Note that
+each directory block is divided into index and name areas in order to support
+random file lookup, and all directory entries are _strictly_ recorded in
+alphabetical order in order to support improved prefix binary search
+algorithm (could refer to the related source code).
+
+ ___________________________
+ / |
+ / ______________|________________
+ / / | nameoff1 | nameoffN-1
+ ____________.______________._______________v________________v__________
+| dirent | dirent | ... | dirent | filename | filename | ... | filename |
+|___.0___|____1___|_____|___N-1__|____0_____|____1_____|_____|___N-1____|
+ \ ^
+ \ | * could have
+ \ | trailing '\0'
+ \________________________| nameoff0
+
+ Directory block
+
+Note that apart from the offset of the first filename, nameoff0 also indicates
+the total number of directory entries in this block since it is no need to
+introduce another on-disk field at all.
+
+Compression
+-----------
+Currently, EROFS supports 4KB fixed-output clustersize transparent file
+compression, as illustrated below:
+
+ |---- Variant-Length Extent ----|-------- VLE --------|----- VLE -----
+ clusterofs clusterofs clusterofs
+ | | | logical data
+_________v_______________________________v_____________________v_______________
+... | . | | . | | . | ...
+____|____.________|_____________|________.____|_____________|__.__________|____
+ |-> cluster <-|-> cluster <-|-> cluster <-|-> cluster <-|-> cluster <-|
+ size size size size size
+ . . . .
+ . . . .
+ . . . .
+ _______._____________._____________._____________._____________________
+ ... | | | | ... physical data
+ _______|_____________|_____________|_____________|_____________________
+ |-> cluster <-|-> cluster <-|-> cluster <-|
+ size size size
+
+Currently each on-disk physical cluster can contain 4KB (un)compressed data
+at most. For each logical cluster, there is a corresponding on-disk index to
+describe its cluster type, physical cluster address, etc.
+
+See "struct z_erofs_vle_decompressed_index" in erofs_fs.h for more details.
+
This is a note to let you know that I've just added the patch titled staging: erofs: add document to my staging git tree which can be found at git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging.git in the staging-testing branch. The patch will show up in the next release of the linux-next tree (usually sometime within the next 24 hours during the week.) The patch will be merged to the staging-next branch sometime soon, after it passes testing, and the merge window is open. If you have any questions about this process, please let me know. From fdb0536469cbc959a044fe61f07e6798d0d08445 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Gao Xiang <gaoxiang25@huawei.com> Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2019 01:39:29 +0800 Subject: staging: erofs: add document This documents key feature, usage, and on-disk design of erofs. Reviewed-by: Chao Yu <yuchao0@huawei.com> Cc: <linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org> Signed-off-by: Gao Xiang <gaoxiang25@huawei.com> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org> --- .../erofs/Documentation/filesystems/erofs.txt | 206 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 206 insertions(+) create mode 100644 drivers/staging/erofs/Documentation/filesystems/erofs.txt