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-rw-r--r--fs/nilfs2/gcinode.c21
1 files changed, 20 insertions, 1 deletions
diff --git a/fs/nilfs2/gcinode.c b/fs/nilfs2/gcinode.c
index 001395266325..77615aabc7e2 100644
--- a/fs/nilfs2/gcinode.c
+++ b/fs/nilfs2/gcinode.c
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
/*
- * gcinode.c - NILFS memory inode for GC
+ * gcinode.c - dummy inodes to buffer blocks for garbage collection
*
* Copyright (C) 2005-2008 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation.
*
@@ -22,6 +22,25 @@
* Revised by Ryusuke Konishi <ryusuke@osrg.net>.
*
*/
+/*
+ * This file adds the cache of on-disk blocks to be moved in garbage
+ * collection. The disk blocks are held with dummy inodes (called
+ * gcinodes), and this file provides lookup function of the dummy
+ * inodes and their buffer read function.
+ *
+ * Since NILFS2 keeps up multiple checkpoints/snapshots accross GC, it
+ * has to treat blocks that belong to a same file but have different
+ * checkpoint numbers. To avoid interference among generations, dummy
+ * inodes are managed separatly from actual inodes, and their lookup
+ * function (nilfs_gc_iget) is designed to be specified with a
+ * checkpoint number argument as well as an inode number.
+ *
+ * Buffers and pages held by the dummy inodes will be released each
+ * time after they are copied to a new log. Dirty blocks made on the
+ * current generation and the blocks to be moved by GC never overlap
+ * because the dirty blocks make a new generation; they rather must be
+ * written individually.
+ */
#include <linux/buffer_head.h>
#include <linux/mpage.h>