ovl: introduce data-only lower layers

Introduce the format lowerdir=lower1:lower2::lowerdata1::lowerdata2
where the lower layers on the right of the :: separators are not merged
into the overlayfs merge dirs.

Data-only lower layers are only allowed at the bottom of the stack.

The files in those layers are only meant to be accessible via absolute
redirect from metacopy files in lower layers.  Following changes will
implement lookup in the data layers.

This feature was requested for composefs ostree use case, where the
lower data layer should only be accessiable via absolute redirects
from metacopy inodes.

The lower data layers are not required to a have a unique uuid or any
uuid at all, because they are never used to compose the overlayfs inode
st_ino/st_dev.

Reviewed-by: Alexander Larsson <alexl@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com>

1 files changed, 35 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst
index 4c76fda076454..4f36b8919f7cc 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst
@@ -371,6 +371,41 @@ conflict with metacopy=on, and will result in an error.
 [*] redirect_dir=follow only conflicts with metacopy=on if upperdir=... is
 given.
 
+
+Data-only lower layers
+----------------------
+
+With "metacopy" feature enabled, an overlayfs regular file may be a composition
+of information from up to three different layers:
+
+ 1) metadata from a file in the upper layer
+
+ 2) st_ino and st_dev object identifier from a file in a lower layer
+
+ 3) data from a file in another lower layer (further below)
+
+The "lower data" file can be on any lower layer, except from the top most
+lower layer.
+
+Below the top most lower layer, any number of lower most layers may be defined
+as "data-only" lower layers, using double colon ("::") separators.
+A normal lower layer is not allowed to be below a data-only layer, so single
+colon separators are not allowed to the right of double colon ("::") separators.
+
+
+For example:
+
+  mount -t overlay overlay -olowerdir=/l1:/l2:/l3::/do1::/do2 /merged
+
+The paths of files in the "data-only" lower layers are not visible in the
+merged overlayfs directories and the metadata and st_ino/st_dev of files
+in the "data-only" lower layers are not visible in overlayfs inodes.
+
+Only the data of the files in the "data-only" lower layers may be visible
+when a "metacopy" file in one of the lower layers above it, has a "redirect"
+to the absolute path of the "lower data" file in the "data-only" lower layer.
+
+
 Sharing and copying layers
 --------------------------