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Sergiu Ivanov

Mail: <mailto:unlimitedscolobb@gmail.com>


# Google Summer of Code: 2009 Project

**Unionmount**: The goal of this project is to make it possible to set
translators in unionmount mode, which means that the filesystem
published by the mounted translator will get merged with the directory
tree of the node the translator is mounted onto.

For documentation, see [[hurd/translator/unionmount]].

---

## Roadmap

### DONE

(Dates in brackets show the completion date)

* **Make `unionfs` build.** *(24 May)* For reasons unknown to me,
  `unionfs` Makefile was configured to search for include files from
  under `$(prefix)/include`, while `$(prefix)` was never
  defined. Setting `$(prefix)` to `/usr` solved the problem.

* **Change the command line parsing in `unionfs` to comply with the
  requirements of `unionmount`.** *(25 May)* Although the core
  functionality of `unionmount` heavily relies on `unionfs`, the
  command line interface of these two programs is completely
  different: `unionfs` operates on directories, the list of which is
  explicitly specified, while `unionmount` *always* merges the
  underlying filesystem and the filesystem published by the
  mountee. Therefore, options like `--add`, `--remove`, `--underlying`
  (specific to `unionfs`) make little sense in `unionmount`
  context. These options have been removed. Also, `unionmount` must be
  able to pass some switches to the mountee, which means that it
  should stop parsing the command line arguments immediately after
  having encountered the path to the mountee (very similar to how
  `settrans` works). This functionality has also been implemented.

* **Make `unionmount` capable of starting the mountee.** *(28 May)*
  The idea behind implementation of this goal is that `unionmount`
  should provide a proxy node on which to set the mountee. The main
  issue about this goal was the fact that the mountee *cannot* be
  started during the initialization of `unionmount`, because in this
  phase `unionmount` is not capable of responding to RPCs, while many
  translators try to `io_stat` their underlying node or do other
  interesting things on startup. The solution to this problem is,
  obviously, *lazy* startup, i.e. the mountee is started at the first
  attempt to access (via `dir_lookup` or `dir_readdir`) the merged
  filesystem published by `unionmount`.

* **Include the filesystem published by the mountee in the list of
  merged filesystems.** *(1 Jun)* `unionfs` operates on a list of
  ports to the underlying filesystems, therefore, to finish the
  unionmount functionality, I had to include the port to the mountee
  in this list.

* **Learn Texinfo.** *(Jun 4)* In order to produce canonical
  documentation I had to learn the Texinfo documentation format.

* **Write documentation for `unionmount`.** *(Jun 5)* The basic
  unionmount functionality being finished, it has to be documented
  properly, lest it should lag behind and remain unfinished
  eventually.

* **Write documentation for `unionfs`.** *(Jun 5)* `unionfs` is not
  exactly well-documented at the moment, the only help being provided
  by the comments in the sources. The goal is to write a more coherent
  documentation.

* **Start with a clean unionfs and implement the `--mount` argument**
  *(11 Jun)* It was suggested to implement the union mount
  functionality first, instead of doing some partial adaptation of
  `unionfs` to `unionmount` and leaving the complete adaptation for
  the future.

* **Compile GNU/Hurd from source to be able to study
  eth-multiplexer.** *(16 Jun)* On my way to getting a working
  instance of eth-multiplexer I learnt how I could compile GNU/Hurd in
  a Debian GNU/Hurd system.

* **Setup the `devnode`--`eth-multiplexer`--`pfinet chain`.** *(30
  Jun)* Due to the fact that I was trying to build everything using
  `gcc-4.3`, I got strange behaviour of pfinet and spend a week trying
  to figure out the reason.

* **Try to start the mountee during initialization of `unionfs`** *(4
  Jul)* Initially the mountee was started at the first lookup. Now it
  is started immediately after initialization of `unionmount`.

* **Fix the patches in `--mount` option series** *(5 Jul)* The patches
  have been reviewed by **antrik**. I corrected them and posted them
  to the ML for final reviews.

* **Orphan the mountee after starting it** *(7 Jul)* Orphaning the
  mountee after starting it up seems to be a nice work-around for the
  necessity of keeping a proxy node in unionmount in simple
  use-cases. It is possible that this functionality will provided as a
  separate patch (without inclusion in master) should it turn out that
  orphaning the mountee is a bad idea.

* **Decide which RPCs should be forwarded to the mountee and how this
  should happen** *(10 Jul)* This is the primary requirement in being
  able to proxy the control port of `unionmount`.

* **Fix the patches the have already been commented on** *(14 Jul)*
  The new patches I have submitted have been reviewed; also, the older
  patches have been reviewed again, which required correcting them.

* **Add the `--no-mount` option** *(14 Jul)* Using the `--no-mount`
  and `--mount` options, the user can decide whether unionmount should
  be completely transparent (i.e. most control-port RPCs forwarded to
  the mountee) or not.

* **Make `unionmount` go away when the mountee goes away** *(14 Jul)*
  `unionmount` makes sense only while the mountee is running, so it
  has to go away as soon as the mountee has been shut down for some
  reason.

* **Proxy the control port of `unionmount`** *(14 Jul)* For
  `unionmount` to become transparent, most of the RPCs invoked on the
  its control port should be forwarded to the mountee.

* **Fix adding filesystems to `unionmount`** *(16 Jul)* `settrans -a
  foo unionfs -a <dir> -u -t <translator>` worked, but `settrans -a
  foo unionfs -u -t <translator> -a <dir>` didn't.  The problem was
  that in a series of rebase operations I accidentally left the
  "Orphan the mountee" commit out and the problem appeared when the
  `start_mountee` function tried to attach the mountee.  Of course,
  this is not the definite solution, since I don't know why should the
  attempt to attach the mountee work in the former case and fail in
  the latter, but I will leave the investigation for some future time.

### TODO

(Dates in brackets show the *expected* completion date)

* **Create the patch for supplying the mountee with a port to the
  underlying node of unionfs** *(17 Jul)* Such functionality should
  make `unionmount` even more transparent.

* **Try to make `eth-multiplexer` work with statically set instances
  of `devnode`** *(18 Jul)* At the moment statically set `devnode`
  translators fail to run when they try to obtain the pseudo master
  device ports from the `eth-multiplexer`.

* **Implement merging rules.** *(30 Jul)* I will have to make the
  merging of the virtual filesystem published by `eth-multiplexer` and
  the real filesystem containing static nodes possible.

* **Wrap up the project for upstream inclusion.** *(1 Aug)*
  `unionmount` is intended to be included upstream, therefore it
  should be mostly complete and polished by the end of GSoC.

* **Decide as to location of unionmount.** *(1 Aug)* Presently,
  `unionmount` is a (local) branch in `unionfs` git repository. The
  first step of publishing it is planned to be pushing it to the
  Savannah `unionfs` repository. Some agree that there should also be
  a second step consisting in splitting `unionmount` in a separate git
  repository, since the destinations of `unionfs` and `unionmount` are
  *similar*, and not identical.

* **Employ `unionmount` in eth-multiplexer.** *(10 Aug)* I still have
  to scrounge for details.

* **Use a different (better?) implementation idea.** *(17 Aug)* It has
  been pointed out several times that `unionmount` could be
  implemented not by forking off `unionfs`, but by keeping the merging
  functionality in a stand-alone module (which could then be used by
  `unionfs` as well). Different implementation ideas with their own
  specific advantages may also arise in the future.

---

# Google Summer of Code: 2008 Project: Namespace-based translator selection

---

## Current Task

Write the filesystem proxy for namespace-based translator selection (*nsmux*).

The code is at <http://github.com/scolobb/nsmux/tree/master>.

---

###Did this week

* Modified the node cache so that it maintains shadow nodes alive.

###Plans for the next week

* Implement the shutting down of translator stacks when *nsmux* is asked to go away (in case **antrik** considers that necessary).

* Make *nsmux* provide the access to the translator stack of the real node, in case a translator (mainly, a filter) should ask for its underlying node to be opened in O_NOTRANS mode.

---

###Current Status

####DONE:

* The skeleton which mirrors the filesystem.

* Provide proxy nodes (modify the standard version of netfs_S_dir_lookup).

####TODO:

* Create the generic filtering translator.

* Create the translator '0' (providing the untranslated version of the
  node).

* Create the "recursive wrappers" for one-node translators.

* Create special translators for the main proxy so that its functionality
  should be complete.

* Implement sharing of dynamic translator stacks where possible.

* Make dynamic translators go away as soon as they are not required.

* Refine the skeleton in several places so that it should become faster
  and more reliable.

* Kill bugs.

* Integrate nsmux upstream.

* Solve the libtrivfs stacking issue.

* Patch libnetfs (it does not support file_get_translator_cntl, for
  instance).

---

###Progress

####8: Fri Sep 19:

> Modified the ncache so that it now maintains shadow nodes (and directory nodes too, it is a side effect at the moment) alive.

####7: Sat Aug 30 - Fri Sep 5:

> Added the code for shutting down dynamic translator stacks.

####6: Mon Aug 4 - Fri Aug 29:

> Implemented the proxy nodes.

####5: Thu Jul 24 - Thu Jul 24:

> Created a *libnetfs*-based one-node translator, working exactly like the *libtrivfs*-based translator I had written before; the former, however, can be included in a translator stack.

####4: Tue Jul 22 - Thu Jul 24:

> Attempted to make a *libtrivfs*-based translator to be able to be stacked upon itself (to be able to receive a translator on top of itself, more exactly); attempted to   borrow some code from *libnetfs* but this didn't bring any results.

####3: Sun Jul 20 - Tue Jul 22:

> Implemented the possibility to propagate a translator on all files belonging to a directory 'dir' in the request of the type 'dir,,x/'.

####2: Thu Jul 17 - Fri Jul 18:

> Extended the lookup code in *nsmux* to allow for looking up nodes like 'file,,x' and added the possibility to escape the double-comma in the following way: ',,,'.

####1: Mon Jul 12 - Tue Jul 13:

> Implemented a simple *libtrivfs*-based translator to test the lookup code for *nsmux*.

####0: Sat Jul 12 - Sat Jul 12:

> Made small changes to the code of *filterfs* to fit the needs of *nsmux*.

---

## Completed Tasks

####2: Sat May 3 - Fri Jul 17:

> Write a translator that should filter the contents of the directory it is set on according to some property. The property can be an arbitrary command.

> The code is at <http://github.com/scolobb/filterfs/tree/master>.

####1: Mon Apr 28 - Wed Apr 30:

> Wrote a Python extension module in C for retreiving the uptime. The module is based on the code of *w*.

####0: Sun Apr 27:

> Followed the code of *dmesgd* (<http://www.bddebian.com/junk/dmesgd/>) kindly offered by **bddebian** and rewrote it from scratch as a tutorial.