@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@ objects in the original filesystem.
3939On 64bit systems, even if all overlay layers are not on the same
4040underlying filesystem, the same compliant behavior could be achieved
4141with the "xino" feature. The "xino" feature composes a unique object
42- identifier from the real object st_ino and an underlying fsid index .
42+ identifier from the real object st_ino and an underlying fsid number .
4343The "xino" feature uses the high inode number bits for fsid, because the
4444underlying filesystems rarely use the high inode number bits. In case
4545the underlying inode number does overflow into the high xino bits, overlay
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ Where both upper and lower objects are directories, a merged directory
118118is formed.
119119
120120At mount time, the two directories given as mount options "lowerdir" and
121- "upperdir" are combined into a merged directory:
121+ "upperdir" are combined into a merged directory::
122122
123123 mount -t overlay overlay -olowerdir=/lower,upperdir=/upper,\
124124 workdir=/work /merged
@@ -172,12 +172,12 @@ directory is being read. This is unlikely to be noticed by many
172172programs.
173173
174174seek offsets are assigned sequentially when the directories are read.
175- Thus if
175+ Thus if:
176176
177- - read part of a directory
178- - remember an offset, and close the directory
179- - re-open the directory some time later
180- - seek to the remembered offset
177+ - read part of a directory
178+ - remember an offset, and close the directory
179+ - re-open the directory some time later
180+ - seek to the remembered offset
181181
182182there may be little correlation between the old and new locations in
183183the list of filenames, particularly if anything has changed in the
@@ -290,9 +290,9 @@ Permission checking in the overlay filesystem follows these principles:
290290 2) task creating the overlay mount MUST NOT gain additional privileges
291291
292292 3) non-mounting task MAY gain additional privileges through the overlay,
293- compared to direct access on underlying lower or upper filesystems
293+ compared to direct access on underlying lower or upper filesystems
294294
295- This is achieved by performing two permission checks on each access
295+ This is achieved by performing two permission checks on each access:
296296
297297 a) check if current task is allowed access based on local DAC (owner,
298298 group, mode and posix acl), as well as MAC checks
@@ -311,11 +311,11 @@ to create setups where the consistency rule (1) does not hold; normally,
311311however, the mounting task will have sufficient privileges to perform all
312312operations.
313313
314- Another way to demonstrate this model is drawing parallels between
314+ Another way to demonstrate this model is drawing parallels between::
315315
316316 mount -t overlay overlay -olowerdir=/lower,upperdir=/upper,... /merged
317317
318- and
318+ and::
319319
320320 cp -a /lower /upper
321321 mount --bind /upper /merged
@@ -328,7 +328,7 @@ Multiple lower layers
328328---------------------
329329
330330Multiple lower layers can now be given using the colon (":") as a
331- separator character between the directory names. For example:
331+ separator character between the directory names. For example::
332332
333333 mount -t overlay overlay -olowerdir=/lower1:/lower2:/lower3 /merged
334334
@@ -340,13 +340,13 @@ rightmost one and going left. In the above example lower1 will be the
340340top, lower2 the middle and lower3 the bottom layer.
341341
342342Note: directory names containing colons can be provided as lower layer by
343- escaping the colons with a single backslash. For example:
343+ escaping the colons with a single backslash. For example::
344344
345345 mount -t overlay overlay -olowerdir=/a\:lower\:\:dir /merged
346346
347347Since kernel version v6.8, directory names containing colons can also
348348be configured as lower layer using the "lowerdir+" mount options and the
349- fsconfig syscall from new mount api. For example:
349+ fsconfig syscall from new mount api. For example::
350350
351351 fsconfig(fs_fd, FSCONFIG_SET_STRING, "lowerdir+", "/a:lower::dir", 0);
352352
@@ -356,7 +356,7 @@ as an octal characters (\072) when displayed in /proc/self/mountinfo.
356356Metadata only copy up
357357---------------------
358358
359- When metadata only copy up feature is enabled, overlayfs will only copy
359+ When the "metacopy" feature is enabled, overlayfs will only copy
360360up metadata (as opposed to whole file), when a metadata specific operation
361361like chown/chmod is performed. Full file will be copied up later when
362362file is opened for WRITE operation.
@@ -405,7 +405,7 @@ A normal lower layer is not allowed to be below a data-only layer, so single
405405colon separators are not allowed to the right of double colon ("::") separators.
406406
407407
408- For example:
408+ For example::
409409
410410 mount -t overlay overlay -olowerdir=/l1:/l2:/l3::/do1::/do2 /merged
411411
@@ -419,7 +419,7 @@ to the absolute path of the "lower data" file in the "data-only" lower layer.
419419
420420Since kernel version v6.8, "data-only" lower layers can also be added using
421421the "datadir+" mount options and the fsconfig syscall from new mount api.
422- For example:
422+ For example::
423423
424424 fsconfig(fs_fd, FSCONFIG_SET_STRING, "lowerdir+", "/l1", 0);
425425 fsconfig(fs_fd, FSCONFIG_SET_STRING, "lowerdir+", "/l2", 0);
@@ -429,7 +429,7 @@ For example:
429429
430430
431431fs-verity support
432- ----------------------
432+ -----------------
433433
434434During metadata copy up of a lower file, if the source file has
435435fs-verity enabled and overlay verity support is enabled, then the
@@ -492,27 +492,27 @@ though it will not result in a crash or deadlock.
492492
493493Mounting an overlay using an upper layer path, where the upper layer path
494494was previously used by another mounted overlay in combination with a
495- different lower layer path, is allowed, unless the "inodes index" feature
496- or "metadata only copy up" feature is enabled.
495+ different lower layer path, is allowed, unless the "index" or "metacopy"
496+ features are enabled.
497497
498- With the "inodes index" feature, on the first time mount, an NFS file
498+ With the "index" feature, on the first time mount, an NFS file
499499handle of the lower layer root directory, along with the UUID of the lower
500500filesystem, are encoded and stored in the "trusted.overlay.origin" extended
501501attribute on the upper layer root directory. On subsequent mount attempts,
502502the lower root directory file handle and lower filesystem UUID are compared
503503to the stored origin in upper root directory. On failure to verify the
504504lower root origin, mount will fail with ESTALE. An overlayfs mount with
505- "inodes index" enabled will fail with EOPNOTSUPP if the lower filesystem
505+ "index" enabled will fail with EOPNOTSUPP if the lower filesystem
506506does not support NFS export, lower filesystem does not have a valid UUID or
507507if the upper filesystem does not support extended attributes.
508508
509- For "metadata only copy up" feature there is no verification mechanism at
509+ For the "metacopy" feature, there is no verification mechanism at
510510mount time. So if same upper is mounted with different set of lower, mount
511511probably will succeed but expect the unexpected later on. So don't do it.
512512
513513It is quite a common practice to copy overlay layers to a different
514514directory tree on the same or different underlying filesystem, and even
515- to a different machine. With the "inodes index" feature, trying to mount
515+ to a different machine. With the "index" feature, trying to mount
516516the copied layers will fail the verification of the lower root file handle.
517517
518518Nesting overlayfs mounts
@@ -547,28 +547,30 @@ filesystem.
547547
548548This is the list of cases that overlayfs doesn't currently handle:
549549
550- a) POSIX mandates updating st_atime for reads. This is currently not
551- done in the case when the file resides on a lower layer.
550+ a) POSIX mandates updating st_atime for reads. This is currently not
551+ done in the case when the file resides on a lower layer.
552552
553- b) If a file residing on a lower layer is opened for read-only and then
554- memory mapped with MAP_SHARED, then subsequent changes to the file are not
555- reflected in the memory mapping.
553+ b) If a file residing on a lower layer is opened for read-only and then
554+ memory mapped with MAP_SHARED, then subsequent changes to the file are not
555+ reflected in the memory mapping.
556556
557- c) If a file residing on a lower layer is being executed, then opening that
558- file for write or truncating the file will not be denied with ETXTBSY.
557+ c) If a file residing on a lower layer is being executed, then opening that
558+ file for write or truncating the file will not be denied with ETXTBSY.
559559
560560The following options allow overlayfs to act more like a standards
561561compliant filesystem:
562562
563- 1) "redirect_dir"
563+ redirect_dir
564+ ````````````
564565
565566Enabled with the mount option or module option: "redirect_dir=on" or with
566567the kernel config option CONFIG_OVERLAY_FS_REDIRECT_DIR=y.
567568
568569If this feature is disabled, then rename(2) on a lower or merged directory
569570will fail with EXDEV ("Invalid cross-device link").
570571
571- 2) "inode index"
572+ index
573+ `````
572574
573575Enabled with the mount option or module option "index=on" or with the
574576kernel config option CONFIG_OVERLAY_FS_INDEX=y.
@@ -577,7 +579,8 @@ If this feature is disabled and a file with multiple hard links is copied
577579up, then this will "break" the link. Changes will not be propagated to
578580other names referring to the same inode.
579581
580- 3) "xino"
582+ xino
583+ ````
581584
582585Enabled with the mount option "xino=auto" or "xino=on", with the module
583586option "xino_auto=on" or with the kernel config option
@@ -604,7 +607,7 @@ a crash or deadlock.
604607
605608Offline changes, when the overlay is not mounted, are allowed to the
606609upper tree. Offline changes to the lower tree are only allowed if the
607- "metadata only copy up ", "inode index", "xino" and "redirect_dir" features
610+ "metacopy ", "index", "xino" and "redirect_dir" features
608611have not been used. If the lower tree is modified and any of these
609612features has been used, the behavior of the overlay is undefined,
610613though it will not result in a crash or deadlock.
@@ -644,12 +647,13 @@ directory inode.
644647When encoding a file handle from an overlay filesystem object, the
645648following rules apply:
646649
647- 1. For a non-upper object, encode a lower file handle from lower inode
648- 2. For an indexed object, encode a lower file handle from copy_up origin
649- 3. For a pure-upper object and for an existing non-indexed upper object,
650- encode an upper file handle from upper inode
650+ 1. For a non-upper object, encode a lower file handle from lower inode
651+ 2. For an indexed object, encode a lower file handle from copy_up origin
652+ 3. For a pure-upper object and for an existing non-indexed upper object,
653+ encode an upper file handle from upper inode
651654
652655The encoded overlay file handle includes:
656+
653657 - Header including path type information (e.g. lower/upper)
654658 - UUID of the underlying filesystem
655659 - Underlying filesystem encoding of underlying inode
@@ -659,15 +663,15 @@ are stored in extended attribute "trusted.overlay.origin".
659663
660664When decoding an overlay file handle, the following steps are followed:
661665
662- 1. Find underlying layer by UUID and path type information.
663- 2. Decode the underlying filesystem file handle to underlying dentry.
664- 3. For a lower file handle, lookup the handle in index directory by name.
665- 4. If a whiteout is found in index, return ESTALE. This represents an
666- overlay object that was deleted after its file handle was encoded.
667- 5. For a non-directory, instantiate a disconnected overlay dentry from the
668- decoded underlying dentry, the path type and index inode, if found.
669- 6. For a directory, use the connected underlying decoded dentry, path type
670- and index, to lookup a connected overlay dentry.
666+ 1. Find underlying layer by UUID and path type information.
667+ 2. Decode the underlying filesystem file handle to underlying dentry.
668+ 3. For a lower file handle, lookup the handle in index directory by name.
669+ 4. If a whiteout is found in index, return ESTALE. This represents an
670+ overlay object that was deleted after its file handle was encoded.
671+ 5. For a non-directory, instantiate a disconnected overlay dentry from the
672+ decoded underlying dentry, the path type and index inode, if found.
673+ 6. For a directory, use the connected underlying decoded dentry, path type
674+ and index, to lookup a connected overlay dentry.
671675
672676Decoding a non-directory file handle may return a disconnected dentry.
673677copy_up of that disconnected dentry will create an upper index entry with
@@ -770,9 +774,9 @@ Testsuite
770774There's a testsuite originally developed by David Howells and currently
771775maintained by Amir Goldstein at:
772776
773- https://github.com/amir73il/unionmount-testsuite.git
777+ https://github.com/amir73il/unionmount-testsuite.git
774778
775- Run as root:
779+ Run as root::
776780
777781 # cd unionmount-testsuite
778782 # ./run --ov --verify
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