Homework9 < CS385spring11

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---+ Homebrew file system (read-only)

In this homework, we create our own filesystem kernel module. The template code provides a "skeleton" file system module, which can be loaded and mounted. However, although it has all the pieces you need, it doesn't do what we want, and that's where you come in.

To try out the template code, you will need the virtual machine and custom kernel that you set up in homeworks 1 and 2. Check out the template, and run =make= to build the module. Assuming that worked, you can now run:

=sudo insmod ./hw9fs.ko=

to load the module. To see if the module is loaded, take a look in =/proc/filesystems= and look for =hw9fs=. Also, try running =tail /var/log/messages=, to see some debug output. With the module loaded, we can now use our filesystem. Run

=sudo mount -t hw9fs -o ro,loop test.img mnt=

to mount the disk image =test.img= in read-only mode, using our filesystem =hw9fs=. The directory =mnt=, which used to be a regular directory, now contains our mounted filesystem. See if your output looks like mine:

<verbatim>
jakob@ubuntu:~/hw9$ ls mnt
ls: cannot access mnt/nonexisting_file: No such file or directory
existing_file  nonexisting_file
</verbatim>

Clearly, there is something wrong with =nonexisting_file=, but let's not worry about it. Let's see what's in =existing_file=.

<verbatim>
jakob@ubuntu:~/hw9$ cat mnt/existing_file
File 3 comes second to last, and it is a long file.
File 3 comes second to last, and it is a long file.
File 3 comes second to last, and it is a long file.
...
File 3 comes second to last, and it is a long file.
File 3 comes second to last, and it jakob@ubuntu:~/hw9$
</verbatim>

If you got this far, you're ready to get started. To remove the module, first unmount the filesystem:

=sudo umount mnt=

then unload the module

=sudo rmmod hw9fs=

---++ Disk Format

Let's take a peek at the disk image =hexdump -C test.img=. It consists of two types of 1024-byte blocks: a single disk header block (superblock) which comes first, followed by a number of data blocks. The header consists of up to 30  adjacent structs like this:

|*Filename*|*Size*|
|char[26]|int|

The header is then followed by the file contents. Each file uses one or more consecutive, full blocks. Though the file may be smaller than a 1024-byte block, the block is zero-padded so that the next file starts on an even block boundary. This filesystem does not support subdirectories.

You can create your own disk images using the included mkcs385fs tool. For example, =mkcs385fs test_directory/ test.img= creates the supplied disk image.

---++ 1. Directory Listing

Update the module to show a correct file listing. The order is not important, but both =ls mnt= and =ls -l= mnt should show no error messages or question marks. For an example output, try =ls -l test_directory=. Filename and size must be correct, and the files must be readable, the rest is not important, but no question marks or error messages are allowed.

---++ 2. File contents

Update the module to support correct listing of file contents with =cat=. To do this, you will mostly need a way to map a "file block" into a disk block. The output of =cat mnt/*= should be identical to =cat test_directory/*=. 

---++ HINTS

Kernel programming is a different beast. There is no printf, no malloc, no math library, etc. Sometimes there are alternatives: printk and kmalloc, for example, but library support is limited within the kernel. 

If you make a mistake in a kernel module, you may crash the kernel, hang your program (permanently, unkillably), get the kernel into a funky state, wipe your whole disk, or get pleasantly kicked out by the kernel with no ill effects, all depending on how unlucky you get. Use VMWare's "Snapshot" facility regularly, and consider editing your code outside of the VM, and copying it into the VM for each test (using scp or rsync). You'll likely get to restart your VM a bunch of times even if you take the precautions.

   * The [[http://lxr.linux.no/linux+v2.6.38/include/linux/fs.h][fs.h - all the main filesystem structs are in here]]
   * [[http://lxr.linux.no/linux+v2.6.38/fs/befs/linuxvfs.c][BeFS implementation - I used this to learn how to do things]]

*This homework requires very little coding:* my solution removes about 10 lines of template code, changes about 10 lines slightly, and adds about 30 lines. However, it will take a lot of looking at other kernel code, and probably a bunch of reboots, before you get it right.
Topic revision: r4 - 2011-03-29 - 18:51:06 - Main.jakob
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