microsoft / microsoft/litebox

fs: Support for symlinks

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#390 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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enhancement layer-litebox
Dominant language
Rust
Stars
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Forks
144
Avg merge
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

We should add support for symlinks. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that we'd also need to support it at the layered FS, which means that cross-layer symlinks are possible (for example, /proc/self/fd/0 should be an upper-layer FS symlink to the lower-level /dev/stdin devices FS).

I think a simplification to think about this is to only allow top-to-bottom symlinks, and disallow bottom-to-top ones. When trying to handle both-direction symlinks, things get quite complicated. Handling only in one direction I think leads to a simpler design, but I haven't yet finished sketching the design out just yet.

The interface to be added looks a bit like this:

Click to expand

diff --git a/litebox/src/fs/mod.rs b/litebox/src/fs/mod.rs
index 53aefea575..e55e2e47ca 100644
--- a/litebox/src/fs/mod.rs
+++ b/litebox/src/fs/mod.rs
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@

 use errors::{
     ChmodError, ChownError, CloseError, FileStatusError, MkdirError, OpenError, ReadDirError,
-    ReadError, RmdirError, SeekError, TruncateError, UnlinkError, WriteError,
+    ReadError, ReadLinkError, RmdirError, SeekError, SymlinkError, TruncateError, UnlinkError,
+    WriteError,
 };

 /// A private module, to help support writing sealed traits. This module should _itself_ never be
@@ -127,10 +128,31 @@
     fn read_dir(&self, fd: &TypedFd<Self>) -> Result<Vec<DirEntry>, ReadDirError>;

     /// Obtain the status of a file/directory/... on the file-system.
-    fn file_status(&self, path: impl path::Arg) -> Result<FileStatus, FileStatusError>;
+    ///
+    /// If `follow_last_symlink` is true, symlinks are followed (like `stat()`).
+    /// If false, symlinks are not followed (like `lstat()`).
+    fn file_status(
+        &self,
+        path: impl path::Arg,
+        follow_last_symlink: bool,
+    ) -> Result<FileStatus, FileStatusError>;

     /// Equivalent to [`Self::file_status`], but open an open `fd` instead.
     fn fd_file_status(&self, fd: &TypedFd<Self>) -> Result<FileStatus, FileStatusError>;
+
+    /// Create a symbolic link pointing from `link_path` to `target`.
+    ///
+    /// The `target` does not need to exist at the time the symlink is created.
+    fn symlink(
+        &self,
+        target: impl path::Arg,
+        link_path: impl path::Arg,
+    ) -> Result<(), SymlinkError>;
+
+    /// Read the target of a symbolic link.
+    ///
+    /// This operation does not follow the symlink, but reads the stored target path.
+    fn read_link(&self, path: impl path::Arg) -> Result<alloc::string::String, ReadLinkError>;
 }

 bitflags! {
@@ -182,6 +204,7 @@
     RegularFile,
     Directory,
     CharacterDevice,
+    SymbolicLink,
 }

 bitflags! {

Note: when we add this implementation, we should make sure we've looked over #384

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start in litebox/src/fs/mod.rs, reviewing the proposed file-status, symlink, read-link, and SymbolicLink interfaces, then examine the layered filesystem design and issue #384. Done means symlink creation and target reading are supported across the layered filesystem under an agreed top-to-bottom policy, with file-status behavior matching the stated stat/lstat distinction.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
rust
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

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