Document d_splice_alias() calling conventions for ->lookup() users.
Short version: it does the right thing when given NULL or ERR_PTR(...)
and its calling conventions are chosen to have minimal PITA when
used in ->lookup() instances.
Signed-off-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/porting b/Documentation/filesystems/porting
index 7b7b845..321d74b 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/porting
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/porting
@@ -622,3 +622,14 @@
alloc_file_clone(file, flags, ops) does not affect any caller's references.
On success you get a new struct file sharing the mount/dentry with the
original, on failure - ERR_PTR().
+--
+[recommended]
+ ->lookup() instances doing an equivalent of
+ if (IS_ERR(inode))
+ return ERR_CAST(inode);
+ return d_splice_alias(inode, dentry);
+ don't need to bother with the check - d_splice_alias() will do the
+ right thing when given ERR_PTR(...) as inode. Moreover, passing NULL
+ inode to d_splice_alias() will also do the right thing (equivalent of
+ d_add(dentry, NULL); return NULL;), so that kind of special cases
+ also doesn't need a separate treatment.