Re: [PATCH 5/9] hw/9pfs: Add a 'local' file system backend driver for Windows

[Christian Schoenebeck]

On Dienstag, 10. Mai 2022 04:17:44 CEST Shi, Guohuai wrote:
[...]
> > > > > I tend to agree with Christian's remarks that this patch is too big
> > > > > and that the choice of introducing right away a new implementation
> > > > > of 9p-local for windows hosts is too bold to start with. We need to
> > > > > clearly understand what's diverging between windows and linux in
> > > > > order
> > > > > to make such a decision. You should first try to introduce the
> > > > > required
> > > > > abstractions to cope with these differences, so that we can review.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Here is the basic introductions of 9PFS for Windows development:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > Windows always returns -1 when try to call open() for a directory.
> > > > Windows (actually MinGW library) only allows opendir() for a
> > > > directory.

That missing behaviour could be implemented in 9p-util-win.c, similar to the 
missing behaviours of mknodat() for macOS which did not support a bunch of 
things like creating a UNIX socket file and more:

https://github.com/qemu/qemu/commit/055ab89327bab83f1bd07e9de07f7628643d3d8d

> > > Does MinGW have dirfd() ?
> > 
> > 
> > No.
> > MinGW does not open any directory.
> > Here is opendir() source code of MinGW:
> > https://github.com/mirror/mingw-w64/blob/master/mingw-w64-crt/misc/dirent.
> > c#L42
> > 
> > So MinGW do not have a fd associated to a directory.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > >
> > >
> > > > Windows does not support APIs like "*at" (openat(), renameat(), etc.)

Like already suggested before on your previous RFC version, it is possible to 
use the same workaround as we are using for macOS hosts already (which was 
missing mknodat()):

  pthread_fchdir_np(...)
  mknod(...)

  https://github.com/qemu/qemu/blob/master/hw/9pfs/9p-util-darwin.c#L84

So on Windows it would be viable to:

  chdir(...)
  open(...)

The same approach could be used for any missing *at() function for Windows.


> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Ouch...
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > > So 9PFS can not use any openat() for opening a sub file or directory
> > > > in 9P
> > 
> > mount
> > 
> > > directory.
> > > 
> > > > This commit use merge_fs_path() to build up full filename by string
> > 
> > concatenation.
> > 
> > > > I know that may have a risk of security, but Windows does fully
> > > > support POSIX

You will not find anybody merging code that's inherently insecure.

> > > I understand from your various answers that symlinks aren't
> > > currently supported by window's POSIX API. Is this forever ?
> > > Google do mentions symlinks in windows 10. What's the story
> > > there ? How do they behave ? How would they be exposed to the
> > > client ? Be aware that, even if the client cannot create symlinks,
> > > an existing symlink could be used to escape with rename().
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > If the code "may have a risk of security" then it must be
> > > fixed or avoided in some way before being merged upstream.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Other thing that comes to mind is that windows hosts should
> > > maybe use the mapped or mapped-file security modes since
> > > they emulate symlinks with a simple file hidden in the
> > > VIRTFS_META_DIR directory.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Greg
> > >
> > >
> > 
> > 
> > Windows native API support symbolic link file start from Windows Vista:
> > https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winbase/nf-winbase-crea
> > tes ymboliclinka
> > 
> > I mean Windows POSIX APIs do not support symbolic link (MinGW use Win32
> > POSIX APIs) So we can not create symbolic link by MinGW.

A function with POSIX signature could be added to 9p-util-win.c which would 
call the native Windows function to create symlinks.

> > Anyway, there is another solution: re-work whole 9PFS code: not only
> > 9p-local.c, but also every file in 9p driver.
> > Replace every MinGW/POSIX APIs (e.g. open, lseek, read, write, close),
> > by Windows Native APIs (e.g. open -> CreateFile, lseek -> SetFilePointer,
> > read -> ReadFile, write -> WriteFile, close -> CloseHandle, etc.)
> > Then 9P can use Windows symbolic link feature.
> > However, I do think it is a good idea to replace everything.
> 
> 
> TYPO: it NOT is a good idea to replace everything.

Right, that does not make sense. The way to go is adding and implementing 
missing system functions with POSIX signatures and POSIX behaviour for 
Windows. Not turning the entire code base upside down.

Best regards,
Christian Schoenebeck