EXT4 Prepared To Switch To Linux's New Mount API

It looks like EXT4 come Linux 5.17 could be making use of the kernel's new mount API. Queued up into EXT4's "dev" branch is transitioning the EXT4 file-system driver to using the kernel's modern mount API.

Linux's new mount API is what came about in recent times as a set of system calls offering more flexibility than the long-standing mount syscall that is a one-shot effort while this new multi-step mounting procedure allows for more options. Below is a presentation by Canonical's Christian Brauner from last year's Open-Source Summit around the new mount API.

The modern mount API is documented here for those interested in all the details.

Over a span of patches now in EXT4 dev, EXT4 has transitioned to the mount API. This code in turn will appear in the Linux 5.17 cycle next year.