cubelinux: cube(2) walks the store — CUBE_OP_ENUM and CUBE_OP_SPACES

Enumeration was the one operation the interface did not have, and the one a
capability interface owes an explanation for: a listing is the opposite of
"knowing a coordinate is the authorisation to use it". So the walk is bounded
and explicit. A caller names the space, holds a cursor, and gets as many whole
records as fit in the buffer it offered, packed `key(24) | value_len(u32) | value`
in the store's own order. SPACES walks the distinct spaces that hold a record,
one per call; range is that walk with the region as a filter, applied by the
caller rather than by a second operation in the kernel.

Its own argument block, versioned by its own size: SYSCALL_DEFINE2 peeks `size`
and routes — 80 bytes is the coordinate block, 64 is this one. An interface that
cannot grow has to be replaced, and this one grows by being given a new block.

The end of a walk is the cursor alone. A batch holds as many whole records as
fit, so it is FULL only when a record lands on the boundary and most batches
come back short; a caller that reads "the buffer was not filled" as "the space
is exhausted" truncates its listing to the first batch and cannot tell. ENUM
answers a finished walk with no records and the cursor unmoved; SPACES answers
it with -ENOENT, because the space after the last one is not there. That rule is
in the uapi header because it is a contract detail, not an implementation one.

The kernel caches no merged index: each call walks the records in order, asks
the log — small, and the only thing that can override one — what the winner is,
and skips what the cursor has already covered. O(records) a call, tens of
milliseconds for the live store, which is worth more than a cache every write
would have to invalidate.
This commit is contained in:
surface-camera-build
2026-09-20 23:15:56 -04:00
parent ed5ff764ba
commit b9a7b8d8f3
3 changed files with 392 additions and 15 deletions
+8 -1
View File
@@ -51,13 +51,20 @@ struct cube_args {
* order space first, then key which is the order a checkpoint writes them and the order the
* userspace store returns them, so a kernel listing and a userspace listing can be compared
* directly. The space is not repeated per record: the caller named it.
*
* A walk ends when the cursor stops moving, and that is the only end signal: a batch holds as
* many whole records as fit, so most batches come back short, and reading a short batch as the
* end truncates a listing to its first batch. CUBE_OP_ENUM answers a finished walk with no
* records and the cursor unchanged; CUBE_OP_SPACES answers it with -ENOENT, because asking for
* the space after the last one is asking for a space that is not there. -ERANGE keeps its usual
* meaning: not one whole record fits, and `len` says how much one needs.
*/
struct cube_enum_args {
__u32 size; /* sizeof(struct cube_enum_args) as the caller built it */
__u32 op; /* CUBE_OP_ENUM or CUBE_OP_SPACES */
__u8 space[32]; /* in: the space to walk; out: the space found (CUBE_OP_SPACES) */
__u64 cursor; /* in: 0 to start, or what the last call returned;
* out: what to pass next
* out: what to pass next see the end-of-walk rule above
*/
__u64 value; /* user pointer: where to put the records */
__u64 len; /* in: the buffer's capacity;