do_grow(9)

✨ do_grow(9) ✨

okay so this is a page from the Kernel API Manual, section 9 — yes bestie, the kernel one, we're in the big leagues now 💅 this little function lives in the GFS2 filesystem code and it's literally just here to touch an inode and maybe make it bigger. iconic behaviour honestly 🎀

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💖 NAME 💖

do_grow — touch and update inode size 🌱

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

int do_grow (struct inode *inode , u64 size );

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🌸 ARGUMENTS 🌸

• inode — the inode 🫶 like, the actual inode we're messing with
• size — the new size 📏 the size we want it to be

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so here's the tea ☕ this function updates the timestamps on the inode and may also increase the size of the inode. that's the whole vibe. but listen — you must not call this function with a size that's any smaller than the current inode size. fr fr, that's a hard no 💀

now for the lore 🧚 although it's not strictly required to unstuff files here, earlier versions of GFS2 have a bug in the stuffed file reading code, and that bug will result in a buffer overrun if the size is larger than the max stuffed file size 😭 so to prevent that from occurring, such files get unstuffed — but in other cases we can just update the inode size directly and keep it cute ✨

⚠️ reminder bestie: size smaller than the current inode size = not allowed. periodt.

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🌈 RETURN 🌈

0 on success, or -ve on error 🫡 (that's a negative value, iykyk)

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👑 SEE ALSO 👑

Kernel file ./fs/gfs2/bmap.c — and the whole squad of related functions, all here, no gatekeeping 💜

• gfs2_unstuffer_folio(9)
• gfs2_unstuff_dinode(9)
• find_metapath(9)
• metaptr1(9)
• metapointer(9)
• lookup_metapath(9)
• fillup_metapath(9)
• gfs2_extent_length(9)
• gfs2_hole_size(9)
• __gfs2_iomap_alloc(9)
• gfs2_alloc_size(9)
• __gfs2_iomap_get(9)
• gfs2_block_map(9)
• gfs2_journaled_truncate(9)
• sweep_bh_for_rgrps(9)
• find_nonnull_ptr(9)
• punch_hole(9)
• do_shrink(9)
• gfs2_setattr_size(9)
• gfs2_free_journal_extents(9)
• gfs2_add_jextent(9)
• gfs2_map_journal_extents(9)
• gfs2_write_alloc_required(9)

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and that's the whole page, bestie 🥳 source is ./fs/gfs2, dated October 2026, manual name do_grow(9) — slay, go touch some inodes 💅💖