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Author: longjin longjin@dragonos.org

DragonOS FUSE Architecture Design

This document focuses on “architecture understanding” and explains the layered structure, data flow, and key semantics of the DragonOS FUSE subsystem.

Design Goals

The core objectives of FUSE in DragonOS are:

  • Align with Linux FUSE semantics (referencing Linux 6.6 semantics)

  • Push “filesystem policy” down to user-space daemons while keeping the kernel simple

  • Seamlessly integrate with the existing VFS framework, reusing unified path resolution, file objects, and permission frameworks

Overall Architecture

Userspace
  ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
  │ FUSE daemon (libfuse3 或自定义协议处理循环)                    │
  │  - read(/dev/fuse) 取请求                                    │
  │  - write(/dev/fuse) 回应结果                                 │
  └───────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┘
                                  │ FUSE 协议消息
Kernel                            │
  ┌───────────────────────────────▼─────────────────────────────┐
  │ /dev/fuse 字符设备层                                          │
  │  - 连接创建/克隆（clone）                                      │
  │  - 请求出队与回复入队                                          │
  ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │ FuseConn 连接层                                              │
  │  - INIT 协商、请求队列、pending 管理                            │
  │  - 中断/forget/notify 等控制消息                               │
  ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  │ FuseFS + FuseNode (VFS 适配层)                               │
  │  - mount 参数解析与实例化                                      │
  │  - VFS inode/file 操作 -> FUSE opcode 映射                   │
  └───────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┘
                                  │
                           VFS / Syscalls

Layer Responsibilities

1) /dev/fuse Device Entry Layer

  • Binds a connection object to each opened /dev/fuse file descriptor

  • read delivers pending requests to the daemon, write receives replies from the daemon

  • Provides cloning capability for concurrent processing by multi-threaded daemons

Corresponding implementation entry: kernel/src/filesystem/fuse/dev.rs

2) Connection & Protocol Scheduling Layer (FuseConn)

  • Manages connection lifecycle: pre-mount, mounted, initialization complete, disconnection/unmount

  • Maintains request queues and in-flight request mappings (matching replies by unique ID)

  • Completes FUSE_INIT capability negotiation (e.g., max_write, flags)

  • Handles control paths such as interrupts, forget, and notify

Corresponding implementation entry: kernel/src/filesystem/fuse/conn.rs

3) Filesystem Instance Layer (FuseFS)

  • Parses mount parameters (e.g., fd, rootmode, allow_other, default_permissions)

  • Creates a FUSE filesystem instance and injects it into VFS

  • Provides instance-level policies (e.g., permission policy selection)

Corresponding implementation entry: kernel/src/filesystem/fuse/fs.rs

4) Node & File Operation Layer (FuseNode)

  • Maps VFS inode/file operations to FUSE opcodes (lookup/read/write/readdir/…)

  • Maintains node cache information and lookup/forget lifecycles

  • Handles common paths such as directory traversal, open/close, and attribute read/write

Corresponding implementation entry: kernel/src/filesystem/fuse/inode.rs

5) Protocol Definition Layer

  • Maintains FUSE protocol constants and structures aligned with Linux uapi

  • Serves as the foundation for request/response encoding/decoding on the kernel side

Corresponding implementation entry: kernel/src/filesystem/fuse/protocol.rs

Typical Workflow

Mount & Initialization

  1. The user-space daemon opens /dev/fuse

  2. mount -t fuse ... -o fd=... binds this connection to the mount instance

  3. The kernel sends FUSE_INIT, completing capability negotiation with the daemon

  4. After negotiation, it enters the regular request processing phase

Regular File Access

  1. A process initiates a system call (e.g., open/read/write/readdir)

  2. VFS forwards it to FuseNode, which encapsulates the corresponding FUSE request

  3. The request enters the connection queue, and the daemon reads it from /dev/fuse

  4. The daemon processes it and writes back a reply; the kernel wakes the waiting request and returns it to the caller

Unmount

  1. When the filesystem is unmounted, the connection layer terminates or cleans up in-flight requests

  2. The kernel sends destruction-related control messages to the daemon (e.g., DESTROY path)

  3. The connection is finally released, and recycling is completed after the /dev/fuse fd is closed

Key Points for Linux Semantic Alignment

  • Mount type support normalizes fuse.<subtype> to fuse handling

  • allow_other controls access policies for “non-mount owners”

  • default_permissions controls the switch between VFS local DAC checks and remote permission models

  • INIT negotiates capability bits and parameter boundaries (e.g., write size), handled uniformly by the connection layer

Demos & Getting Started

If you want to quickly “see examples and start writing a FUSE filesystem,” it is recommended to read in the following order:

  • Minimal implementation without libfuse (directly reading/writing /dev/fuse)
    user/apps/fuse_demo/README.md

  • Example based on libfuse3 (closer to common user-space development practices)
    user/apps/fuse3_demo/README.md

  • FUSE kernel/protocol regression test samples (covering more semantic boundaries)
    user/apps/tests/dunitest/suites/fuse/

You can also check the corresponding DADK build entries:

  • user/dadk/config/all/fuse_demo.toml

  • user/dadk/config/all/fuse3_demo.toml