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Tom’s Hardware
Tom’s Hardware
Technology
Bruno Ferreira

Linux's contemporary filesystem mount API went without documentation for six years — latest man-page package finally adds content for 2019 code

Screen full of computer code.

Core system code doesn't move at quite the same pace as the latest vibe coders, and thankfully so, as it needs to be stable, efficient, and battle-tested. However, sometimes delays can get a little ridiculous, as was the case with the documentation for Linux's contemporary filesystem API. As noted by Phoronix, it was over a six-year wait for the info to appear in the standard man-page (manual page) documentation.

The tale goes like this: in 2019, Linux got the minty-fresh new filesystem mounting API, with the main "fsconfig," "fsmount," and "fsopen" calls replacing the old, monolithic "mount." This made it a lot easier for developers to use the new functionality, enjoying cleaner code, better error handling, and the ability to output proper error messages, rather than the cryptic "mount failed."

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