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-rw-r--r--Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst7
1 files changed, 5 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst
index 165514401441..343644712340 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/overlayfs.rst
@@ -367,8 +367,11 @@ Metadata only copy up
When the "metacopy" feature is enabled, overlayfs will only copy
up metadata (as opposed to whole file), when a metadata specific operation
-like chown/chmod is performed. Full file will be copied up later when
-file is opened for WRITE operation.
+like chown/chmod is performed. An upper file in this state is marked with
+"trusted.overlayfs.metacopy" xattr which indicates that the upper file
+contains no data. The data will be copied up later when file is opened for
+WRITE operation. After the lower file's data is copied up,
+the "trusted.overlayfs.metacopy" xattr is removed from the upper file.
In other words, this is delayed data copy up operation and data is copied
up when there is a need to actually modify data.