On Thu, Feb 12, 2026 at 01:58:11PM -0800, T.J. Mercier wrote: > This series adds support for IN_DELETE_SELF and IN_IGNORED inotify > events to kernfs files. > > Currently, kernfs (used by cgroup and others) supports IN_MODIFY events > but fails to notify watchers when the file is removed (e.g. during > cgroup destruction). This forces userspace monitors to maintain resource > intensive side-channels like pidfds, procfs polling, or redundant > directory watches to detect when a cgroup dies and a watched file is > removed. > > By generating IN_DELETE_SELF events on destruction, we allow watchers to > rely on a single watch descriptor for the entire lifecycle of the > monitored file, reducing resource usage (file descriptors, CPU cycles) > and complexity in userspace. > > The series is structured as follows: > Patch 1 refactors kernfs_elem_attr to support arbitrary event types. > Patch 2 implements the logic to generate DELETE_SELF and IGNORED events > on file removal. > Patch 3 adds selftests to verify the new behavior. > > --- > Changes in v2: > Remove unused variables from new selftests per kernel test robot > Fix kernfs_type argument per Tejun > Inline checks for FS_MODIFY, FS_DELETE in kernfs_notify_workfn per Tejun > > T.J. Mercier (3): > kernfs: allow passing fsnotify event types > kernfs: send IN_DELETE_SELF and IN_IGNORED on file deletion > selftests: memcg: Add tests IN_DELETE_SELF and IN_IGNORED on > memory.events > > fs/kernfs/dir.c | 21 +++ > fs/kernfs/file.c | 20 ++- > fs/kernfs/kernfs-internal.h | 3 + > include/linux/kernfs.h | 1 + > .../selftests/cgroup/test_memcontrol.c | 122 ++++++++++++++++++ > 5 files changed, 161 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-) > > > base-commit: ba268514ea14b44570030e8ed2aef92a38679e85 > -- > 2.53.0.273.g2a3d683680-goog >
In future posts, please CC inotify patches to fsdevel and inotify maintainers. Thanks, Amir.

