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by DSMan195276 702 days ago
> but still use the same functions for inode lifecycle management

I'm not an expert by any means but I'm somewhat knowledgeable, there's different functions that can be used to create inodes and then insert them into the cache. `iget_locked()` that's focused on here is a particular pattern of doing it, but not every FS uses that for one reason or another (or doesn't use it in every situation). Ex: FAT doesn't use it because the inode numbers get made-up and the FS maintains its own mapping of FAT position to inodes. There's then also file systems like `proc` which never cache their inode objects (I'm pretty sure that's the case, I don't claim to understand proc :P )

The inode objects themselves still have the same state flow regardless of where they come from, AFAIK, so from a consumer perspective the usage of the `inode` doesn't change. It's only the creation and internal handling of the inode objects by the FS layer that depends based on what the FS needs.