[PATCH v1] ntfs: report birth time for symbolic links

[PATCH v1] ntfs: report birth time for symbolic links

[Xuewen Wang]

NTFS already loads the creation time into i_crtime and reports it through
ntfs_getattr(). However, the symbolic-link inode operations omit getattr,
so statx() with AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW falls back to generic_fillattr() and
does not return STATX_BTIME for the link itself.

Use ntfs_getattr() for symbolic links to expose their stored creation time.

Signed-off-by: Xuewen Wang <wangxuewen@kylinos.cn>
---
Tested in QEMU with WSL and native symlinks, including dangling links and
links to directories. Birth times survive inode cache eviction, remounts
and a fresh boot. Queries that follow a link still report the target's
creation time.

 fs/ntfs/file.c | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/fs/ntfs/file.c b/fs/ntfs/file.c
index 58afd310d57b..58aad7f5c6c5 100644
--- a/fs/ntfs/file.c
+++ b/fs/ntfs/file.c
@@ -1556,6 +1556,7 @@ const struct inode_operations ntfs_file_inode_ops = {
 const struct inode_operations ntfs_symlink_inode_operations = {
 	.get_link	= ntfs_get_link,
 	.setattr	= ntfs_setattr,
+	.getattr	= ntfs_getattr,
 	.listxattr	= ntfs_listxattr,
 	.fileattr_get	= ntfs_fileattr_get,
 	.fileattr_set	= ntfs_fileattr_set,
-- 
2.25.1

Re: [PATCH v1] ntfs: report birth time for symbolic links

[liubaolin]

在 2026/10/14 09:18, Xuewen Wang 写道:
> NTFS already loads the creation time into i_crtime and reports it through
> ntfs_getattr(). However, the symbolic-link inode operations omit getattr,
> so statx() with AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW falls back to generic_fillattr() and
> does not return STATX_BTIME for the link itself.
> 
> Use ntfs_getattr() for symbolic links to expose their stored creation time.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Xuewen Wang <wangxuewen@kylinos.cn>
> ---
> Tested in QEMU with WSL and native symlinks, including dangling links and
> links to directories. Birth times survive inode cache eviction, remounts
> and a fresh boot. Queries that follow a link still report the target's
> creation time.
> 
>   fs/ntfs/file.c | 1 +
>   1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/ntfs/file.c b/fs/ntfs/file.c
> index 58afd310d57b..58aad7f5c6c5 100644
> --- a/fs/ntfs/file.c
> +++ b/fs/ntfs/file.c
> @@ -1556,6 +1556,7 @@ const struct inode_operations ntfs_file_inode_ops = {
>   const struct inode_operations ntfs_symlink_inode_operations = {
>   	.get_link	= ntfs_get_link,
>   	.setattr	= ntfs_setattr,
> +	.getattr	= ntfs_getattr,
>   	.listxattr	= ntfs_listxattr,
>   	.fileattr_get	= ntfs_fileattr_get,
>   	.fileattr_set	= ntfs_fileattr_set,

Looks good to me.

Reviewed-by: Baolin Liu <liubaolin@kylinos.cn>

Re: [PATCH v1] ntfs: report birth time for symbolic links

[Namjae Jeon]

On Wed, Oct 14, 2026 at 10:18 AM Xuewen Wang <wangxuewen@kylinos.cn> wrote:
>
> NTFS already loads the creation time into i_crtime and reports it through
> ntfs_getattr(). However, the symbolic-link inode operations omit getattr,
> so statx() with AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW falls back to generic_fillattr() and
> does not return STATX_BTIME for the link itself.
>
> Use ntfs_getattr() for symbolic links to expose their stored creation time.
>
> Signed-off-by: Xuewen Wang <wangxuewen@kylinos.cn>
Applied it to #ntfs-next.
Thanks!