[U-Boot] [U-BOOT] fs: ext4: Problem with ext4load and sparse files

[Gero Schumacher]

Hi,

when I try to load a sparse file via ext4load, I am getting the error message
'invalid extent'

After a deeper look in the code, it seems to be an issue in the function ext4fs_get_extent_block in fs/ext4/ext4_common.c:

The file starts with 1k of zeros. The blocksize is 1024. So the first extend block contains the following information:

eh_entries: 1
eh_depth: 1
ei_block 1

When the upper layer (ext4fs_read_file) asks for fileblock 0, we are running in the 'invalid extent' error message.
For me it seems, that the code is not prepared for handling a sparse block at the beginning of the file. The following change, solved my problem:

diff --git a/fs/ext4/ext4_common.c b/fs/ext4/ext4_common.c
index 67e2471bd3..7c8080d740 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/ext4_common.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/ext4_common.c
@@ -1546,8 +1546,10 @@ static struct ext4_extent_header *ext4fs_get_extent_block
                                break;
                } while (fileblock >= le32_to_cpu(index[i].ei_block));

-               if (--i < 0)
-                       return NULL;
+               /* if first logical block number is higher than requested fileblock,
+                  it is a sparse file. This is handled on upper layer */
+               if (i > 0)
+                       i--;

                block = le16_to_cpu(index[i].ei_leaf_hi);
                block = (block << 32) + le32_to_cpu(index[i].ei_leaf_lo);


I am really not an expert in ext4 filesystems. Can somebody please have a look at this issue and give me a feedback, if I am totally wrong or not?