Ext3 users - Feb 2002 - If the .journal file is marked 'immutable' how is data written to it

man chattr mentions the following [on RH 7.2]

A  file with the `i' attribute cannot be modified: it cannot be deleted
or renamed, no link can be created to  this file  and  no  data  can  be
written to the file. Only the superuser can set or clear this attribute

The .journal file has the following properties

---i-d------- ../.journal

As such, I am confused as to how data to the journal can be written,
does ext3 internal clear/reset the immutable flag before all writes to
the journal

-- 
Yusuf Goolamabbas
yusufg@outblaze.com

Yusuf Goolamabbas wrote:
> 
> man chattr mentions the following [on RH 7.2]
> 
> A  file with the `i' attribute cannot be modified: it cannot be deleted
> or renamed, no link can be created to  this file  and  no  data  can  be
> written to the file. Only the superuser can set or clear this attribute
> 
> The .journal file has the following properties
> 
> ---i-d------- ../.journal
> 
> As such, I am confused as to how data to the journal can be written,
> does ext3 internal clear/reset the immutable flag before all writes to
> the journal
The filesystem accesses the journal fail at a way, way lower
level than the immutable checks.  It just uses the journal
file as an offset->block mapping and talks direct to the
block layer.