registry: add comment explaining workflow to make store_keys safe w/o transactions

/*
 * Make the store operation as safe as possible without transactions:
 *
 * (1) For each subkey removed from ctr compared with old_subkeys:
 *
 *     (a) First delete the value db entry.
 *
 *     (b) Next delete the secdesc db record.
 *
 *     (c) Then delete the subkey list entry.
 *
 * (2) Now write the list of subkeys of the parent key,
 *     deleting removed entries and adding new ones.
 *
 * (3) Finally create the subkey list entries for the added keys.
 *
 * This way if we crash half-way in between deleting the subkeys
 * and storing the parent's list of subkeys, no old data can pop up
 * out of the blue when re-adding keys later on.
 */

The workflow is going to be modified to meet this agendain the next commits.

Michael
(This used to be commit 55dd9bdd148fc942e15aacfe9f6b38b1a5c53158)

1 files changed, 21 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/source3/registry/reg_backend_db.c b/source3/registry/reg_backend_db.c
index 50fc20ea82..87837448d9 100644
--- a/source3/registry/reg_backend_db.c
+++ b/source3/registry/reg_backend_db.c
@@ -636,6 +636,27 @@ bool regdb_store_keys(const char *key, REGSUBKEY_CTR *ctr)
 
 	regdb_fetch_keys(key, old_subkeys);
 
+	/*
+	 * Make the store operation as safe as possible without transactions:
+	 *
+	 * (1) For each subkey removed from ctr compared with old_subkeys:
+	 *
+	 *     (a) First delete the value db entry.
+	 *
+	 *     (b) Next delete the secdesc db record.
+	 *
+	 *     (c) Then delete the subkey list entry.
+	 *
+	 * (2) Now write the list of subkeys of the parent key,
+	 *     deleting removed entries and adding new ones.
+	 *
+	 * (3) Finally create the subkey list entries for the added keys.
+	 *
+	 * This way if we crash half-way in between deleting the subkeys
+	 * and storing the parent's list of subkeys, no old data can pop up
+	 * out of the blue when re-adding keys later on.
+	 */
+
 	/* store the subkey list for the parent */
 
 	if (!regdb_store_keys_internal(key, ctr) ) {