ext4: replace strcmp with direct comparison for '.' and '..'

In a discussion over a proposed patch, "ext4: replace strcpy() with
'.' assignment"[1], I had asserted that directory entries in ext4 were
not NUL terminated, and hence it was safe to replace strcpy() with a
direct assignment.  As it turns out, this was incorrect.  It's true
for all all directory entries *except* for '.' and '..' where the
kernel was using strcmp() and where e2fsck actually checks and offers
to fix things if '.'  and '..' are not NUL terminated.

[1] https://lore.kernel.org/r/202505191316.JJMnPobO-lkp@intel.com



We can't change this without breaking old kernel versions, but in the
spirit of "be liberal in what you receive", use direct comparison of
de->name_len and de->name[0,1] instead of strcmp().  This has the side
benefit of reducing the compiled text size by 96 bytes on x86_64.

Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20250712181249.434530-1-tytso@mit.edu


Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>