Date:	Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:08:40 -0400
From:	Theodore Tso <tytso@....edu>
To:	Josef Bacik <jbacik@...hat.com>
Cc:	linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] e2fsprogs: report minimal resize size when given size
	is too small

On Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 10:05:06AM -0400, Josef Bacik wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Munged the subject on the last resend and didn't add the
> Signed-off-by, so here's the 3rd try.  This patch will spit out the
> minimum number of blocks the fs can be resized if the resize size it
> is given is too small.  This is usefull for those creating live boot
> images who create large images to install what they need onto, and
> then resize down to the smalles size that they can.  Thanks much,
> 
> Signed-off-by: Josef Back <jbacik@...hat.com>

Hmm.... so I tried creating a filesystem using a 1k blocksize, to make
sure that your code does the right thing when the number of block
group descriptors goes down.  And it doesn't work correctly.

So first, I create a logical volume for doing testing, with a 1024
blocksize, and populate it with e2fsprogs sources.  The we run e2fsck
so that reszie2fs will be able to run with it:

# lvcreate --size 1G --name testresize /dev/closure
  Logical volume "testresize" created
# mke2fs -b 1024 -jq /dev/closure/testresize
Warning: 256-byte inodes not usable on older systems
# mount /dev/closure/testresize /mnt
# tar -C /mnt -xzf /usr/projects/e2fsprogs/e2fsprogs-1.40.8.tar.gz 
# umount /mnt
# e2fsck -fp /dev/closure/testresize 
e2fsck 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
/dev/closure/testresize: 1177/65536 files (0.9% non-contiguous), 72811/1048576 blocks

OK, let's create s snapshot, and then try resizing it using your
patched resize2fs:

# lvcreate --snapshot --size 1G --name resizesnap /dev/closure/testresize
  Logical volume "resizesnap" created
# ./resize/resize2fs /dev/closure/resizesnap 0
resize2fs 1.40.7 (28-Feb-2008)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap to 0 (1k) blocks.
0 blocks is too small, minimum size is 55254 blocks
./resize/resize2fs: Not enough space to build proposed filesystem while trying to resize /dev/closure/resizesnap
# ./resize/resize2fs /dev/closure/resizesnap 55254
resize2fs 1.40.7 (28-Feb-2008)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap to 55254 (1k) blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap is now 55254 blocks long.

OK, so we resized it down to 55,254.   Are we done?

# ./resize/resize2fs /dev/closure/resizesnap 0
resize2fs 1.40.7 (28-Feb-2008)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap to 0 (1k) blocks.
0 blocks is too small, minimum size is 55242 blocks
# ./resize/resize2fs /dev/closure/resizesnap 55242
resize2fs 1.40.7 (28-Feb-2008)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap to 55242 (1k) blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap is now 55242 blocks long.
# lvremove -f /dev/closure/resizesnap 
  Logical volume "resizesnap" successfully removed

No wait!  It turns out we can resize it down further, to 55,242
blocks.

Now let's try to resize it down to 55,242 blocks directly using an
unpatched resize2fs:

# lvcreate --snapshot --size 1G --name resizesnap /dev/closure/testresize
  Logical volume "resizesnap" created
# /sbin/resize2fs /dev/closure/resizesnap 55242
resize2fs 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap to 55242 (1k) blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap is now 55242 blocks long.
# lvremove -f /dev/closure/resizesnap 
  Logical volume "resizesnap" successfully removed

Gee, look!  It works.

Can we do it with your patched resize2fs?

# lvcreate --snapshot --size 1G --name resizesnap /dev/closure/testresize
  Logical volume "resizesnap" created
# ./resize/resize2fs /dev/closure/resizesnap 55242
resize2fs 1.40.7 (28-Feb-2008)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap to 55242 (1k) blocks.
55242 blocks is too small, minimum size is 55254 blocks
./resize/resize2fs: Not enough space to build proposed filesystem while trying to resize /dev/closure/resizesnap

Nope.  It won't let you resize down to 55,254 blocks in one go,
although you can do it in two steps.  This is a regression, since with
the unpatched resize2fs, it works with one step.  The problem is that
your code assumes that ext2fs_calculate_minimum_resize_size() reliably
returns the minimum size, and if the user specifies a size smaller
than returned size, it should bomb out with an error.  Unfortunately,
it *isn't* the minimum possible size.

# ./resize/resize2fs /dev/closure/resizesnap 55254
resize2fs 1.40.7 (28-Feb-2008)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap to 55254 (1k) blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap is now 55254 blocks long.
# ./resize/resize2fs /dev/closure/resizesnap 55242
resize2fs 1.40.7 (28-Feb-2008)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap to 55242 (1k) blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/closure/resizesnap is now 55242 blocks long.
# lvremove -f /dev/closure/resizesnap 
  Logical volume "resizesnap" successfully removed


What bothers me with your patch, though is that even though it
apparently isn't doing the right thing when the filesystem changes the
number of group descriptor blocks after doing the resize:

# dumpe2fs /dev/closure/testresize | grep "Group descriptors" | head -5
dumpe2fs 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
  Primary superblock at 1, Group descriptors at 2-5
  Backup superblock at 8193, Group descriptors at 8194-8197
  Backup superblock at 24577, Group descriptors at 24578-24581
  Backup superblock at 40961, Group descriptors at 40962-40965
  Backup superblock at 57345, Group descriptors at 57346-57349

# dumpe2fs /dev/closure/resizesnap | grep "Group descriptors" | head -5
dumpe2fs 1.40.8 (13-Mar-2008)
  Primary superblock at 1, Group descriptors at 2-2
  Backup superblock at 8193, Group descriptors at 8194-8194
  Backup superblock at 24577, Group descriptors at 24578-24578
  Backup superblock at 40961, Group descriptors at 40962-40962

.... yet when I tried doing the test with 4k blocksizes, where I
started with a filesystem which is 17 gigabytes (with a 4k blocksize,
every 16gigs there are 128 block groups, which will occupy a single 4k
block's worth of block group descriptors), and then shrunk it down,
expecting it to break --- and it didn't.  The fact it should have
broken, since the number of group descriptors did go down, and it the
code didn't take that into account --- and yet it didn't, disturbed
me.  Not knowing why it works when an inspection seems to indicate
that it should fails always scares me.

So I can't apply this the way it is.  What I *can* do is set it up so
that it will only call the calculate minimum size if the specified
size is 0 blocks.  I'll mention in the known bugs that it can
sometimes be wrong with its estimates with 1k and 2k block
filesystems.

						- Ted
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