linux-ext4 - Re: [RFC 0/9] ext4: Add direct-io atomic write support using fsawu

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Date: Wed, 06 Mar 2024 18:43:40 +0530
From: Ritesh Harjani (IBM) <ritesh.list@...il.com>
To: John Garry <john.g.garry@...cle.com>, linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org, Dave Chinner <david@...morbit.com>
Cc: Ojaswin Mujoo <ojaswin@...ux.ibm.com>, Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>, Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu>, Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>, "Darrick J . Wong" <djwong@...nel.org>, Luis Chamberlain <mcgrof@...nel.org>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [RFC 0/9] ext4: Add direct-io atomic write support using fsawu

John Garry <john.g.garry@...cle.com> writes:

> On 02/03/2024 07:41, Ritesh Harjani (IBM) wrote:
>> Hello all,
>> 
>> This RFC series adds support for atomic writes to ext4 direct-io using
>> filesystem atomic write unit. It's built on top of John's "block atomic
>> write v5" series which adds RWF_ATOMIC flag interface to pwritev2() and enables
>> atomic write support in underlying device driver and block layer.
>> 
>> This series uses the same RWF_ATOMIC interface for adding atomic write support
>> to ext4's direct-io path. One can utilize it by 2 of the methods explained below.
>> ((1)mkfs.ext4 -b <BS>, (2) with bigalloc).
>> 
>> Filesystem atomic write unit (fsawu):
>> ============================================
>> Atomic writes within ext4 can be supported using below 3 methods -
>> 1. On a large pagesize system (e.g. Power with 64k pagesize or aarch64 with 64k pagesize),
>>     we can mkfs using different blocksizes. e.g. mkfs.ext4 -b <4k/8k/16k/32k/64k).
>>     Now if the underlying HW device supports atomic writes, than a corresponding
>>     blocksize can be chosen as a filesystem atomic write unit (fsawu) which
>>     should be within the underlying hw defined [awu_min, awu_max] range.
>>     For such filesystem, fsawu_[min|max] both are equal to blocksize (e.g. 16k)
>> 
>>     On a smaller pagesize system this can be utilized when support for LBS is
>>     complete (on ext4).
>> 
>> 2. EXT4 already supports a feature called bigalloc. In that ext4 can handle
>>     allocation in cluster size units. So for e.g. we can create a filesystem with
>>     4k blocksize but with 64k clustersize. Such a configuration can also be used
>>     to support atomic writes if the underlying hw device supports it.
>>     In such case the fsawu_min will most likely be the filesystem blocksize and
>>     fsawu_max will mostly likely be the cluster size.
>> 
>>     So a user can do an atomic write of any size between [fsawu_min, fsawu_max]
>>     range as long as it satisfies other constraints being laid out by HW device
>>     (or by software stack) to support atomic writes.
>>     e.g. len should be a power of 2, pos % len should be naturally
>>     aligned and [start | end] (phys offsets) should not straddle over
>>     an atomic write boundary.
>
> JFYI, I gave this a quick try, and it seems to work ok. Naturally it 

Thanks John for giving this a try!

> suffers from the same issue discussed at 
> https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fsdevel/434c570e-39b2-4f1c-9b49-ac5241d310ca@oracle.com/ 
> with regards to writing to partially written extents, which I have tried 
> to address properly in my v2 for that same series.

I did go through other revisions, but I guess I missed going through this series.

Thanks Dave & John for your comments over the series.
Let me go through the revisions I have missed and John's latest revision.
I will update this series accordingly.

Appreciate your help!
-ritesh