Date:   Tue, 27 Oct 2020 15:29:10 +0100
From:   Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>
To:     harshad shirwadkar <harshadshirwadkar@...il.com>
Cc:     Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>,
        Ext4 Developers List <linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org>,
        "Theodore Y. Ts'o" <tytso@....edu>,
        kernel test robot <lkp@...el.com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v10 5/9] ext4: main fast-commit commit path

On Mon 26-10-20 13:55:47, harshad shirwadkar wrote:
> > > + *
> > > + * The fast commit space at the end of above operations would look like this:
> > > + *      [HEAD] [CREAT A] [UNLINK B] [TAIL] [ADD_RANGE A] [DEL_RANGE A] [TAIL]
> > > + *             |<---  Fast Commit 1   --->|<---      Fast Commit 2     ---->|
> > > + *
> > > + * Replay code should thus check for all the valid tails in the FC area.
> >
> > And one design question: Why do we record unlink of B here? I was kind of
> > hoping that fastcommit due to fsync(A) would record only operations related
> > to A. Because the way you wrote it, fast commit is inherently still a
> > filesystem-global operation requiring global ordering of metadata changes
> > with all the scalability bottlenecks current journalling code has. It's
> > faster by some factor due to more efficient packing of "small" changes not
> > fundamentally faster AFAICT...
> So given that fsync() for Ext4 traditionally resulted in syncing of
> all the dirty inodes / buffers. If we fsync() only the file in
> question, I'm worried that we may break some of the existing
> applications. In the earlier version of the series, I had a
> "soft_consistency" mode which did exactly that. It broke a bunch of
> xfstests that had this assumption. Also, in my tests I didn't see a
> big performance difference between these fast commits and the fast
> commits with soft consistency. Most probably, that's because the
> benchmarks perform a fsync on all the files and current fast commits
> give it a batching effect which soft consistency mode would fail to
> provide.
> 
> But I'm not fixated on this, I think it's still good to have
> soft_consistency mode. Good thing is this doesn't affect the on-disk
> format. So, this is something that can be gradually added to Ext4.

OK, I see. Maybe add a paragraph about this to fastcommit doc? I agree that
we can leave these optimizations for later, I was just wondering whether
there isn't some fundamental reason why global flush would be required and
I'm happy to hear that there isn't.

The advantage of soft_consistency as you call it would be IMO most seen if
there's relatively heavy non-fsync IO load in parallel with frequent fsyncs
of a tiny file. And such load is not infrequent in practice. I agree that
benchmarks like dbench are unlikely to benefit from soft_consistency since
all IO the benchmark does is in fact forced by fsync.

I also think that with soft_consistency we could benefit (e.g. on SSD
storage) from having several fast-commit areas in the journal so multiple
fastcommits can run in parallel. But that's also for some later
experimentation...

> > > +
> > > +     mutex_lock(&ei->i_fc_lock);
> > > +     if (running_txn_tid == ei->i_sync_tid) {
> > > +             update = true;
> > > +     } else {
> > > +             ext4_fc_reset_inode(inode);
> > > +             ei->i_sync_tid = running_txn_tid;
> > > +     }
> > > +     ret = __fc_track_fn(inode, args, update);
> > > +     mutex_unlock(&ei->i_fc_lock);
> > > +
> > > +     if (!enqueue)
> > > +             return ret;
> > > +
> > > +     spin_lock(&sbi->s_fc_lock);
> > > +     if (list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_fc_list))
> > > +             list_add_tail(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_fc_list,
> > > +                             (sbi->s_mount_state & EXT4_FC_COMMITTING) ?
> > > +                             &sbi->s_fc_q[FC_Q_STAGING] :
> > > +                             &sbi->s_fc_q[FC_Q_MAIN]);
> > > +     spin_unlock(&sbi->s_fc_lock);
> >
> > OK, so how do you prevent inode from being freed while it is still on
> > i_fc_list? I don't see anything preventing that and it could cause nasty
> > use-after-free issues. Note that for similar reasons JBD2 uses external
> > separately allocated inode for jbd2_inode so that it can have separate
> > lifetime (related to transaction commits) from struct ext4_inode_info.
> So, if you see the function ext4_fc_del() above, it's called from
> ext4_clear_inode(). What ext4_fc_del() does is that, if the inode is
> not being committed, it just removes it from the list. If that inode
> was deleted, we have a separate dentry queue which will record the
> deletion of the inode, so we don't really need the struct
> ext4_inode_info for recording that on-disk. However, if the inode is
> being committed (this is figured out by checking the per inode
> COMMITTING state), ext4_fc_del() waits until the completion.

But I don't think this quite works. Consider the following scenario:

inode I gets modified in transaction T
  you add I to FC list

memory pressure reclaims I from memory
  you remove I from FC list

open(I) -> inode gets loaded to memory again. Not tracked in FC list.
fsync(I) -> nothing to do, FC list is empty
<crash>

And 'I' now doesn't contain data in should because T didn't commit yet and
FC was empty.

> > > +
> > > +     return ret;
> > > +}
> > > +
> > > +struct __track_dentry_update_args {
> > > +     struct dentry *dentry;
> > > +     int op;
> > > +};
> > > +
> > > +/* __track_fn for directory entry updates. Called with ei->i_fc_lock. */
> > > +static void ext4_fc_submit_bh(struct super_block *sb)
> > > +{
> > > +     int write_flags = REQ_SYNC;
> > > +     struct buffer_head *bh = EXT4_SB(sb)->s_fc_bh;
> > > +
> > > +     if (test_opt(sb, BARRIER))
> > > +             write_flags |= REQ_FUA | REQ_PREFLUSH;
> >
> > Submitting each fastcommit buffer with REQ_FUA | REQ_PREFLUSH is
> > unnecessarily expensive (especially if there will be unrelated writes
> > happening to the filesystem while fastcommit is running). If nothing else,
> > it's enough to have REQ_PREFLUSH only once during the whole fastcommit to
> > flush out written back data blocks (plus journal device may be different
> > from the filesystem device so you need to be flushing the filesystem device
> > for this - see how the jbd2 commit code does this).
> >
> > Also REQ_FUA on each block may be overkill for devices that don't support
> > it natively (and thus REQ_FUA is simulated with full write cache pre and
> > post flush) - for such devices it would be better to just write out
> > fastcommit normally and then issue one cache flush. With careful
> > checksumming, block ID tagging and such, it should be safe against disk
> > reordering writes. But I guess we can leave this optimization as a TODO
> > item for later (but I think it would be good to design the on-disk format of
> > fastcommit blocks so that it does not rely on FUA writes).
> I see. The on disk format doesn't rely on FUA / PREFLUSH, I added it
> based on the observation that in most cases all the fast commit info
> was written in 1 block only. I didn't see much difference in the
> performance but I get your point. I'll add this as a TODO in the code
> for now.

OK, the performance optimization can wait for later but the flushing of
proper device needs to be fixed soon - as I wrote above REQ_PREFLUSH is not
enough (and needed at all) when the journal device is different from the
filesystem device.

> > > +/*
> > > + * Complete a fast commit by writing tail tag.
> > > + *
> > > + * Writing tail tag marks the end of a fast commit. In order to guarantee
> > > + * atomicity, after writing tail tag, even if there's space remaining
> > > + * in the block, next commit shouldn't use it. That's why tail tag
> > > + * has the length as that of the remaining space on the block.
> > > + */
> > > +static int ext4_fc_write_tail(struct super_block *sb, u32 crc)
> > > +{
> > > +     struct ext4_sb_info *sbi = EXT4_SB(sb);
> > > +     struct ext4_fc_tl tl;
> > > +     struct ext4_fc_tail tail;
> > > +     int off, bsize = sbi->s_journal->j_blocksize;
> > > +     u8 *dst;
> > > +
> > > +     /*
> > > +      * ext4_fc_reserve_space takes care of allocating an extra block if
> > > +      * there's no enough space on this block for accommodating this tail.
> > > +      */
> > > +     dst = ext4_fc_reserve_space(sb, sizeof(tl) + sizeof(tail), &crc);
> > > +     if (!dst)
> > > +             return -ENOSPC;
> > > +
> > > +     off = sbi->s_fc_bytes % bsize;
> > > +
> > > +     tl.fc_tag = cpu_to_le16(EXT4_FC_TAG_TAIL);
> > > +     tl.fc_len = cpu_to_le16(bsize - off - 1 + sizeof(struct ext4_fc_tail));
> > > +     sbi->s_fc_bytes = round_up(sbi->s_fc_bytes, bsize);
> > > +
> > > +     ext4_fc_memcpy(sb, dst, &tl, sizeof(tl), &crc);
> > > +     dst += sizeof(tl);
> > > +     tail.fc_tid = cpu_to_le32(sbi->s_journal->j_running_transaction->t_tid);
> > > +     ext4_fc_memcpy(sb, dst, &tail.fc_tid, sizeof(tail.fc_tid), &crc);
> > > +     dst += sizeof(tail.fc_tid);
> > > +     tail.fc_crc = cpu_to_le32(crc);
> > > +     ext4_fc_memcpy(sb, dst, &tail.fc_crc, sizeof(tail.fc_crc), NULL);
> > > +
> > > +     ext4_fc_submit_bh(sb);
> > > +
> > > +     return 0;
> > > +}
> >
> > Is there a reason to pass CRC all around (so you have to have special
> > functions like ext4_fc_memcpy(), ext4_fc_memzero(), ...) instead of just
> > creating the whole block and then computing CRC in one go?
> >
> > In fact, as looking through the code, it seems to me it would be slightly
> > nicer layer separation and interface if JBD2 provided functions for storage
> > of data blobs and handled the details of space & block management,
> > checksums, writeout, on recovery verification of correctness (so it would
> > just provide back a stream of blobs for FS to replay). Just an idea for
> > consideration, the current interface isn't too bad and we can change it
> > later if we decide so.
> I designed this keeping DAX mode in mind where we would benefit if we
> don't use buffer heads and blocks. There is no block level CRC, but
> CRC covers all the tags either from the start or from the last tail
> tag (whichever comes first). This kind of CRC can span across
> multipleblocks or we could have multiple CRCs in one block. Passing
> CRC around helps us to compute CRC as we write tags to storage. In DAX
> mode, this would allow fast commit commits to be smaller than block
> size. DAX mode code isn't implemented completely yet, but I wanted to
> make sure that the design of on-disk format is consistent and
> efficient for both DAX and non-DAX modes.

OK, I understand. Thanks for explanation!

> > > +
> > > +/*
> > > + * Adds tag, length, value and updates CRC. Returns true if tlv was added.
> > > + * Returns false if there's not enough space.
> > > + */
> > > + */
> > > +static int ext4_fc_write_inode(struct inode *inode, u32 *crc)
> > > +{
> > > +     struct ext4_inode_info *ei = EXT4_I(inode);
> > > +     int inode_len = EXT4_GOOD_OLD_INODE_SIZE;
> > > +     int ret;
> > > +     struct ext4_iloc iloc;
> > > +     struct ext4_fc_inode fc_inode;
> > > +     struct ext4_fc_tl tl;
> > > +     u8 *dst;
> > > +
> > > +     ret = ext4_get_inode_loc(inode, &iloc);
> > > +     if (ret)
> > > +             return ret;
> > > +
> > > +     if (EXT4_INODE_SIZE(inode->i_sb) > EXT4_GOOD_OLD_INODE_SIZE)
> > > +             inode_len += ei->i_extra_isize;
> > > +
> > > +     fc_inode.fc_ino = cpu_to_le32(inode->i_ino);
> > > +     tl.fc_tag = cpu_to_le16(EXT4_FC_TAG_INODE);
> > > +     tl.fc_len = cpu_to_le16(inode_len + sizeof(fc_inode.fc_ino));
> > > +
> > > +     dst = ext4_fc_reserve_space(inode->i_sb,
> > > +                     sizeof(tl) + inode_len + sizeof(fc_inode.fc_ino), crc);
> > > +     if (!dst)
> > > +             return -ECANCELED;
> > > +
> > > +     if (!ext4_fc_memcpy(inode->i_sb, dst, &tl, sizeof(tl), crc))
> > > +             return -ECANCELED;
> > > +     dst += sizeof(tl);
> > > +     if (!ext4_fc_memcpy(inode->i_sb, dst, &fc_inode, sizeof(fc_inode), crc))
> > > +             return -ECANCELED;
> > > +     dst += sizeof(fc_inode);
> > > +     if (!ext4_fc_memcpy(inode->i_sb, dst, (u8 *)ext4_raw_inode(&iloc),
> > > +                                     inode_len, crc))
> > > +             return -ECANCELED;
> >
> > Isn't this racy? What guarantees the inode state you record here is a valid
> > one for the fastcommit? I mean this gets called at the time of fastcommit
> > (i.e., fsync), so a fastcommit code must record changes to all other
> > metadata that relate to the currently recorded inode state. But this isn't
> > serialized in any way (AFAICT) with on-going inode changes so how can
> > fastcommit code guarantee that? This is a similar case as a problem I
> > describe below...
> So we have ext4_fc_start_update(inode) / ext4_fc_stop_update(inode)
> which is called by all the operations that happen on an inode. If the
> inode in question is undergoing a fast commit, ext4_fc_start_update()
> will block. So that ensures that inode won't be modified once fast
> commit starts. So, in general, before doing any fast commit related
> operation, we'll first put the inode in committing state, that's the
> state of the inode which will be committed on-disk in fast commit.

I see. See the case below for my comments.

> > > +
> > > +     return 0;
> > > +}
> > > +
> > > +/*
> > > + * Writes updated data ranges for the inode in question. Updates CRC.
> > > + * Returns 0 on success, error otherwise.
> > > + */
> > > +static int ext4_fc_write_inode_data(struct inode *inode, u32 *crc)
> > > +{
> > > +     ext4_lblk_t old_blk_size, cur_lblk_off, new_blk_size;
> > > +     struct ext4_inode_info *ei = EXT4_I(inode);
> > > +     struct ext4_map_blocks map;
> > > +     struct ext4_fc_add_range fc_ext;
> > > +     struct ext4_fc_del_range lrange;
> > > +     struct ext4_extent *ex;
> > > +     int ret;
> > > +
> > > +     mutex_lock(&ei->i_fc_lock);
> > > +     if (ei->i_fc_lblk_len == 0) {
> > > +             mutex_unlock(&ei->i_fc_lock);
> > > +             return 0;
> > > +     }
> > > +     old_blk_size = ei->i_fc_lblk_start;
> > > +     new_blk_size = ei->i_fc_lblk_start + ei->i_fc_lblk_len - 1;
> > > +     ei->i_fc_lblk_len = 0;
> > > +     mutex_unlock(&ei->i_fc_lock);
> > > +
> > > +     cur_lblk_off = old_blk_size;
> > > +     jbd_debug(1, "%s: will try writing %d to %d for inode %ld\n",
> > > +               __func__, cur_lblk_off, new_blk_size, inode->i_ino);
> > > +
> > > +     while (cur_lblk_off <= new_blk_size) {
> > > +             map.m_lblk = cur_lblk_off;
> > > +             map.m_len = new_blk_size - cur_lblk_off + 1;
> > > +             ret = ext4_map_blocks(NULL, inode, &map, 0);
> > > +             if (ret < 0)
> > > +                     return -ECANCELED;
> >
> > So isn't this actually racy with a risk of stale data exposure? Consider a
> > situation like:
> >
> > Task 1:                         Task 2:
> > pwrite(file, buf, 8192, 0)
> > punch(file, 0, 4096)
> > fsync(file)
> >   writeout range 4096-8192
> >   fastcommit for inode range 0-8192
> >                                 pwrite(file, buf, 4096, 0)
> >     ext4_map_blocks(file)
> >       - reports that block at offset 0 is mapped so that is recorded in
> >         fastcommit record. But data for that is not written so after a
> >         crash we'd expose stale data in that block.
> >
> > Am I missing something?
> So the way this gets handled is before entering this function, the
> inode enters COMMITTING state (in ext4_fc_submit_inode_data_all
> function). Once in COMMITTING state, all the inodes on this inode get
> paused. Also, the commit path waits until all the ongoing updates on
> that inode are completed. Once they are completed, only then its data
> buffers are flushed and this ext4_map_blocks is called. So Task-2 here
> would have either completely finished or would wait until the end of
> this inode's commit. I realize that I should probably add more
> comments to make this more clearer in the code. But is handling it
> this way sufficient or am I missing any more cases?

I see. In principle this should work. But I don't like that we have yet
another mechanism that needs to properly wrap inode changes to make
fastcommits work. And if we get it wrong somewhere, the breakage will be
almost impossible to notice until someone looses data after a power
failure. So it seems a bit fragile to me.

Ideally I think we would reuse the current transaction machinery for this
somehow (so that changes added through one transaction handle would behave
atomically wrt to fastcommits) but the details are not clear to me yet. I
need to think more about this...

> > > +
> > > +             if (map.m_len == 0) {
> > > +                     cur_lblk_off++;
> > > +                     continue;
> > > +             }
> > > +
> > > @@ -271,6 +272,7 @@ static ssize_t ext4_buffered_write_iter(struct kiocb *iocb,
> > >
> > >  out:
> > >       inode_unlock(inode);
> > > +     ext4_fc_stop_update(inode);
> > >       if (likely(ret > 0)) {
> > >               iocb->ki_pos += ret;
> > >               ret = generic_write_sync(iocb, ret);
> > > @@ -534,7 +536,9 @@ static ssize_t ext4_dio_write_iter(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *from)
> > >                       goto out;
> > >               }
> > >
> > > +             ext4_fc_start_update(inode);
> > >               ret = ext4_orphan_add(handle, inode);
> > > +             ext4_fc_stop_update(inode);
> >
> > Why is here protected only the orphan addition? What about other changes
> > happening to the inode during direct write?
> This is the only change that is protected by handle in this function.
> What I'm trying to do here (and in other places) is that anything that
> happens between ext4_journal_start() and ext4_journal_stop() happens
> atomically. The way to guarantee that is to ensure that the same block
> is also surrounded by ext4_fc_start_update(inode) and
> ext4_fc_stop_update(inode).
> 
> I also realized while looking at this comment is that we probably need
> a new TLV for adding orphan inode to the list?

> > Also I don't see anything tracking inode changes due to writes through mmap?
> > How is that supposed to work?
> Right, I have missed those. I see that mmap function
> ext4_page_mkwrite() calls ext4_jbd2_inode_add_write that tells jbd2
> what is the range that needs to be written for the inode in question.
> I guess I can just update that function to update inode's FC range as
> well?

Yes, you need to add tracking of the page range handled in
ext4_page_mkwrite() to FC.

I've also realized that you probably need to disable fastcommits when data
journaling is enabled for the inode (probably just disable fastcommit
feature with data=jounral mount option, make inode ineligible if it has
'journal data' flag set).

									Honza
-- 
Jan Kara <jack@...e.com>
SUSE Labs, CR

Powered by blists - more mailing lists