Date:	Tue, 4 Sep 2012 16:11:32 +0100
From:	Ian Abbott <abbotti@....co.uk>
To:	Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>
CC:	Ian Abbott <ian.abbott@....co.uk>,
	lkml <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3] UDF: Add support for O_DIRECT

On 2012-09-04 15:39, Jan Kara wrote:
>    Hello,
>
>    first, you have my address wrong (you had suze instead of suse) which is
> why I wasn't getting your email and not replying (missed the patch in LKML
> traffic). Second, it's good to CC also linux-fsdevel for UDF related
> matters (I tend to use that for UDF announcements etc. so people caring
> about UDF can watch there and don't have to read high-volume LKML).

Oops, sorry about the misspelling.  Also, I've noted the linux-fsdevel 
for future (I was just following what it said in MAINTAINERS).

> On Tue 04-09-12 10:49:39, Ian Abbott wrote:
>> Add support for the O_DIRECT flag.  There are two cases to deal with:
>    Out of curiosity, do you have a use for this feature or is it mostly
> academic interest?

I'm planning to use it for an embedded project that needs to stream 
large files off a CompactFlash card, but the data doesn't need to be in 
the buffer cache as its only read once, and the system has very limited 
memory bandwidth so I can't afford the the extra copy.  The old version 
of this project only supported FAT, but that limited the file size to 
about 4GiB.  The filesystem needs to be something reasonably 
Windows-friendly, at least for adding the files to the CompactFlash card 
in the first place.

>> 1. Small files stored in the ICB (inode control block?): just return 0
>> from the new udf_adinicb_direct_IO() handler to fall back to buffered
>> I/O.  For direct writes, there is a "gotcha" to deal with when
>> generic_file_direct_write() in mm/filemap.c invalidates the pages.  In
>> the udf_adinicb_writepage() handler, only part of the page data will be
>> valid and the rest will be zeroed out, so only copy the valid part into
>> the ICB.  (This is actually a bit inefficient as udf_adinicb_write_end()
>> will have already copied the data into the ICB once, but it's pretty
>> likely that the file will grow to the point where its data can no longer
>> be stored in the ICB and will be moved to a different area of the file
>> system.  At that point, a different direct_IO handler will be used - see
>> below.)
>    Sorry, I didn't quite get this. What is the problem with copying all the
> data to inode in udf_adinicb_writepage() as it is now?

Part of the good data in the ICB outside the range being addressed would 
get overwritten by zeroes.  This can be tested by creating a UDF 
filesystem with 4KiB blocks and with small files stored in the ICB, 
backed by a block device with 512 byte sectors.  Create a 2KiB file with 
random (or non-zero) data on the file system so that its data gets 
stored in the ICB.  Then open the file for writing without truncation 
and with the O_DIRECT flag set, write 512 bytes at some 512 byte offset 
within the 2KiB file and close it.  If you then hexdump the file, you'll 
find some of the old random data has been zeroed out.

-- 
-=( Ian Abbott @ MEV Ltd.    E-mail: <abbotti@....co.uk>        )=-
-=( Tel: +44 (0)161 477 1898   FAX: +44 (0)161 718 3587         )=-
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