linux-kernel - Re: Detecting RWF

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Message-ID: <20171216181236.kbtlg2makrnmq34g@shells.gnugeneration.com>
Date:   Sat, 16 Dec 2017 10:12:37 -0800
From:   vcaputo@...garu.com
To:     Avi Kivity <avi@...lladb.com>
Cc:     Goldwyn Rodrigues <rgoldwyn@...e.de>,
        linux-kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
        linux-xfs@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Detecting RWF_NOWAIT support

On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 10:03:38AM -0800, vcaputo@...garu.com wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 16, 2017 at 04:49:08PM +0200, Avi Kivity wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > On 12/14/2017 09:15 PM, Goldwyn Rodrigues wrote:
> > > 
> > > On 12/14/2017 11:38 AM, Avi Kivity wrote:
> > > > I'm looking to add support for RWF_NOWAIT within a linux-aio iocb.
> > > > Naturally, I need to detect at runtime whether the kernel support
> > > > RWF_NOWAIT or not.
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > The only method I could find was to issue an I/O with RWF_NOWAIT set,
> > > > and look for errors. This is somewhat less than perfect:
> > > > 
> > > >   - from the error, I can't tell whether RWF_NOWAIT was the problem, or
> > > > something else. If I enable a number of new features, I have to run
> > > > through all combinations to figure out which ones are supported and
> > > > which are not.
> > > Here is the return codes for RWF_NOWAIT
> > > EINVAL - not supported (older kernel)
> > > EOPNOTSUPP - not supported
> > > EAGAIN - supported but could not complete because I/O will be delayed
> > 
> > Which of these are returned from io_submit() and which are returned in the
> > iocb?
> > 
> > > 0 - supported and I/O completed (success).
> > > 
> > > >   - RWF_NOWAIT support is per-filesystem, so I can't just remember not to
> > > > enable RWF_NOWAIT globally, I have to track it per file.
> > > Yes, the support is per filesystem. So, the application must know if the
> > > filesystem supports it, possibly by performing a small I/O.
> > 
> > So the application must know about filesystem mount points, and be prepared
> > to create a file and try to write it (in case the filesystem is empty) or
> > alter its behavior during runtime depending on the errors it sees.
> 
> Can't the application simply add a "nowait" flag to its open file
> descriptor encapsulation struct, then in the constructor perform a
> zero-length RWF_NOWAIT write immediately after opening the fd to set the
> flag?  Then all writes branch according to the flag.
> 
> According to write(2):
> 
>        If  count is zero and fd refers to a regular file, then write()
>        may return a failure status if one of the errors below is
>        detected.  If no errors are detected,  or error detection is not
>        performed, 0 will be returned without causing any other effect.
>        If count is zero and fd refers to a file  other than a regular
>        file, the results are not specified.
> 
> So the zero-length RWF_NOWAIT write should return zero, unless it's not
> supported.
> 

Oh, I assumed this new flag applied to pwritev2() flags.  Disregard my
comment, I see the ambiguity causing your question Avi and do not know
the best approach.

Cheers,
Vito Caputo