Date:   Fri, 19 Aug 2022 17:06:06 -0700
From:   Jaegeuk Kim <jaegeuk@...nel.org>
To:     Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...nel.org>
Cc:     linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-f2fs-devel@...ts.sourceforge.net, linux-xfs@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-api@...r.kernel.org, linux-fscrypt@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-block@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
        Keith Busch <kbusch@...nel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v4 6/9] f2fs: don't allow DIO reads but not DIO writes

On 08/15, Eric Biggers wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 30, 2022 at 08:08:26PM -0700, Jaegeuk Kim wrote:
> > On 07/25, Eric Biggers wrote:
> > > On Sat, Jul 23, 2022 at 07:01:59PM -0700, Jaegeuk Kim wrote:
> > > > On 07/22, Eric Biggers wrote:
> > > > > From: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@...gle.com>
> > > > > 
> > > > > Currently, if an f2fs filesystem is mounted with the mode=lfs and
> > > > > io_bits mount options, DIO reads are allowed but DIO writes are not.
> > > > > Allowing DIO reads but not DIO writes is an unusual restriction, which
> > > > > is likely to be surprising to applications, namely any application that
> > > > > both reads and writes from a file (using O_DIRECT).  This behavior is
> > > > > also incompatible with the proposed STATX_DIOALIGN extension to statx.
> > > > > Given this, let's drop the support for DIO reads in this configuration.
> > > > 
> > > > IIRC, we allowed DIO reads since applications complained a lower performance.
> > > > So, I'm afraid this change will make another confusion to users. Could
> > > > you please apply the new bahavior only for STATX_DIOALIGN?
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > Well, the issue is that the proposed STATX_DIOALIGN fields cannot represent this
> > > weird case where DIO reads are allowed but not DIO writes.  So the question is
> > > whether this case actually matters, in which case we should make STATX_DIOALIGN
> > > distinguish between DIO reads and DIO writes, or whether it's some odd edge case
> > > that doesn't really matter, in which case we could just fix it or make
> > > STATX_DIOALIGN report that DIO is unsupported.  I was hoping that you had some
> > > insight here.  What sort of applications want DIO reads but not DIO writes?
> > > Is this common at all?
> > 
> > I think there's no specific application to use the LFS mode at this
> > moment, but I'd like to allow DIO read for zoned device which will be
> > used for Android devices.
> > 
> 
> So if the zoned device feature becomes widely adopted, then STATX_DIOALIGN will
> be useless on all Android devices?  That sounds undesirable. 

Do you have a plan to adopt STATX_DIOALIGN in android?

> Are you sure that
> supporting DIO reads but not DIO writes actually works?  Does it not cause
> problems for existing applications?

I haven't heard any issue so far.

> 
> What we need to do is make a decision about whether this means we should build
> in a stx_dio_direction field (indicating no support / readonly support /
> writeonly support / readwrite support) into the API from the beginning.  If we
> don't do that, then I don't think we could simply add such a field later, as the
> statx_dio_*_align fields will have already been assigned their meaning.  I think
> we'd instead have to "duplicate" the API, with STATX_DIOROALIGN and
> statx_dio_ro_*_align fields.  That seems uglier than building a directional
> indicator into the API from the beginning.  On the other hand, requiring all
> programs to check stx_dio_direction would add complexity to using the API.
> 
> Any thoughts on this?

I haven't seen the details of the implementation tho, why not supporting it
only if filesystem has the same DIO RW policy?

> 
> - Eric

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