linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v7 0/8] iov_iter: Improve page extraction (ref, pin or just list)

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Date:   Mon, 23 Jan 2023 16:38:47 +0000
From:   David Howells <dhowells@...hat.com>
To:     Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org>
Cc:     dhowells@...hat.com, John Hubbard <jhubbard@...dia.com>,
        Al Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
        Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
        Jens Axboe <axboe@...nel.dk>, Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>,
        Jeff Layton <jlayton@...nel.org>,
        Logan Gunthorpe <logang@...tatee.com>,
        linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, linux-block@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH v7 0/8] iov_iter: Improve page extraction (ref, pin or just list)

Matthew Wilcox <willy@...radead.org> wrote:

> Why do we want to track that information on a per-page basis?  Wouldn't it
> be easier to have a VM_NOCOW flag in vma->vm_flags?  Set it the first
> time somebody does an O_DIRECT read or RDMA pin.  That's it.  Pages in
> that VMA will now never be COWed, regardless of their refcount/mapcount.
> And the whole "did we pin or get this page" problem goes away.  Along
> with folio->pincount.

Wouldn't that potentially make someone's entire malloc() heap entirely NOCOW
if they did a single DIO to/from it.

Also you only mention DIO read - but what about "start DIO write; fork(); touch
buffer" in the parent - now the write buffer belongs to the child and they can
affect the parent's write.

David