linux-kernel - [PATCH v2] fs: avoid calls to legitimize

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Message-ID: <20251110100503.1434167-1-mjguzik@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2025 11:05:03 +0100
From: Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@...il.com>
To: viro@...iv.linux.org.uk
Cc: brauner@...nel.org,
	jack@...e.cz,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
	Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@...il.com>
Subject: [PATCH v2] fs: avoid calls to legitimize_links() if possible

The routine is always called towards the end of lookup.

According to bpftrace on my boxen and boxen of people I asked, the depth
count is almost always 0, thus the call can be avoided in the common case.

one-liner:
bpftrace -e 'kprobe:legitimize_links { @[((struct nameidata *)arg0)->depth] = count(); }'

sample results from few minutes of tracing:
@[1]: 59
@[0]: 147236

@[2]: 1
@[1]: 12087
@[0]: 5926235

And of course the venerable kernel build:
@[1]: 3563
@[0]: 6625425

Signed-off-by: Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@...il.com>
---

v2:
- drop 'noinline'
- spell out the check at call sites

verified no change in asm

 fs/namei.c | 4 ++--
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/namei.c b/fs/namei.c
index 2a112b2c0951..0de0344a2ab2 100644
--- a/fs/namei.c
+++ b/fs/namei.c
@@ -882,7 +882,7 @@ static bool try_to_unlazy(struct nameidata *nd)
 
 	BUG_ON(!(nd->flags & LOOKUP_RCU));
 
-	if (unlikely(!legitimize_links(nd)))
+	if (unlikely(nd->depth && !legitimize_links(nd)))
 		goto out1;
 	if (unlikely(!legitimize_path(nd, &nd->path, nd->seq)))
 		goto out;
@@ -917,7 +917,7 @@ static bool try_to_unlazy_next(struct nameidata *nd, struct dentry *dentry)
 	int res;
 	BUG_ON(!(nd->flags & LOOKUP_RCU));
 
-	if (unlikely(!legitimize_links(nd)))
+	if (unlikely(nd->depth && !legitimize_links(nd)))
 		goto out2;
 	res = __legitimize_mnt(nd->path.mnt, nd->m_seq);
 	if (unlikely(res)) {
-- 
2.48.1