linux-kernel - [PATCH -next v2 03/22] ext4: only order data when partially block truncating down

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Message-ID: <20260203062523.3869120-4-yi.zhang@huawei.com>
Date: Tue,  3 Feb 2026 14:25:03 +0800
From: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@...wei.com>
To: linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org
Cc: linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	tytso@....edu,
	adilger.kernel@...ger.ca,
	jack@...e.cz,
	ojaswin@...ux.ibm.com,
	ritesh.list@...il.com,
	hch@...radead.org,
	djwong@...nel.org,
	yi.zhang@...wei.com,
	yi.zhang@...weicloud.com,
	yizhang089@...il.com,
	libaokun1@...wei.com,
	yangerkun@...wei.com,
	yukuai@...as.com
Subject: [PATCH -next v2 03/22] ext4: only order data when partially block truncating down

Currently, __ext4_block_zero_page_range() is called in the following
four cases to zero out the data in partial blocks:

1. Truncate down.
2. Truncate up.
3. Perform block allocation (e.g., fallocate) or append writes across a
   range extending beyond the end of the file (EOF).
4. Partial block punch hole.

If the default ordered data mode is used, __ext4_block_zero_page_range()
will write back the zeroed data to the disk through the order mode after
zeroing out.

Among the cases 1,2 and 3 described above, only case 1 actually requires
this ordered write. Assuming no one intentionally bypasses the file
system to write directly to the disk. When performing a truncate down
operation, ensuring that the data beyond the EOF is zeroed out before
updating i_disksize is sufficient to prevent old data from being exposed
when the file is later extended. In other words, as long as the on-disk
data in case 1 can be properly zeroed out, only the data in memory needs
to be zeroed out in cases 2 and 3, without requiring ordered data.

Case 4 does not require ordered data because the entire punch hole
operation does not provide atomicity guarantees. Therefore, it's safe to
move the ordered data operation from __ext4_block_zero_page_range() to
ext4_truncate().

It should be noted that after this change, we can only determine whether
to perform ordered data operations based on whether the target block has
been zeroed, rather than on the state of the buffer head. Consequently,
unnecessary ordered data operations may occur when truncating an
unwritten dirty block. However, this scenario is relatively rare, so the
overall impact is minimal.

This is prepared for the conversion to the iomap infrastructure since it
doesn't use ordered data mode and requires active writeback, which
reduces the complexity of the conversion.

Signed-off-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@...wei.com>
---
 fs/ext4/inode.c | 32 +++++++++++++++++++-------------
 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 13 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/ext4/inode.c b/fs/ext4/inode.c
index f856ea015263..20b60abcf777 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
@@ -4106,19 +4106,10 @@ static int __ext4_block_zero_page_range(handle_t *handle,
 	folio_zero_range(folio, offset, length);
 	BUFFER_TRACE(bh, "zeroed end of block");

-	if (ext4_should_journal_data(inode)) {
+	if (ext4_should_journal_data(inode))
 		err = ext4_dirty_journalled_data(handle, bh);
-	} else {
+	else
 		mark_buffer_dirty(bh);
-		/*
-		 * Only the written block requires ordered data to prevent
-		 * exposing stale data.
-		 */
-		if (!buffer_unwritten(bh) && !buffer_delay(bh) &&
-		    ext4_should_order_data(inode))
-			err = ext4_jbd2_inode_add_write(handle, inode, from,
-					length);
-	}
 	if (!err && did_zero)
 		*did_zero = true;

@@ -4578,8 +4569,23 @@ int ext4_truncate(struct inode *inode)
 		goto out_trace;
 	}

-	if (inode->i_size & (inode->i_sb->s_blocksize - 1))
-		ext4_block_truncate_page(handle, mapping, inode->i_size);
+	if (inode->i_size & (inode->i_sb->s_blocksize - 1)) {
+		unsigned int zero_len;
+
+		zero_len = ext4_block_truncate_page(handle, mapping,
+						    inode->i_size);
+		if (zero_len < 0) {
+			err = zero_len;
+			goto out_stop;
+		}
+		if (zero_len && !IS_DAX(inode) &&
+		    ext4_should_order_data(inode)) {
+			err = ext4_jbd2_inode_add_write(handle, inode,
+					inode->i_size, zero_len);
+			if (err)
+				goto out_stop;
+		}
+	}

 	/*
 	 * We add the inode to the orphan list, so that if this
-- 
2.52.0