2023-01-26 05:20:34

by Huijin Park

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: [PATCH] loop: change fsync to fdatasync when update dio

In general, fsync has a larger overhead than fdatasync. And since the
dio option is for data, it seems like fdatasync is enough.
So this patch changes it to fdatasync which has little load relatively.

Signed-off-by: Huijin Park <[email protected]>

diff --git a/drivers/block/loop.c b/drivers/block/loop.c
index 1518a6423279..6c7ce8be8c0c 100644
--- a/drivers/block/loop.c
+++ b/drivers/block/loop.c
@@ -203,7 +203,7 @@ static void __loop_update_dio(struct loop_device *lo, bool dio)
return;

/* flush dirty pages before changing direct IO */
- vfs_fsync(file, 0);
+ vfs_fsync(file, 1);

/*
* The flag of LO_FLAGS_DIRECT_IO is handled similarly with
--
2.17.1



2023-01-26 05:31:44

by Christoph Hellwig

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH] loop: change fsync to fdatasync when update dio

On Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 02:16:57PM +0900, Huijin Park wrote:
> In general, fsync has a larger overhead than fdatasync. And since the
> dio option is for data, it seems like fdatasync is enough.
> So this patch changes it to fdatasync which has little load relatively.

The only difference is that fsync also syncs the timestamps. So this
change looks correct, but also a bit useless given that buffered to
direct I/O or back changes aren't exactly a fast path.

2023-02-02 18:12:54

by Huijin Park

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH] loop: change fsync to fdatasync when update dio

On Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 2:31 PM Christoph Hellwig <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Jan 26, 2023 at 02:16:57PM +0900, Huijin Park wrote:
> > In general, fsync has a larger overhead than fdatasync. And since the
> > dio option is for data, it seems like fdatasync is enough.
> > So this patch changes it to fdatasync which has little load relatively.
>
> The only difference is that fsync also syncs the timestamps. So this
> change looks correct, but also a bit useless given that buffered to
> direct I/O or back changes aren't exactly a fast path.

Although the difference will be minimal, why I suggested it is because
it can reduce unnecessary metadata i/o (helpful on slow i/o devices),
and using fdatasync looked correct like your opinion.
In some environment cases, loop setup for mount is required when
application is initialized and this change will help.