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[209.132.180.67]) by mx.google.com with ESMTP id y12si5921611plk.174.2019.01.31.19.17.29; Thu, 31 Jan 2019 19:17:44 -0800 (PST) Received-SPF: pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org designates 209.132.180.67 as permitted sender) client-ip=209.132.180.67; Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=pass (google.com: best guess record for domain of linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org designates 209.132.180.67 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1727280AbfBABox (ORCPT + 99 others); Thu, 31 Jan 2019 20:44:53 -0500 Received: from ipmail03.adl2.internode.on.net ([150.101.137.141]:44590 "EHLO ipmail03.adl2.internode.on.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1726425AbfBABox (ORCPT ); Thu, 31 Jan 2019 20:44:53 -0500 Received: from ppp59-167-129-252.static.internode.on.net (HELO dastard) ([59.167.129.252]) by ipmail03.adl2.internode.on.net with ESMTP; 01 Feb 2019 12:14:48 +1030 Received: from dave by dastard with local (Exim 4.80) (envelope-from ) id 1gpNss-0003Sc-JE; Fri, 01 Feb 2019 12:44:46 +1100 Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2019 12:44:46 +1100 From: Dave Chinner To: Michal Hocko Cc: Vlastimil Babka , Andrew Morton , Linus Torvalds , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org, linux-api@vger.kernel.org, Peter Zijlstra , Greg KH , Jann Horn , Jiri Kosina , Dominique Martinet , Andy Lutomirski , Kevin Easton , Matthew Wilcox , Cyril Hrubis , Tejun Heo , "Kirill A . Shutemov" , Daniel Gruss , Jiri Kosina , linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/3] mm/filemap: initiate readahead even if IOCB_NOWAIT is set for the I/O Message-ID: <20190201014446.GU6173@dastard> References: <20190130124420.1834-1-vbabka@suse.cz> <20190130124420.1834-3-vbabka@suse.cz> <20190131095644.GR18811@dhcp22.suse.cz> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20190131095644.GR18811@dhcp22.suse.cz> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 10:56:44AM +0100, Michal Hocko wrote: > [Cc fs-devel] > > On Wed 30-01-19 13:44:19, Vlastimil Babka wrote: > > From: Jiri Kosina > > > > preadv2(RWF_NOWAIT) can be used to open a side-channel to pagecache contents, as > > it reveals metadata about residency of pages in pagecache. > > > > If preadv2(RWF_NOWAIT) returns immediately, it provides a clear "page not > > resident" information, and vice versa. > > > > Close that sidechannel by always initiating readahead on the cache if we > > encounter a cache miss for preadv2(RWF_NOWAIT); with that in place, probing > > the pagecache residency itself will actually populate the cache, making the > > sidechannel useless. > > I guess the current wording doesn't disallow background IO to be > triggered for EAGAIN case. I am not sure whether that breaks clever > applications which try to perform larger IO for those cases though. Actually, it does: RWF_NOWAIT (since Linux 4.14) Do not wait for data which is not immediately available. If this flag is specified, the preadv2() system call will return instantly if it would have to read data from the backing storage or wait for a lock. page_cache_sync_readahead() can block on page allocation, it calls ->readpages() which means there are page locks and filesystem locks in play (e.g. for block mapping), there's potential for blocking on metadata IO (both submission and completion) to read block maps, the data readahead can be submitted for IO so it can get stuck anywhere in the IO path, etc... Basically, it completely subverts the documented behaviour of RWF_NOWAIT. There are applications (like Samba (*)) that are planning to use this to avoid blocking their main processing threads on buffered IO. This change makes RWF_NOWAIT pretty much useless to them - it /was/ the only solution we had for reliably issuing non-blocking IO, with this patch it isn't a viable solution at all. (*) https://github.com/samba-team/samba/commit/6381044c0270a647c20935d22fd23f235d19b328 IOWs, if this change goes through, it needs to be documented as an intentional behavioural bug in the preadv2 manpage so that userspace developers are aware of the new limitations of RWF_NOWAIT and should avoid it like the plague. But worse than that is nobody has bothered to (or ask someone familiar with the code to) do an audit of RWF_NOWAIT usage after I pointed out the behavioural issues. The one person who was engaged and /had done an audit/ got shouted down with so much bullshit they just walked away.... So, I'll invite the incoherent, incandescent O_DIRECT rage flames of Linus to be unleashed again and point out the /other reference/ to IOCB_NOWAIT in mm/filemap.c. That is, in generic_file_read_iter(), in the *generic O_DIRECT read path*: if (iocb->ki_flags & IOCB_DIRECT) { ..... if (iocb->ki_flags & IOCB_NOWAIT) { if (filemap_range_has_page(mapping, iocb->ki_pos, iocb->ki_pos + count - 1)) return -EAGAIN; } else { ..... This page cache probe is about 100 lines of code down from the code that this patch modifies, in it's direct caller. It's not hard to find, I shouldn't have to point it out, nor have to explain how it makes this patch completely irrelevant. > > diff --git a/mm/filemap.c b/mm/filemap.c > > index 9f5e323e883e..7bcdd36e629d 100644 > > --- a/mm/filemap.c > > +++ b/mm/filemap.c > > @@ -2075,8 +2075,6 @@ static ssize_t generic_file_buffered_read(struct kiocb *iocb, > > > > page = find_get_page(mapping, index); > > if (!page) { > > - if (iocb->ki_flags & IOCB_NOWAIT) > > - goto would_block; > > page_cache_sync_readahead(mapping, > > ra, filp, > > index, last_index - index); > > Maybe a stupid question but I am not really familiar with this path but > what exactly does prevent a sync read down page_cache_sync_readahead > path? It's effectively useless as a workaround because you can avoid the readahead IO being issued relatively easily: void page_cache_sync_readahead(struct address_space *mapping, struct file_ra_state *ra, struct file *filp, pgoff_t offset, unsigned long req_size) { /* no read-ahead */ if (!ra->ra_pages) return; if (blk_cgroup_congested()) return; .... IOWs, we just have to issue enough IO to congest the block device (or, even easier, a rate-limited cgroup), and we can still use RWF_NOWAIT to probe the page cache. Or if we can convince ra->ra_pages to be zero (e.g. it's on bdi device with no readahead configured because it's real fast) then it doesn't work there, either. So this a) isn't a robust workaround, b) it breaks documented API semantics and c) isn't the only path to page cache probing via RWF_NOWAIT. It's just a new game of whack-a-mole. Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Chinner david@fromorbit.com