Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2010 21:31:49 -0700
From: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
To: Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de>
Cc: Dave Chinner <david@fromorbit.com>, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org,
       linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, John Stultz <johnstul@us.ibm.com>,
       Frank Mayhar <fmayhar@google.com>
Subject: Re: [patch 29/52] fs: icache lock i_count
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On Sat, 3 Jul 2010 13:41:23 +1000 Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de> wrote:

> On Fri, Jul 02, 2010 at 07:03:55PM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> > On Wed, 30 Jun 2010 22:05:02 +1000 Nick Piggin <npiggin@suse.de> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 05:27:02PM +1000, Dave Chinner wrote:
> > > > On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 01:02:41PM +1000, npiggin@suse.de wrote:
> > > > > Protect inode->i_count with i_lock, rather than having it atomic.
> > > > > Next step should also be to move things together (eg. the refcount increment
> > > > > into d_instantiate, which will remove a lock/unlock cycle on i_lock).
> > > > .....
> > > > > Index: linux-2.6/fs/inode.c
> > > > > ===================================================================
> > > > > --- linux-2.6.orig/fs/inode.c
> > > > > +++ linux-2.6/fs/inode.c
> > > > > @@ -33,14 +33,13 @@
> > > > >   * inode_hash_lock protects:
> > > > >   *   inode hash table, i_hash
> > > > >   * inode->i_lock protects:
> > > > > - *   i_state
> > > > > + *   i_state, i_count
> > > > >   *
> > > > >   * Ordering:
> > > > >   * inode_lock
> > > > >   *   sb_inode_list_lock
> > > > >   *     inode->i_lock
> > > > > - * inode_lock
> > > > > - *   inode_hash_lock
> > > > > + *       inode_hash_lock
> > > > >   */
> > > > 
> > > > I thought that the rule governing the use of inode->i_lock was that
> > > > it can be used anywhere as long as it is the innermost lock.
> > > > 
> > > > Hmmm, no references in the code or documentation. Google gives a
> > > > pretty good reference:
> > > > 
> > > > http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org/msg02584.html
> > > > 
> > > > Perhaps a different/new lock needs to be used here?
> > > 
> > > Well I just changed the order (and documented it to boot :)). It's
> > > pretty easy to verify that LOR is no problem. inode hash is only
> > > taken in a very few places so other code outside inode.c is fine to
> > > use i_lock as an innermost lock.
> > 
> > um, nesting a kernel-wide singleton lock inside a per-inode lock is
> > plain nutty.
> 
> I think it worked out OK. Because the kernel-wide locks are really
> restricted in where they are to be used (ie. not in filesystems). So
> they're really pretty constrained to the inode management subsystem.
> So filesystems still get to really use i_lock as an inner most lock
> for their purposes.
> 
> And filesystems get to take i_lock and stop all manipulation of inode
> now.  No changing of flags, moving it on/off lists etc behind its back.
> It really is about locking the data rather than the code.
> 
> The final ordering outcome looks like this:
> 
>  * inode->i_lock
>  *   inode_list_lglock
>  *   zone->inode_lru_lock
>  *   wb->b_lock
>  *   inode_hash_bucket lock

Apart from the conceptual vandalism, it means that any contention times
and cache transfer times on those singleton locks will increase
worst-case hold times of our nice, fine-grained i_lock.  

> And it works like that because when you want to add or remove an inode
> from various data structures, you take the i_lock

Well that would be wrong.  i_lock protects things *within* its inode. 
It's nonsensical to take i_lock when the inode is being added to or
removed from external containers because i_lock doesn't protect those
containers!

> and then take each
> of these locks in turn, inside it. The alternative is to build a bigger
> lock ordering graph, and take all the locks up-front before taking
> i_lock. I did actaully try that and it ended up being worse, so I went
> this route.
> 
> I think taking a global lock in mark_inode_dirty is nutty (especially
> when that global lock is shared with hash management, LRU scanning,
> writeback, i_flags access... :) It's just a question of which is less
> nutty.

Yes, inode_lock is bad news.
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