From: Dave Chinner Subject: Re: Files full of zeros with coreutils-8.11 and xfs (FIEMAP related?) Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:45:38 +1000 Message-ID: <20110419074538.GG23985@dastard> References: <20110415000940.GL21395@dastard> <76FFF648-CA02-494B-A862-566C66A8CB82@dilger.ca> <20110416005040.GP21395@dastard> <4EEEA16E-1FDB-4430-A372-8F8701196E4C@mit.edu> <20110418004040.GS21395@dastard> <6C89E159-A5F6-4A06-A3D2-273BE4CFB9B5@dilger.ca> <20110419034455.GB23985@dastard> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Cc: Andreas Dilger , Theodore Tso , Eric Sandeen , xfs-oss , "coreutils@gnu.org" , "linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org" , =?iso-8859-1?Q?P=E1draig?= Brady , Markus Trippelsdorf To: Yongqiang Yang Return-path: Received: from ipmail06.adl6.internode.on.net ([150.101.137.145]:53521 "EHLO ipmail06.adl6.internode.on.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751911Ab1DSHpv (ORCPT ); Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:45:51 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-ext4-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 02:53:20PM +0800, Yongqiang Yang wrote: > On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Dave Chinner = wrote: > > On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 09:58:15AM +0800, Yongqiang Yang wrote: > >> On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 10:45 AM, Andreas Dilger wrote: > >> > On 2011-04-17, at 6:40 PM, Dave Chinner wr= ote: > >> > > >> > On Sat, Apr 16, 2011 at 08:21:28AM -0400, Theodore Tso wrote: > >> > > >> > On Apr 16, 2011, at 1:11 AM, Andreas Dilger wrote: > >> > > >> > In that case, it means cp should just always use FIEMAP_FLAG_SYN= C, which is > >> > fine. > >> > > >> > Except that if someone is copying a large delay allocated file, = it will > >> > cause > >> > > >> > the file to immediately snapped to disk, which might not be the = greatest > >> > > >> > thing in the world. > >> > > >> > Obvious workaround - if the initial fiemap call shows unwritten > >> > extents, redo it with the sync flag set. Though that assume=D1=95= that > >> > you can trust things like delalloc extents to only cover the ran= ge > >> > that valid data exists in. Which, of course, you can't assume, > >> > either. :/ > >> > > >> > Always passing=C2=A0FIEMAP_FLAG_SYNC is fine in this case. It sh= ould only do > >> > anything if there is unwritten data, which is the only case we a= re concerned > >> > with at this point. =C2=A0In any case, this is a simple solution= for coreutils > >> > until such a time that a more complex solution is added in the k= ernel (if > >> > ever). > >> > > >> > Christoph is write, SEEK_HOLE and SEEK_DATA are > >> > > >> > a much better API for what cp woulld lke to do. =C2=A0Unfortunat= ely it hasn't > >> > > >> > been implemented yet in the VFS... > >> > > >> > Agreed, SEEK_HOLE/SEEK_DATA is the right way to solve this probl= em. > >> > > >> > I don't see how this will change the problem in any meaningful w= ay. There > >> > will still need to be code that is traversing the on-disk mappin= g, and also > >> > keeping it coherent with unwritten data in the page cache. > >> > >> It seems that we are being messed up by page cache and disk. > >> Unwritten flag returned from FIEMAP indicates blocks on disk are n= ot > >> written, but it does not say if there is data in page cache. =C2=A0= So > >> FIEMAP itself just tells user the map on disk. =C2=A0However there= is an > >> exception for delayed allocation, =C2=A0FIEMAP tells users the dat= a is in > >> page cache. > > > > No, FIEMAP does not tell the user there is data in the page cache. > > It tells there user there is a delayed allocation extent. For XFS, = a > > delayed allocation extent can cover a range _greater_ than there is > > data in the page cache - we do allocation allignment, speculative > > allocation and other tricks to avoid fragmentation via > > delayed allocation. When XFSs says there is a delalloc extent, it i= s > > simply showing the in-memory representation of the extent. if you > > want to know where the data in the page cache actually is, you need > > to sync the file to disk to get those ranges converted to real > > extents. This is how xfs_bmap has worked for 15 years.... > > > >> Maybe FIEMAP should return all known messages for unwritten extent= , if > >> unwritten data exists in page cache, FIEMAP should let users know = that > >> data is in page cache and space on disk has been preallocated, but > >> data has not been flushed into disk. =C2=A0Actually, delayed alloc= ation has > >> done like this. Then user-space applications can determine how to = do. > >> Taking cp as an example, it will copy from page cache rather ignor= e > >> it. > > > > Once again, FIEMAP is for showing the filesystem's current extent > > state, not the page cache state. Ext4 may implement FIEMAP by doing > > page cache walks, but that is a filesystem specific implementation > > detail. > > > >> We need a definite definition for FIEMAP, in other words, it tells > >> users map on disk or both disk and page cache. > > > > We already have a definition - and it has nothing to do with the > > page cache state. > > > >> If the former one is taken, then FIEMAP should not consider > >> delayed allocation. > > > > Not at all. the delayed allocation extent is a first class extent > > type in XFS and it is reported directly from the extent list. Your > > viewpoint is very ext4-specific and ignores the fact that other > > filesystems were doing this sort of mapping long before even ext3 > > (let alone ext4) was a glint in the designer's eye.... > > > >> otherwise, FIEMAP should return all known messages for unwritten c= ase > >> like delayed allocation. > > > > See my previous comments about extents being unwritten until data i= s > > physically written to them. > Understood, thank you for your explanation. >=20 > Ok. Let's look at it from a higher view. What you described about > extent state is specific to xfs. >=20 > I think there are 2 ways to provide a definite definition for FIEMAP > for all filesystems: >=20 > 1. FIEMAP returns extent state on disk. > 2. FIEMAP returns extent both in memory and on disk. You are *not listening*. There is no #2. FIEMAP returns the extent state _on disk_ at the time of the call. If you want it to reflect the in-memory state at the time of the call (for data or metadata), you *must* use the the SYNC flag to convert that in-memory state to on-disk state, which FIEMAP then reports just fine. Cheers, Dave. --=20 Dave Chinner david@fromorbit.com -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ext4" i= n the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html