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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt | 177 |
1 files changed, 2 insertions, 175 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt index 821090946a1..ee4c0a8b8db 100644 --- a/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/vfs.txt @@ -721,181 +721,8 @@ manipulate dentries: and the dentry is returned. The caller must use d_put() to free the dentry when it finishes using it. - -RCU-based dcache locking model ------------------------------- - -On many workloads, the most common operation on dcache is -to look up a dentry, given a parent dentry and the name -of the child. Typically, for every open(), stat() etc., -the dentry corresponding to the pathname will be looked -up by walking the tree starting with the first component -of the pathname and using that dentry along with the next -component to look up the next level and so on. Since it -is a frequent operation for workloads like multiuser -environments and web servers, it is important to optimize -this path. - -Prior to 2.5.10, dcache_lock was acquired in d_lookup and thus -in every component during path look-up. Since 2.5.10 onwards, -fast-walk algorithm changed this by holding the dcache_lock -at the beginning and walking as many cached path component -dentries as possible. This significantly decreases the number -of acquisition of dcache_lock. However it also increases the -lock hold time significantly and affects performance in large -SMP machines. Since 2.5.62 kernel, dcache has been using -a new locking model that uses RCU to make dcache look-up -lock-free. - -The current dcache locking model is not very different from the existing -dcache locking model. Prior to 2.5.62 kernel, dcache_lock -protected the hash chain, d_child, d_alias, d_lru lists as well -as d_inode and several other things like mount look-up. RCU-based -changes affect only the way the hash chain is protected. For everything -else the dcache_lock must be taken for both traversing as well as -updating. The hash chain updates too take the dcache_lock. -The significant change is the way d_lookup traverses the hash chain, -it doesn't acquire the dcache_lock for this and rely on RCU to -ensure that the dentry has not been *freed*. - - -Dcache locking details ----------------------- - -For many multi-user workloads, open() and stat() on files are -very frequently occurring operations. Both involve walking -of path names to find the dentry corresponding to the -concerned file. In 2.4 kernel, dcache_lock was held -during look-up of each path component. Contention and -cache-line bouncing of this global lock caused significant -scalability problems. With the introduction of RCU -in Linux kernel, this was worked around by making -the look-up of path components during path walking lock-free. - - -Safe lock-free look-up of dcache hash table -=========================================== - -Dcache is a complex data structure with the hash table entries -also linked together in other lists. In 2.4 kernel, dcache_lock -protected all the lists. We applied RCU only on hash chain -walking. The rest of the lists are still protected by dcache_lock. -Some of the important changes are : - -1. The deletion from hash chain is done using hlist_del_rcu() macro which - doesn't initialize next pointer of the deleted dentry and this - allows us to walk safely lock-free while a deletion is happening. - -2. Insertion of a dentry into the hash table is done using - hlist_add_head_rcu() which take care of ordering the writes - - the writes to the dentry must be visible before the dentry - is inserted. This works in conjunction with hlist_for_each_rcu() - while walking the hash chain. The only requirement is that - all initialization to the dentry must be done before hlist_add_head_rcu() - since we don't have dcache_lock protection while traversing - the hash chain. This isn't different from the existing code. - -3. The dentry looked up without holding dcache_lock by cannot be - returned for walking if it is unhashed. It then may have a NULL - d_inode or other bogosity since RCU doesn't protect the other - fields in the dentry. We therefore use a flag DCACHE_UNHASHED to - indicate unhashed dentries and use this in conjunction with a - per-dentry lock (d_lock). Once looked up without the dcache_lock, - we acquire the per-dentry lock (d_lock) and check if the - dentry is unhashed. If so, the look-up is failed. If not, the - reference count of the dentry is increased and the dentry is returned. - -4. Once a dentry is looked up, it must be ensured during the path - walk for that component it doesn't go away. In pre-2.5.10 code, - this was done holding a reference to the dentry. dcache_rcu does - the same. In some sense, dcache_rcu path walking looks like - the pre-2.5.10 version. - -5. All dentry hash chain updates must take the dcache_lock as well as - the per-dentry lock in that order. dput() does this to ensure - that a dentry that has just been looked up in another CPU - doesn't get deleted before dget() can be done on it. - -6. There are several ways to do reference counting of RCU protected - objects. One such example is in ipv4 route cache where - deferred freeing (using call_rcu()) is done as soon as - the reference count goes to zero. This cannot be done in - the case of dentries because tearing down of dentries - require blocking (dentry_iput()) which isn't supported from - RCU callbacks. Instead, tearing down of dentries happen - synchronously in dput(), but actual freeing happens later - when RCU grace period is over. This allows safe lock-free - walking of the hash chains, but a matched dentry may have - been partially torn down. The checking of DCACHE_UNHASHED - flag with d_lock held detects such dentries and prevents - them from being returned from look-up. - - -Maintaining POSIX rename semantics -================================== - -Since look-up of dentries is lock-free, it can race against -a concurrent rename operation. For example, during rename -of file A to B, look-up of either A or B must succeed. -So, if look-up of B happens after A has been removed from the -hash chain but not added to the new hash chain, it may fail. -Also, a comparison while the name is being written concurrently -by a rename may result in false positive matches violating -rename semantics. Issues related to race with rename are -handled as described below : - -1. Look-up can be done in two ways - d_lookup() which is safe - from simultaneous renames and __d_lookup() which is not. - If __d_lookup() fails, it must be followed up by a d_lookup() - to correctly determine whether a dentry is in the hash table - or not. d_lookup() protects look-ups using a sequence - lock (rename_lock). - -2. The name associated with a dentry (d_name) may be changed if - a rename is allowed to happen simultaneously. To avoid memcmp() - in __d_lookup() go out of bounds due to a rename and false - positive comparison, the name comparison is done while holding the - per-dentry lock. This prevents concurrent renames during this - operation. - -3. Hash table walking during look-up may move to a different bucket as - the current dentry is moved to a different bucket due to rename. - But we use hlists in dcache hash table and they are null-terminated. - So, even if a dentry moves to a different bucket, hash chain - walk will terminate. [with a list_head list, it may not since - termination is when the list_head in the original bucket is reached]. - Since we redo the d_parent check and compare name while holding - d_lock, lock-free look-up will not race against d_move(). - -4. There can be a theoretical race when a dentry keeps coming back - to original bucket due to double moves. Due to this look-up may - consider that it has never moved and can end up in a infinite loop. - But this is not any worse that theoretical livelocks we already - have in the kernel. - - -Important guidelines for filesystem developers related to dcache_rcu -==================================================================== - -1. Existing dcache interfaces (pre-2.5.62) exported to filesystem - don't change. Only dcache internal implementation changes. However - filesystems *must not* delete from the dentry hash chains directly - using the list macros like allowed earlier. They must use dcache - APIs like d_drop() or __d_drop() depending on the situation. - -2. d_flags is now protected by a per-dentry lock (d_lock). All - access to d_flags must be protected by it. - -3. For a hashed dentry, checking of d_count needs to be protected - by d_lock. - - -Papers and other documentation on dcache locking -================================================ - -1. Scaling dcache with RCU (http://linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7124). - -2. http://lse.sourceforge.net/locking/dcache/dcache.html +For further information on dentry locking, please refer to the document +Documentation/filesystems/dentry-locking.txt. Resources |