Re: [PATCH] block: fix residual byte count handling

[FUJITA Tomonori <tomof@acm.org>]

On Mon, 03 Mar 2008 18:21:13 +0900
Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com> wrote:

> FUJITA Tomonori wrote:
> >>> I can't see what changing the meaning of rq->data_len (and
> >>> investigating all the block drivers) gives us.
> >> No matter which way you go, you change the meaning of rq->data_len and
> >> you MUST inspect rq->data_len usage whichever way you go.
> > 
> > The patch doens't change that rq->data_len means the true data
> > length. But yeah, it breaks rq->data_len == sum(sg). So it might break
> > some drivers.
> 
> Yeah, that's what I was saying.  You end up breaking one of the two
> assumptions.  As sglist is getting modified for any driver if it has DMA
> alignment set, whether rq->data_len is adjusted together or not, sglist
> and data_len usages have to be audited.

My patch (well, James' original approach) doesn't affect drivers that
don't use drain buffer. rq->data_len still means the true data length
and rq->data_len is equal to sum(sg) for them. So right now we need to
audit only libata.

But your patch changes the meaning of rq->data_len. It affects all the
drivers. So it breaks non libata stuff, like the SMP handler. We need
to audit all the drivers.