Re: [External] : [PATCH] ocfs2: retire ocfs2_drop_inode() and I_WILL_FREE usage

[Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>]

On Tue, Sep 09, 2025 at 05:58:21PM +0800, Joseph Qi wrote:
> 
> 
> On 2025/9/9 17:49, Jan Kara wrote:
> > On Tue 09-09-25 09:23:56, Joseph Qi wrote:
> >> On 2025/9/8 21:54, Jan Kara wrote:
> >>> On Mon 08-09-25 20:41:21, Joseph Qi wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On 2025/9/8 18:23, Jan Kara wrote:
> >>>>> On Mon 08-09-25 09:51:36, Joseph Qi wrote:
> >>>>>> On 2025/9/5 00:22, Mateusz Guzik wrote:
> >>>>>>> On Thu, Sep 4, 2025 at 6:15 PM Mark Tinguely <mark.tinguely@oracle.com> wrote:
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> On 9/4/25 10:42 AM, Mateusz Guzik wrote:
> >>>>>>>>> This postpones the writeout to ocfs2_evict_inode(), which I'm told is
> >>>>>>>>> fine (tm).
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> The intent is to retire the I_WILL_FREE flag.
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@gmail.com>
> >>>>>>>>> ---
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> ACHTUNG: only compile-time tested. Need an ocfs2 person to ack it.
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> btw grep shows comments referencing ocfs2_drop_inode() which are already
> >>>>>>>>> stale on the stock kernel, I opted to not touch them.
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> This ties into an effort to remove the I_WILL_FREE flag, unblocking
> >>>>>>>>> other work. If accepted would be probably best taken through vfs
> >>>>>>>>> branches with said work, see https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/vfs/vfs.git/log/?h=vfs-6.18.inode.refcount.preliminaries__;!!ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!OLwk8DVo7uvC-Pd6XVTiUCgP6MUDMKBMEyuV27h_yPGXOjaq078-kMdC9ILFoYQh-4WX93yb0nMfBDFFY_0$
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>   fs/ocfs2/inode.c       | 23 ++---------------------
> >>>>>>>>>   fs/ocfs2/inode.h       |  1 -
> >>>>>>>>>   fs/ocfs2/ocfs2_trace.h |  2 --
> >>>>>>>>>   fs/ocfs2/super.c       |  2 +-
> >>>>>>>>>   4 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/inode.c b/fs/ocfs2/inode.c
> >>>>>>>>> index 6c4f78f473fb..5f4a2cbc505d 100644
> >>>>>>>>> --- a/fs/ocfs2/inode.c
> >>>>>>>>> +++ b/fs/ocfs2/inode.c
> >>>>>>>>> @@ -1290,6 +1290,8 @@ static void ocfs2_clear_inode(struct inode *inode)
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>   void ocfs2_evict_inode(struct inode *inode)
> >>>>>>>>>   {
> >>>>>>>>> +     write_inode_now(inode, 1);
> >>>>>>>>> +
> >>>>>>>>>       if (!inode->i_nlink ||
> >>>>>>>>>           (OCFS2_I(inode)->ip_flags & OCFS2_INODE_MAYBE_ORPHANED)) {
> >>>>>>>>>               ocfs2_delete_inode(inode);
> >>>>>>>>> @@ -1299,27 +1301,6 @@ void ocfs2_evict_inode(struct inode *inode)
> >>>>>>>>>       ocfs2_clear_inode(inode);
> >>>>>>>>>   }
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> -/* Called under inode_lock, with no more references on the
> >>>>>>>>> - * struct inode, so it's safe here to check the flags field
> >>>>>>>>> - * and to manipulate i_nlink without any other locks. */
> >>>>>>>>> -int ocfs2_drop_inode(struct inode *inode)
> >>>>>>>>> -{
> >>>>>>>>> -     struct ocfs2_inode_info *oi = OCFS2_I(inode);
> >>>>>>>>> -
> >>>>>>>>> -     trace_ocfs2_drop_inode((unsigned long long)oi->ip_blkno,
> >>>>>>>>> -                             inode->i_nlink, oi->ip_flags);
> >>>>>>>>> -
> >>>>>>>>> -     assert_spin_locked(&inode->i_lock);
> >>>>>>>>> -     inode->i_state |= I_WILL_FREE;
> >>>>>>>>> -     spin_unlock(&inode->i_lock);
> >>>>>>>>> -     write_inode_now(inode, 1);
> >>>>>>>>> -     spin_lock(&inode->i_lock);
> >>>>>>>>> -     WARN_ON(inode->i_state & I_NEW);
> >>>>>>>>> -     inode->i_state &= ~I_WILL_FREE;
> >>>>>>>>> -
> >>>>>>>>> -     return 1;
> >>>>>>>>> -}
> >>>>>>>>> -
> >>>>>>>>>   /*
> >>>>>>>>>    * This is called from our getattr.
> >>>>>>>>>    */
> >>>>>>>>> diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/inode.h b/fs/ocfs2/inode.h
> >>>>>>>>> index accf03d4765e..07bd838e7843 100644
> >>>>>>>>> --- a/fs/ocfs2/inode.h
> >>>>>>>>> +++ b/fs/ocfs2/inode.h
> >>>>>>>>> @@ -116,7 +116,6 @@ static inline struct ocfs2_caching_info *INODE_CACHE(struct inode *inode)
> >>>>>>>>>   }
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>   void ocfs2_evict_inode(struct inode *inode);
> >>>>>>>>> -int ocfs2_drop_inode(struct inode *inode);
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>   /* Flags for ocfs2_iget() */
> >>>>>>>>>   #define OCFS2_FI_FLAG_SYSFILE               0x1
> >>>>>>>>> diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2_trace.h b/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2_trace.h
> >>>>>>>>> index 54ed1495de9a..4b32fb5658ad 100644
> >>>>>>>>> --- a/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2_trace.h
> >>>>>>>>> +++ b/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2_trace.h
> >>>>>>>>> @@ -1569,8 +1569,6 @@ DEFINE_OCFS2_ULL_ULL_UINT_EVENT(ocfs2_delete_inode);
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>>   DEFINE_OCFS2_ULL_UINT_EVENT(ocfs2_clear_inode);
> >>>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>> -DEFINE_OCFS2_ULL_UINT_UINT_EVENT(ocfs2_drop_inode);
> >>>>>>>>> -
> >>>>>>>>>   TRACE_EVENT(ocfs2_inode_revalidate,
> >>>>>>>>>       TP_PROTO(void *inode, unsigned long long ino,
> >>>>>>>>>                unsigned int flags),
> >>>>>>>>> diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/super.c b/fs/ocfs2/super.c
> >>>>>>>>> index 53daa4482406..e4b0d25f4869 100644
> >>>>>>>>> --- a/fs/ocfs2/super.c
> >>>>>>>>> +++ b/fs/ocfs2/super.c
> >>>>>>>>> @@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ static const struct super_operations ocfs2_sops = {
> >>>>>>>>>       .statfs         = ocfs2_statfs,
> >>>>>>>>>       .alloc_inode    = ocfs2_alloc_inode,
> >>>>>>>>>       .free_inode     = ocfs2_free_inode,
> >>>>>>>>> -     .drop_inode     = ocfs2_drop_inode,
> >>>>>>>>> +     .drop_inode     = generic_delete_inode,
> >>>>>>>>>       .evict_inode    = ocfs2_evict_inode,
> >>>>>>>>>       .sync_fs        = ocfs2_sync_fs,
> >>>>>>>>>       .put_super      = ocfs2_put_super,
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> I agree, fileystems should not use I_FREEING/I_WILL_FREE.
> >>>>>>>> Doing the sync write_inode_now() should be fine in ocfs_evict_inode().
> >>>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>> Question is ocfs_drop_inode. In commit 513e2dae9422:
> >>>>>>>>   ocfs2: flush inode data to disk and free inode when i_count becomes zero
> >>>>>>>> the return of 1 drops immediate to fix a memory caching issue.
> >>>>>>>> Shouldn't .drop_inode() still return 1?
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> generic_delete_inode is a stub doing just that.
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>> In case of "drop = 0", it may return directly without calling evict().
> >>>>>> This seems break the expectation of commit 513e2dae9422.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> generic_delete_inode() always returns 1 so evict() will be called.
> >>>>> ocfs2_drop_inode() always returns 1 as well after 513e2dae9422. So I'm not
> >>>>> sure which case of "drop = 0" do you see...
> >>>>>
> >>>> I don't see a real case, just in theory.
> >>>> As I described before, if we make sure write_inode_now() will be called
> >>>> in iput_final(), it would be fine.
> >>>
> >>> I'm sorry but I still don't quite understand what you are proposing. If
> >>> ->drop() returns 1, the filesystem wants to remove the inode from cache
> >>> (perhaps because it was deleted). Hence iput_final() doesn't bother with
> >>> writing out such inodes. This doesn't work well with ocfs2 wanting to
> >>> always drop inodes hence ocfs2 needs to write the inode itself in
> >>> ocfs2_evice_inode(). Perhaps you have some modification to iput_final() in
> >>> mind but I'm not sure how that would work so can you perhaps suggest a
> >>> patch if you think iput_final() should work differently? Thanks!
> >>>
> >> I'm just discussing if generic_delete_inode() will always returns 1. And
> >> if it is, I'm fine with this change. Sorry for the confusion.
> > 
> > generic_delete_inode() is defined as:
> > 
> > int generic_delete_inode(struct inode *inode)
> > {               
> >         return 1;
> > }
> > 
> > So the return is pretty much guaranteed :). But I agree with Mateusz the
> > function name could be less confusing.
> > 
> Oops, I've mixed it with generic_drop_inode()...

Not that uncommon of a mixup...