Re: [RFC PATCH 0/5] BLOG: per-task logging contexts with Ceph consumer

[David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>]

On 24.10.25 10:42, Alex Markuze wrote:
> Motivation: improve observability in production by providing subsystemsawith
> a logger that keeps up with their verbouse unstructured logs and aggregating
> logs at the process context level, akin to userspace TLS.
> 
> Binary LOGging (BLOG) introduces a task-local logging context: each context
> owns a single 512 KiB fragment that cycles through “ready → in use → queued for
> readers → reset → ready” without re-entering the allocator. Writers copy the
> raw parameters they already have; readers format them later when the log is
> inspected.
> 
> BLOG borrows ideas from ftrace (captureabinary  data now, format later) but
> unlike ftrace there is no global ring. Each module registers its own logger,
> manages its own buffers, and keeps the state small enough for production use.
> 
> To host the per-module pointers we extend `struct task_struct` with one
> additional `void *`, in line with other task extensions already in the kernel.
> Each module keeps independent batches: `alloc_batch` for contexts with
> refcount 0 and `log_batch` for contexts that have been filled and are waiting
> for readers. The batching layer and buffer management were migrated from the
> existing Ceph SAN logging code, so the behaviour is battle-tested; we simply
> made the buffer inline so every composite stays within a single 512 KiB
> allocation.
> 
> The patch series lands the BLOG library first, then wires the task lifecycle,
> and finally switches Ceph’s `bout*` logging macros to BLOG so we exercise the
> new path.
> 
> Patch summary:
>    1. sched, fork: wire BLOG contexts into task lifecycle
>       - Adds `struct blog_tls_ctx *blog_contexts[BLOG_MAX_MODULES]` to
>         `struct task_struct`.
>       - Fork/exit paths initialise and recycle contexts automatically.
> 
>    2. lib: introduce BLOG (Binary LOGging) subsystem
>       - Adds `lib/blog/` sources and headers under `include/linux/blog/`.
>       - Each composite (`struct blog_tls_pagefrag`) consists of the TLS
>         metadata, the pagefrag state, and an inline buffer sized at
>         `BLOG_PAGEFRAG_SIZE - sizeof(struct blog_tls_pagefrag)`.
> 
>    3. ceph: add BLOG scaffolding
>       - Introduces `include/linux/ceph/ceph_blog.h` and `fs/ceph/blog_client.c`.
>       - Ceph registers a logger and maintains a client-ID map for the reader
>         callback.
> 
>    4. ceph: add BLOG debugfs support
>       - Adds `fs/ceph/blog_debugfs.c` so filled contexts can be drained.
> 
>    5. ceph: activate BLOG logging
>       - Switches `bout*` macros to BLOG, making Ceph the first consumer.

Hi!

You CCed plenty of MM folks, and I am sure most of them observe "this 
doesn't seem to touch any core-mm files" and wonder "what's hiding in 
there that requires a pair of MM eyes".

Is there anything specific we should be looking at (and if so, in which 
patch)?

-- 
Cheers

David / dhildenb