Re: copy on write for splice() from file to pipe?

Jens Axboe
2023-02-10T20:50:19Z

On 2/10/23 1:44 PM, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 12:39 PM Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk> wrote:
>>
>> Right, I'm referencing doing zerocopy data sends with io_uring, using
>> IORING_OP_SEND_ZC. This isn't from a file, it's from a memory location,
>> but the important bit here is the split notifications and how you
>> could wire up a OP_SENDFILE similarly to what Andy described.
>
> Sure, I think it's much more reasonable with io_uring than with splice itself.
>
> So I was mainly just reacting to the "strict-splice" thing where Andy
> was talking about tracking the page refcounts. I don't think anything
> like that can be done at a splice() level, but higher levels that
> actually know about the whole IO might be able to do something like
> that.
>
> Maybe we're just talking past each other.

Maybe slightly, as I was not really intending to comment on the strict
splice thing. But yeah I agree on splice, it would not be trivial to do
there. At least with io_uring we have the communication channel we need.
And tracking page refcounts seems iffy and fraught with potential
issues.

--
Jens Axboe