From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Christoph Hellwig Subject: Re: [PATCH v5.1 0/2] create BLKZEROOUT ioctl that invalidates page cache Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2016 01:44:16 -0800 Message-ID: <20160302094416.GA16631@infradead.org> References: <20160302040932.16685.62789.stgit@birch.djwong.org> <1889689.0axyUkdxkf@wuerfel> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1889689.0axyUkdxkf@wuerfel> Sender: linux-api-owner-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org To: Arnd Bergmann Cc: "Darrick J. Wong" , axboe-tSWWG44O7X1aa/9Udqfwiw@public.gmane.org, hch-wEGCiKHe2LqWVfeAwA7xHQ@public.gmane.org, akpm-de/tnXTf+JLsfHDXvbKv3WD2FQJk+8+b@public.gmane.org, torvalds-de/tnXTf+JLsfHDXvbKv3WD2FQJk+8+b@public.gmane.org, martin.petersen-QHcLZuEGTsvQT0dZR+AlfA@public.gmane.org, linux-api-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org, linux-kernel-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org, shane.seymour-ZPxbGqLxI0U@public.gmane.org, bfields-uC3wQj2KruNg9hUCZPvPmw@public.gmane.org, linux-fsdevel-u79uwXL29TY76Z2rM5mHXA@public.gmane.org, jlayton-vpEMnDpepFuMZCB2o+C8xQ@public.gmane.org List-Id: linux-api@vger.kernel.org On Wed, Mar 02, 2016 at 10:15:02AM +0100, Arnd Bergmann wrote: > I'm missing the background on this, just saw the patch fly by, > so sorry if this has been asked before: > > Why do you want to invalidate the cache? Is this to save RAM > or is something else going to write here and you have to invalidate > it for correctness? BLKZEROOUT can be though as a direct I/O operation - it issues a WRITE SAME (or similar) command straight to the device to zero the specified range. If there was cached data for this range it would now be stale.