Re: [PATCH v2 17/54] fs: remove the inode from the LRU list on unlink/rmdir

[Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>]

On Tue, Aug 26, 2025 at 11:39:17AM -0400, Josef Bacik wrote:
> We can end up with an inode on the LRU list or the cached list, then at
> some point in the future go to unlink that inode and then still have an
> elevated i_count reference for that inode because it is on one of these
> lists.
> 
> The more common case is the cached list. We open a file, write to it,
> truncate some of it which triggers the inode_add_lru code in the
> pagecache, adding it to the cached LRU.  Then we unlink this inode, and
> it exists until writeback or reclaim kicks in and removes the inode.
> 
> To handle this case, delete the inode from the LRU list when it is
> unlinked, so we have the best case scenario for immediately freeing the
> inode.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Josef Bacik <josef@toxicpanda.com>
> ---
>  fs/namei.c | 30 +++++++++++++++++++++++++-----
>  1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/namei.c b/fs/namei.c
> index 138a693c2346..e56dcb5747e4 100644
> --- a/fs/namei.c
> +++ b/fs/namei.c
> @@ -4438,6 +4438,7 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE2(mkdir, const char __user *, pathname, umode_t, mode)
>  int vfs_rmdir(struct mnt_idmap *idmap, struct inode *dir,
>  		     struct dentry *dentry)
>  {
> +	struct inode *inode = dentry->d_inode;
>  	int error = may_delete(idmap, dir, dentry, 1);
>  
>  	if (error)
> @@ -4447,11 +4448,11 @@ int vfs_rmdir(struct mnt_idmap *idmap, struct inode *dir,
>  		return -EPERM;
>  
>  	dget(dentry);
> -	inode_lock(dentry->d_inode);
> +	inode_lock(inode);
>  
>  	error = -EBUSY;
>  	if (is_local_mountpoint(dentry) ||
> -	    (dentry->d_inode->i_flags & S_KERNEL_FILE))
> +	    (inode->i_flags & S_KERNEL_FILE))
>  		goto out;
>  
>  	error = security_inode_rmdir(dir, dentry);
> @@ -4463,12 +4464,21 @@ int vfs_rmdir(struct mnt_idmap *idmap, struct inode *dir,
>  		goto out;
>  
>  	shrink_dcache_parent(dentry);
> -	dentry->d_inode->i_flags |= S_DEAD;
> +	inode->i_flags |= S_DEAD;
>  	dont_mount(dentry);
>  	detach_mounts(dentry);
>  
>  out:
> -	inode_unlock(dentry->d_inode);
> +	/*
> +	 * The inode may be on the LRU list, so delete it from the LRU at this
> +	 * point in order to make sure that the inode is freed as soon as
> +	 * possible.
> +	 */
> +	spin_lock(&inode->i_lock);
> +	inode_lru_list_del(inode);
> +	spin_unlock(&inode->i_lock);
> +
> +	inode_unlock(inode);
>  	dput(dentry);
>  	if (!error)
>  		d_delete_notify(dir, dentry);
> @@ -4653,8 +4663,18 @@ int do_unlinkat(int dfd, struct filename *name)
>  		dput(dentry);

Why are you doing that in do_unlinkat() instead of vfs_unlink() (as
you're doing it in vfs_rmdir() and not do_rmdir())?

Doing it in do_unlinkat() means any stacking filesystem such as
overlayfs will end up skipping the LRU list removal as they use
vfs_unlink() directly.

And does btrfs subvolume/snapshot deletion special treatment as well for
this as it's semantically equivalent to an rmdir?

>  	}
>  	inode_unlock(path.dentry->d_inode);
> -	if (inode)
> +	if (inode) {
> +		/*
> +		 * The LRU may be holding a reference, remove the inode from the
> +		 * LRU here before dropping our hopefully final reference on the
> +		 * inode.
> +		 */
> +		spin_lock(&inode->i_lock);
> +		inode_lru_list_del(inode);
> +		spin_unlock(&inode->i_lock);
> +
>  		iput(inode);	/* truncate the inode here */
> +	}
>  	inode = NULL;
>  	if (delegated_inode) {
>  		error = break_deleg_wait(&delegated_inode);
> -- 
> 2.49.0
>