Re: [PATCH 6.12 242/262] ext4: fix checks for orphan inodes

Re: [PATCH 6.12 242/262] ext4: fix checks for orphan inodes

[Jan Kiszka]

On 13.10.25 16:46, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> 6.12-stable review patch.  If anyone has any objections, please let me know.
> 
> ------------------
> 
> From: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
> 
> commit acf943e9768ec9d9be80982ca0ebc4bfd6b7631e upstream.
> 
> When orphan file feature is enabled, inode can be tracked as orphan
> either in the standard orphan list or in the orphan file. The first can
> be tested by checking ei->i_orphan list head, the second is recorded by
> EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE inode state flag. There are several places where
> we want to check whether inode is tracked as orphan and only some of
> them properly check for both possibilities. Luckily the consequences are
> mostly minor, the worst that can happen is that we track an inode as
> orphan although we don't need to and e2fsck then complains (resulting in
> occasional ext4/307 xfstest failures). Fix the problem by introducing a
> helper for checking whether an inode is tracked as orphan and use it in
> appropriate places.
> 
> Fixes: 4a79a98c7b19 ("ext4: Improve scalability of ext4 orphan file handling")
> Cc: stable@kernel.org
> Signed-off-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
> Reviewed-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@huawei.com>
> Message-ID: <20250925123038.20264-2-jack@suse.cz>
> Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
> ---
>  fs/ext4/ext4.h   |   10 ++++++++++
>  fs/ext4/file.c   |    2 +-
>  fs/ext4/inode.c  |    2 +-
>  fs/ext4/orphan.c |    6 +-----
>  fs/ext4/super.c  |    4 ++--
>  5 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
> 
> --- a/fs/ext4/ext4.h
> +++ b/fs/ext4/ext4.h
> @@ -1970,6 +1970,16 @@ static inline bool ext4_verity_in_progre
>  #define NEXT_ORPHAN(inode) EXT4_I(inode)->i_dtime
>  
>  /*
> + * Check whether the inode is tracked as orphan (either in orphan file or
> + * orphan list).
> + */
> +static inline bool ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(struct inode *inode)
> +{
> +	return ext4_test_inode_state(inode, EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE) ||
> +		!list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan);
> +}
> +
> +/*
>   * Codes for operating systems
>   */
>  #define EXT4_OS_LINUX		0
> --- a/fs/ext4/file.c
> +++ b/fs/ext4/file.c
> @@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ static void ext4_inode_extension_cleanup
>  	 * to cleanup the orphan list in ext4_handle_inode_extension(). Do it
>  	 * now.
>  	 */
> -	if (!list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan) && inode->i_nlink) {
> +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode) && inode->i_nlink) {
>  		handle_t *handle = ext4_journal_start(inode, EXT4_HT_INODE, 2);
>  
>  		if (IS_ERR(handle)) {
> --- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
> +++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
> @@ -4330,7 +4330,7 @@ static int ext4_fill_raw_inode(struct in
>  		 * old inodes get re-used with the upper 16 bits of the
>  		 * uid/gid intact.
>  		 */
> -		if (ei->i_dtime && list_empty(&ei->i_orphan)) {
> +		if (ei->i_dtime && !ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode)) {
>  			raw_inode->i_uid_high = 0;
>  			raw_inode->i_gid_high = 0;
>  		} else {
> --- a/fs/ext4/orphan.c
> +++ b/fs/ext4/orphan.c
> @@ -109,11 +109,7 @@ int ext4_orphan_add(handle_t *handle, st
>  
>  	WARN_ON_ONCE(!(inode->i_state & (I_NEW | I_FREEING)) &&
>  		     !inode_is_locked(inode));
> -	/*
> -	 * Inode orphaned in orphan file or in orphan list?
> -	 */
> -	if (ext4_test_inode_state(inode, EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE) ||
> -	    !list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan))
> +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode))
>  		return 0;
>  
>  	/*
> --- a/fs/ext4/super.c
> +++ b/fs/ext4/super.c
> @@ -1461,9 +1461,9 @@ static void ext4_free_in_core_inode(stru
>  
>  static void ext4_destroy_inode(struct inode *inode)
>  {
> -	if (!list_empty(&(EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan))) {
> +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode)) {
>  		ext4_msg(inode->i_sb, KERN_ERR,
> -			 "Inode %lu (%p): orphan list check failed!",
> +			 "Inode %lu (%p): inode tracked as orphan!",
>  			 inode->i_ino, EXT4_I(inode));
>  		print_hex_dump(KERN_INFO, "", DUMP_PREFIX_ADDRESS, 16, 4,
>  				EXT4_I(inode), sizeof(struct ext4_inode_info),
> 
> 

Since this patch, I'm getting "inode tracked as orphan" warnings on ARM 
32-bit boards (not qemu, other archs not tested yet) when rebooting or 
shutting down. The affected partition is used as backing storage for an 
overlayfs (Debian image built from [1]). Still, systemd reports to have 
sucessfully unmounted the partition.

[  OK  ] Stopped systemd-journal-flush.serv…lush Journal to Persistent Storage.
[  OK  ] Unmounted run-lock.mount - Legacy Locks Directory /run/lock.
[  OK  ] Unmounted tmp.mount - Temporary Directory /tmp.
[  OK  ] Stopped target swap.target - Swaps.
         Unmounting var.mount - /var...
[  OK  ] Unmounted var.mount - /var.
[  OK  ] Stopped target local-fs-pre.target…Preparation for Local File Systems.
[  OK  ] Reached target umount.target - Unmount All Filesystems.
[  OK  ] Stopped systemd-remount-fs.service…mount Root and Kernel File Systems.
[  OK  ] Stopped systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev…Create Static Device Nodes in /dev.
[  OK  ] Stopped systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev…ic Device Nodes in /dev gracefully.
[  OK  ] Reached target shutdown.target - System Shutdown.
[  OK  ] Reached target final.target - Late Shutdown Services.
[  OK  ] Finished systemd-poweroff.service - System Power Off.
[  OK  ] Reached target poweroff.target - System Power Off.
[   52.948231] watchdog: watchdog0: watchdog did not stop!
[   53.440970] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p6): Inode 1 (b6b2dba9): inode tracked as orphan!
[   53.449709] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 412 Comm: (sd-umount) Not tainted 6.12.52-00240-gf50bece98c66 #12
[   53.449728] Hardware name: ti TI AM335x BeagleBone Black/TI AM335x BeagleBone Black, BIOS 2025.07 07/01/2025
[   53.449740] Call trace: 
[   53.449757]  unwind_backtrace from show_stack+0x18/0x1c
[   53.449807]  show_stack from dump_stack_lvl+0x68/0x74
[   53.449839]  dump_stack_lvl from ext4_destroy_inode+0x7c/0x10c
[   53.449870]  ext4_destroy_inode from destroy_inode+0x5c/0x70
[   53.449897]  destroy_inode from ext4_mb_release+0xc8/0x268
[   53.449936]  ext4_mb_release from ext4_put_super+0xe4/0x308
[   53.449962]  ext4_put_super from generic_shutdown_super+0x84/0x154
[   53.449996]  generic_shutdown_super from kill_block_super+0x18/0x34
[   53.450023]  kill_block_super from ext4_kill_sb+0x28/0x3c
[   53.450059]  ext4_kill_sb from deactivate_locked_super+0x58/0x90
[   53.450086]  deactivate_locked_super from cleanup_mnt+0x74/0xd0
[   53.450113]  cleanup_mnt from task_work_run+0x88/0xa0
[   53.450136]  task_work_run from do_work_pending+0x394/0x3cc
[   53.450156]  do_work_pending from slow_work_pending+0xc/0x24
[   53.450175] Exception stack(0xe093dfb0 to 0xe093dff8)
[   53.450190] dfa0:                                     00000000 00000009 00000000 00000000
[   53.450205] dfc0: be9e0b2c 004e2aa0 be9e0a20 00000034 be9e0a04 00000000 be9e0a20 00000000
[   53.450218] dfe0: 00000034 be9e095c b6ba609b b6b0f736 00030030 004e2ac0
[   53.730379] reboot: Power down

I'm not getting the warning with the same image but kernels 6.18+ or 
also 6.17.13 (the latter received this as backport as well). I do get 
the warning with 6.1.159 as well, and also when moving up to 6.12.63 
which received further ext4 backports. I didn't test 6.6 or 5.15 so far, 
but I suspect they are equally affected.

Before digging deep into this to me unfamiliar subsystem: Could we miss 
some backport(s) to 6.12 and below that 6.17+ have? Any suggestions to 
try out first?

Jan

[1] https://gitlab.com/cip-project/cip-core/isar-cip-core

-- 
Siemens AG, Foundational Technologies
Linux Expert Center

Re: [PATCH 6.12 242/262] ext4: fix checks for orphan inodes

[Jan Kara]

On Thu 08-01-26 09:19:23, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> On 13.10.25 16:46, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > 6.12-stable review patch.  If anyone has any objections, please let me know.
> > 
> > ------------------
> > 
> > From: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
> > 
> > commit acf943e9768ec9d9be80982ca0ebc4bfd6b7631e upstream.
> > 
> > When orphan file feature is enabled, inode can be tracked as orphan
> > either in the standard orphan list or in the orphan file. The first can
> > be tested by checking ei->i_orphan list head, the second is recorded by
> > EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE inode state flag. There are several places where
> > we want to check whether inode is tracked as orphan and only some of
> > them properly check for both possibilities. Luckily the consequences are
> > mostly minor, the worst that can happen is that we track an inode as
> > orphan although we don't need to and e2fsck then complains (resulting in
> > occasional ext4/307 xfstest failures). Fix the problem by introducing a
> > helper for checking whether an inode is tracked as orphan and use it in
> > appropriate places.
> > 
> > Fixes: 4a79a98c7b19 ("ext4: Improve scalability of ext4 orphan file handling")
> > Cc: stable@kernel.org
> > Signed-off-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
> > Reviewed-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@huawei.com>
> > Message-ID: <20250925123038.20264-2-jack@suse.cz>
> > Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
> > Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
> > ---
> >  fs/ext4/ext4.h   |   10 ++++++++++
> >  fs/ext4/file.c   |    2 +-
> >  fs/ext4/inode.c  |    2 +-
> >  fs/ext4/orphan.c |    6 +-----
> >  fs/ext4/super.c  |    4 ++--
> >  5 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
> > 
> > --- a/fs/ext4/ext4.h
> > +++ b/fs/ext4/ext4.h
> > @@ -1970,6 +1970,16 @@ static inline bool ext4_verity_in_progre
> >  #define NEXT_ORPHAN(inode) EXT4_I(inode)->i_dtime
> >  
> >  /*
> > + * Check whether the inode is tracked as orphan (either in orphan file or
> > + * orphan list).
> > + */
> > +static inline bool ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(struct inode *inode)
> > +{
> > +	return ext4_test_inode_state(inode, EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE) ||
> > +		!list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan);
> > +}
> > +
> > +/*
> >   * Codes for operating systems
> >   */
> >  #define EXT4_OS_LINUX		0
> > --- a/fs/ext4/file.c
> > +++ b/fs/ext4/file.c
> > @@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ static void ext4_inode_extension_cleanup
> >  	 * to cleanup the orphan list in ext4_handle_inode_extension(). Do it
> >  	 * now.
> >  	 */
> > -	if (!list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan) && inode->i_nlink) {
> > +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode) && inode->i_nlink) {
> >  		handle_t *handle = ext4_journal_start(inode, EXT4_HT_INODE, 2);
> >  
> >  		if (IS_ERR(handle)) {
> > --- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
> > +++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
> > @@ -4330,7 +4330,7 @@ static int ext4_fill_raw_inode(struct in
> >  		 * old inodes get re-used with the upper 16 bits of the
> >  		 * uid/gid intact.
> >  		 */
> > -		if (ei->i_dtime && list_empty(&ei->i_orphan)) {
> > +		if (ei->i_dtime && !ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode)) {
> >  			raw_inode->i_uid_high = 0;
> >  			raw_inode->i_gid_high = 0;
> >  		} else {
> > --- a/fs/ext4/orphan.c
> > +++ b/fs/ext4/orphan.c
> > @@ -109,11 +109,7 @@ int ext4_orphan_add(handle_t *handle, st
> >  
> >  	WARN_ON_ONCE(!(inode->i_state & (I_NEW | I_FREEING)) &&
> >  		     !inode_is_locked(inode));
> > -	/*
> > -	 * Inode orphaned in orphan file or in orphan list?
> > -	 */
> > -	if (ext4_test_inode_state(inode, EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE) ||
> > -	    !list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan))
> > +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode))
> >  		return 0;
> >  
> >  	/*
> > --- a/fs/ext4/super.c
> > +++ b/fs/ext4/super.c
> > @@ -1461,9 +1461,9 @@ static void ext4_free_in_core_inode(stru
> >  
> >  static void ext4_destroy_inode(struct inode *inode)
> >  {
> > -	if (!list_empty(&(EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan))) {
> > +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode)) {
> >  		ext4_msg(inode->i_sb, KERN_ERR,
> > -			 "Inode %lu (%p): orphan list check failed!",
> > +			 "Inode %lu (%p): inode tracked as orphan!",
> >  			 inode->i_ino, EXT4_I(inode));
> >  		print_hex_dump(KERN_INFO, "", DUMP_PREFIX_ADDRESS, 16, 4,
> >  				EXT4_I(inode), sizeof(struct ext4_inode_info),
> > 
> > 
> 
> Since this patch, I'm getting "inode tracked as orphan" warnings on ARM 
> 32-bit boards (not qemu, other archs not tested yet) when rebooting or 
> shutting down. The affected partition is used as backing storage for an 
> overlayfs (Debian image built from [1]). Still, systemd reports to have 
> sucessfully unmounted the partition.
> 
> [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-journal-flush.serv…lush Journal to Persistent Storage.
> [  OK  ] Unmounted run-lock.mount - Legacy Locks Directory /run/lock.
> [  OK  ] Unmounted tmp.mount - Temporary Directory /tmp.
> [  OK  ] Stopped target swap.target - Swaps.
>          Unmounting var.mount - /var...
> [  OK  ] Unmounted var.mount - /var.
> [  OK  ] Stopped target local-fs-pre.target…Preparation for Local File Systems.
> [  OK  ] Reached target umount.target - Unmount All Filesystems.
> [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-remount-fs.service…mount Root and Kernel File Systems.
> [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev…Create Static Device Nodes in /dev.
> [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev…ic Device Nodes in /dev gracefully.
> [  OK  ] Reached target shutdown.target - System Shutdown.
> [  OK  ] Reached target final.target - Late Shutdown Services.
> [  OK  ] Finished systemd-poweroff.service - System Power Off.
> [  OK  ] Reached target poweroff.target - System Power Off.
> [   52.948231] watchdog: watchdog0: watchdog did not stop!
> [   53.440970] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p6): Inode 1 (b6b2dba9): inode tracked as orphan!
> [   53.449709] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 412 Comm: (sd-umount) Not tainted 6.12.52-00240-gf50bece98c66 #12
> [   53.449728] Hardware name: ti TI AM335x BeagleBone Black/TI AM335x BeagleBone Black, BIOS 2025.07 07/01/2025
> [   53.449740] Call trace: 
> [   53.449757]  unwind_backtrace from show_stack+0x18/0x1c
> [   53.449807]  show_stack from dump_stack_lvl+0x68/0x74
> [   53.449839]  dump_stack_lvl from ext4_destroy_inode+0x7c/0x10c
> [   53.449870]  ext4_destroy_inode from destroy_inode+0x5c/0x70
> [   53.449897]  destroy_inode from ext4_mb_release+0xc8/0x268
> [   53.449936]  ext4_mb_release from ext4_put_super+0xe4/0x308
> [   53.449962]  ext4_put_super from generic_shutdown_super+0x84/0x154
> [   53.449996]  generic_shutdown_super from kill_block_super+0x18/0x34
> [   53.450023]  kill_block_super from ext4_kill_sb+0x28/0x3c
> [   53.450059]  ext4_kill_sb from deactivate_locked_super+0x58/0x90
> [   53.450086]  deactivate_locked_super from cleanup_mnt+0x74/0xd0
> [   53.450113]  cleanup_mnt from task_work_run+0x88/0xa0
> [   53.450136]  task_work_run from do_work_pending+0x394/0x3cc
> [   53.450156]  do_work_pending from slow_work_pending+0xc/0x24
> [   53.450175] Exception stack(0xe093dfb0 to 0xe093dff8)
> [   53.450190] dfa0:                                     00000000 00000009 00000000 00000000
> [   53.450205] dfc0: be9e0b2c 004e2aa0 be9e0a20 00000034 be9e0a04 00000000 be9e0a20 00000000
> [   53.450218] dfe0: 00000034 be9e095c b6ba609b b6b0f736 00030030 004e2ac0
> [   53.730379] reboot: Power down
> 
> I'm not getting the warning with the same image but kernels 6.18+ or 
> also 6.17.13 (the latter received this as backport as well). I do get 
> the warning with 6.1.159 as well, and also when moving up to 6.12.63 
> which received further ext4 backports. I didn't test 6.6 or 5.15 so far, 
> but I suspect they are equally affected.
> 
> Before digging deep into this to me unfamiliar subsystem: Could we miss 
> some backport(s) to 6.12 and below that 6.17+ have? Any suggestions to 
> try out first?

I suspect you're missing 4091c8206cfd ("ext4: clear i_state_flags when
alloc inode") (which BTW has Fixes tag to this commit).

								Honza
-- 
Jan Kara <jack@suse.com>
SUSE Labs, CR

Re: [PATCH 6.12 242/262] ext4: fix checks for orphan inodes

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

On Thu, Jan 08, 2026 at 11:31:10AM +0100, Jan Kara wrote:
> On Thu 08-01-26 09:19:23, Jan Kiszka wrote:
> > On 13.10.25 16:46, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > > 6.12-stable review patch.  If anyone has any objections, please let me know.
> > > 
> > > ------------------
> > > 
> > > From: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
> > > 
> > > commit acf943e9768ec9d9be80982ca0ebc4bfd6b7631e upstream.
> > > 
> > > When orphan file feature is enabled, inode can be tracked as orphan
> > > either in the standard orphan list or in the orphan file. The first can
> > > be tested by checking ei->i_orphan list head, the second is recorded by
> > > EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE inode state flag. There are several places where
> > > we want to check whether inode is tracked as orphan and only some of
> > > them properly check for both possibilities. Luckily the consequences are
> > > mostly minor, the worst that can happen is that we track an inode as
> > > orphan although we don't need to and e2fsck then complains (resulting in
> > > occasional ext4/307 xfstest failures). Fix the problem by introducing a
> > > helper for checking whether an inode is tracked as orphan and use it in
> > > appropriate places.
> > > 
> > > Fixes: 4a79a98c7b19 ("ext4: Improve scalability of ext4 orphan file handling")
> > > Cc: stable@kernel.org
> > > Signed-off-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
> > > Reviewed-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@huawei.com>
> > > Message-ID: <20250925123038.20264-2-jack@suse.cz>
> > > Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
> > > Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
> > > ---
> > >  fs/ext4/ext4.h   |   10 ++++++++++
> > >  fs/ext4/file.c   |    2 +-
> > >  fs/ext4/inode.c  |    2 +-
> > >  fs/ext4/orphan.c |    6 +-----
> > >  fs/ext4/super.c  |    4 ++--
> > >  5 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
> > > 
> > > --- a/fs/ext4/ext4.h
> > > +++ b/fs/ext4/ext4.h
> > > @@ -1970,6 +1970,16 @@ static inline bool ext4_verity_in_progre
> > >  #define NEXT_ORPHAN(inode) EXT4_I(inode)->i_dtime
> > >  
> > >  /*
> > > + * Check whether the inode is tracked as orphan (either in orphan file or
> > > + * orphan list).
> > > + */
> > > +static inline bool ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(struct inode *inode)
> > > +{
> > > +	return ext4_test_inode_state(inode, EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE) ||
> > > +		!list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan);
> > > +}
> > > +
> > > +/*
> > >   * Codes for operating systems
> > >   */
> > >  #define EXT4_OS_LINUX		0
> > > --- a/fs/ext4/file.c
> > > +++ b/fs/ext4/file.c
> > > @@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ static void ext4_inode_extension_cleanup
> > >  	 * to cleanup the orphan list in ext4_handle_inode_extension(). Do it
> > >  	 * now.
> > >  	 */
> > > -	if (!list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan) && inode->i_nlink) {
> > > +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode) && inode->i_nlink) {
> > >  		handle_t *handle = ext4_journal_start(inode, EXT4_HT_INODE, 2);
> > >  
> > >  		if (IS_ERR(handle)) {
> > > --- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
> > > +++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
> > > @@ -4330,7 +4330,7 @@ static int ext4_fill_raw_inode(struct in
> > >  		 * old inodes get re-used with the upper 16 bits of the
> > >  		 * uid/gid intact.
> > >  		 */
> > > -		if (ei->i_dtime && list_empty(&ei->i_orphan)) {
> > > +		if (ei->i_dtime && !ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode)) {
> > >  			raw_inode->i_uid_high = 0;
> > >  			raw_inode->i_gid_high = 0;
> > >  		} else {
> > > --- a/fs/ext4/orphan.c
> > > +++ b/fs/ext4/orphan.c
> > > @@ -109,11 +109,7 @@ int ext4_orphan_add(handle_t *handle, st
> > >  
> > >  	WARN_ON_ONCE(!(inode->i_state & (I_NEW | I_FREEING)) &&
> > >  		     !inode_is_locked(inode));
> > > -	/*
> > > -	 * Inode orphaned in orphan file or in orphan list?
> > > -	 */
> > > -	if (ext4_test_inode_state(inode, EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE) ||
> > > -	    !list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan))
> > > +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode))
> > >  		return 0;
> > >  
> > >  	/*
> > > --- a/fs/ext4/super.c
> > > +++ b/fs/ext4/super.c
> > > @@ -1461,9 +1461,9 @@ static void ext4_free_in_core_inode(stru
> > >  
> > >  static void ext4_destroy_inode(struct inode *inode)
> > >  {
> > > -	if (!list_empty(&(EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan))) {
> > > +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode)) {
> > >  		ext4_msg(inode->i_sb, KERN_ERR,
> > > -			 "Inode %lu (%p): orphan list check failed!",
> > > +			 "Inode %lu (%p): inode tracked as orphan!",
> > >  			 inode->i_ino, EXT4_I(inode));
> > >  		print_hex_dump(KERN_INFO, "", DUMP_PREFIX_ADDRESS, 16, 4,
> > >  				EXT4_I(inode), sizeof(struct ext4_inode_info),
> > > 
> > > 
> > 
> > Since this patch, I'm getting "inode tracked as orphan" warnings on ARM 
> > 32-bit boards (not qemu, other archs not tested yet) when rebooting or 
> > shutting down. The affected partition is used as backing storage for an 
> > overlayfs (Debian image built from [1]). Still, systemd reports to have 
> > sucessfully unmounted the partition.
> > 
> > [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-journal-flush.serv…lush Journal to Persistent Storage.
> > [  OK  ] Unmounted run-lock.mount - Legacy Locks Directory /run/lock.
> > [  OK  ] Unmounted tmp.mount - Temporary Directory /tmp.
> > [  OK  ] Stopped target swap.target - Swaps.
> >          Unmounting var.mount - /var...
> > [  OK  ] Unmounted var.mount - /var.
> > [  OK  ] Stopped target local-fs-pre.target…Preparation for Local File Systems.
> > [  OK  ] Reached target umount.target - Unmount All Filesystems.
> > [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-remount-fs.service…mount Root and Kernel File Systems.
> > [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev…Create Static Device Nodes in /dev.
> > [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev…ic Device Nodes in /dev gracefully.
> > [  OK  ] Reached target shutdown.target - System Shutdown.
> > [  OK  ] Reached target final.target - Late Shutdown Services.
> > [  OK  ] Finished systemd-poweroff.service - System Power Off.
> > [  OK  ] Reached target poweroff.target - System Power Off.
> > [   52.948231] watchdog: watchdog0: watchdog did not stop!
> > [   53.440970] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p6): Inode 1 (b6b2dba9): inode tracked as orphan!
> > [   53.449709] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 412 Comm: (sd-umount) Not tainted 6.12.52-00240-gf50bece98c66 #12
> > [   53.449728] Hardware name: ti TI AM335x BeagleBone Black/TI AM335x BeagleBone Black, BIOS 2025.07 07/01/2025
> > [   53.449740] Call trace: 
> > [   53.449757]  unwind_backtrace from show_stack+0x18/0x1c
> > [   53.449807]  show_stack from dump_stack_lvl+0x68/0x74
> > [   53.449839]  dump_stack_lvl from ext4_destroy_inode+0x7c/0x10c
> > [   53.449870]  ext4_destroy_inode from destroy_inode+0x5c/0x70
> > [   53.449897]  destroy_inode from ext4_mb_release+0xc8/0x268
> > [   53.449936]  ext4_mb_release from ext4_put_super+0xe4/0x308
> > [   53.449962]  ext4_put_super from generic_shutdown_super+0x84/0x154
> > [   53.449996]  generic_shutdown_super from kill_block_super+0x18/0x34
> > [   53.450023]  kill_block_super from ext4_kill_sb+0x28/0x3c
> > [   53.450059]  ext4_kill_sb from deactivate_locked_super+0x58/0x90
> > [   53.450086]  deactivate_locked_super from cleanup_mnt+0x74/0xd0
> > [   53.450113]  cleanup_mnt from task_work_run+0x88/0xa0
> > [   53.450136]  task_work_run from do_work_pending+0x394/0x3cc
> > [   53.450156]  do_work_pending from slow_work_pending+0xc/0x24
> > [   53.450175] Exception stack(0xe093dfb0 to 0xe093dff8)
> > [   53.450190] dfa0:                                     00000000 00000009 00000000 00000000
> > [   53.450205] dfc0: be9e0b2c 004e2aa0 be9e0a20 00000034 be9e0a04 00000000 be9e0a20 00000000
> > [   53.450218] dfe0: 00000034 be9e095c b6ba609b b6b0f736 00030030 004e2ac0
> > [   53.730379] reboot: Power down
> > 
> > I'm not getting the warning with the same image but kernels 6.18+ or 
> > also 6.17.13 (the latter received this as backport as well). I do get 
> > the warning with 6.1.159 as well, and also when moving up to 6.12.63 
> > which received further ext4 backports. I didn't test 6.6 or 5.15 so far, 
> > but I suspect they are equally affected.
> > 
> > Before digging deep into this to me unfamiliar subsystem: Could we miss 
> > some backport(s) to 6.12 and below that 6.17+ have? Any suggestions to 
> > try out first?
> 
> I suspect you're missing 4091c8206cfd ("ext4: clear i_state_flags when
> alloc inode") (which BTW has Fixes tag to this commit).

That is queued up for the next round of stable releases.  Hopefully the
-rc releases for them will go out in a day or so.

thanks,

greg k-h

Re: [PATCH 6.12 242/262] ext4: fix checks for orphan inodes

[Jan Kiszka]

On 08.01.26 11:43, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 08, 2026 at 11:31:10AM +0100, Jan Kara wrote:
>> On Thu 08-01-26 09:19:23, Jan Kiszka wrote:
>>> On 13.10.25 16:46, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
>>>> 6.12-stable review patch.  If anyone has any objections, please let me know.
>>>>
>>>> ------------------
>>>>
>>>> From: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
>>>>
>>>> commit acf943e9768ec9d9be80982ca0ebc4bfd6b7631e upstream.
>>>>
>>>> When orphan file feature is enabled, inode can be tracked as orphan
>>>> either in the standard orphan list or in the orphan file. The first can
>>>> be tested by checking ei->i_orphan list head, the second is recorded by
>>>> EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE inode state flag. There are several places where
>>>> we want to check whether inode is tracked as orphan and only some of
>>>> them properly check for both possibilities. Luckily the consequences are
>>>> mostly minor, the worst that can happen is that we track an inode as
>>>> orphan although we don't need to and e2fsck then complains (resulting in
>>>> occasional ext4/307 xfstest failures). Fix the problem by introducing a
>>>> helper for checking whether an inode is tracked as orphan and use it in
>>>> appropriate places.
>>>>
>>>> Fixes: 4a79a98c7b19 ("ext4: Improve scalability of ext4 orphan file handling")
>>>> Cc: stable@kernel.org
>>>> Signed-off-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
>>>> Reviewed-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@huawei.com>
>>>> Message-ID: <20250925123038.20264-2-jack@suse.cz>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
>>>> ---
>>>>  fs/ext4/ext4.h   |   10 ++++++++++
>>>>  fs/ext4/file.c   |    2 +-
>>>>  fs/ext4/inode.c  |    2 +-
>>>>  fs/ext4/orphan.c |    6 +-----
>>>>  fs/ext4/super.c  |    4 ++--
>>>>  5 files changed, 15 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)
>>>>
>>>> --- a/fs/ext4/ext4.h
>>>> +++ b/fs/ext4/ext4.h
>>>> @@ -1970,6 +1970,16 @@ static inline bool ext4_verity_in_progre
>>>>  #define NEXT_ORPHAN(inode) EXT4_I(inode)->i_dtime
>>>>  
>>>>  /*
>>>> + * Check whether the inode is tracked as orphan (either in orphan file or
>>>> + * orphan list).
>>>> + */
>>>> +static inline bool ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(struct inode *inode)
>>>> +{
>>>> +	return ext4_test_inode_state(inode, EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE) ||
>>>> +		!list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan);
>>>> +}
>>>> +
>>>> +/*
>>>>   * Codes for operating systems
>>>>   */
>>>>  #define EXT4_OS_LINUX		0
>>>> --- a/fs/ext4/file.c
>>>> +++ b/fs/ext4/file.c
>>>> @@ -354,7 +354,7 @@ static void ext4_inode_extension_cleanup
>>>>  	 * to cleanup the orphan list in ext4_handle_inode_extension(). Do it
>>>>  	 * now.
>>>>  	 */
>>>> -	if (!list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan) && inode->i_nlink) {
>>>> +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode) && inode->i_nlink) {
>>>>  		handle_t *handle = ext4_journal_start(inode, EXT4_HT_INODE, 2);
>>>>  
>>>>  		if (IS_ERR(handle)) {
>>>> --- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
>>>> +++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
>>>> @@ -4330,7 +4330,7 @@ static int ext4_fill_raw_inode(struct in
>>>>  		 * old inodes get re-used with the upper 16 bits of the
>>>>  		 * uid/gid intact.
>>>>  		 */
>>>> -		if (ei->i_dtime && list_empty(&ei->i_orphan)) {
>>>> +		if (ei->i_dtime && !ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode)) {
>>>>  			raw_inode->i_uid_high = 0;
>>>>  			raw_inode->i_gid_high = 0;
>>>>  		} else {
>>>> --- a/fs/ext4/orphan.c
>>>> +++ b/fs/ext4/orphan.c
>>>> @@ -109,11 +109,7 @@ int ext4_orphan_add(handle_t *handle, st
>>>>  
>>>>  	WARN_ON_ONCE(!(inode->i_state & (I_NEW | I_FREEING)) &&
>>>>  		     !inode_is_locked(inode));
>>>> -	/*
>>>> -	 * Inode orphaned in orphan file or in orphan list?
>>>> -	 */
>>>> -	if (ext4_test_inode_state(inode, EXT4_STATE_ORPHAN_FILE) ||
>>>> -	    !list_empty(&EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan))
>>>> +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode))
>>>>  		return 0;
>>>>  
>>>>  	/*
>>>> --- a/fs/ext4/super.c
>>>> +++ b/fs/ext4/super.c
>>>> @@ -1461,9 +1461,9 @@ static void ext4_free_in_core_inode(stru
>>>>  
>>>>  static void ext4_destroy_inode(struct inode *inode)
>>>>  {
>>>> -	if (!list_empty(&(EXT4_I(inode)->i_orphan))) {
>>>> +	if (ext4_inode_orphan_tracked(inode)) {
>>>>  		ext4_msg(inode->i_sb, KERN_ERR,
>>>> -			 "Inode %lu (%p): orphan list check failed!",
>>>> +			 "Inode %lu (%p): inode tracked as orphan!",
>>>>  			 inode->i_ino, EXT4_I(inode));
>>>>  		print_hex_dump(KERN_INFO, "", DUMP_PREFIX_ADDRESS, 16, 4,
>>>>  				EXT4_I(inode), sizeof(struct ext4_inode_info),
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> Since this patch, I'm getting "inode tracked as orphan" warnings on ARM 
>>> 32-bit boards (not qemu, other archs not tested yet) when rebooting or 
>>> shutting down. The affected partition is used as backing storage for an 
>>> overlayfs (Debian image built from [1]). Still, systemd reports to have 
>>> sucessfully unmounted the partition.
>>>
>>> [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-journal-flush.serv…lush Journal to Persistent Storage.
>>> [  OK  ] Unmounted run-lock.mount - Legacy Locks Directory /run/lock.
>>> [  OK  ] Unmounted tmp.mount - Temporary Directory /tmp.
>>> [  OK  ] Stopped target swap.target - Swaps.
>>>          Unmounting var.mount - /var...
>>> [  OK  ] Unmounted var.mount - /var.
>>> [  OK  ] Stopped target local-fs-pre.target…Preparation for Local File Systems.
>>> [  OK  ] Reached target umount.target - Unmount All Filesystems.
>>> [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-remount-fs.service…mount Root and Kernel File Systems.
>>> [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev…Create Static Device Nodes in /dev.
>>> [  OK  ] Stopped systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev…ic Device Nodes in /dev gracefully.
>>> [  OK  ] Reached target shutdown.target - System Shutdown.
>>> [  OK  ] Reached target final.target - Late Shutdown Services.
>>> [  OK  ] Finished systemd-poweroff.service - System Power Off.
>>> [  OK  ] Reached target poweroff.target - System Power Off.
>>> [   52.948231] watchdog: watchdog0: watchdog did not stop!
>>> [   53.440970] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p6): Inode 1 (b6b2dba9): inode tracked as orphan!
>>> [   53.449709] CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 412 Comm: (sd-umount) Not tainted 6.12.52-00240-gf50bece98c66 #12
>>> [   53.449728] Hardware name: ti TI AM335x BeagleBone Black/TI AM335x BeagleBone Black, BIOS 2025.07 07/01/2025
>>> [   53.449740] Call trace: 
>>> [   53.449757]  unwind_backtrace from show_stack+0x18/0x1c
>>> [   53.449807]  show_stack from dump_stack_lvl+0x68/0x74
>>> [   53.449839]  dump_stack_lvl from ext4_destroy_inode+0x7c/0x10c
>>> [   53.449870]  ext4_destroy_inode from destroy_inode+0x5c/0x70
>>> [   53.449897]  destroy_inode from ext4_mb_release+0xc8/0x268
>>> [   53.449936]  ext4_mb_release from ext4_put_super+0xe4/0x308
>>> [   53.449962]  ext4_put_super from generic_shutdown_super+0x84/0x154
>>> [   53.449996]  generic_shutdown_super from kill_block_super+0x18/0x34
>>> [   53.450023]  kill_block_super from ext4_kill_sb+0x28/0x3c
>>> [   53.450059]  ext4_kill_sb from deactivate_locked_super+0x58/0x90
>>> [   53.450086]  deactivate_locked_super from cleanup_mnt+0x74/0xd0
>>> [   53.450113]  cleanup_mnt from task_work_run+0x88/0xa0
>>> [   53.450136]  task_work_run from do_work_pending+0x394/0x3cc
>>> [   53.450156]  do_work_pending from slow_work_pending+0xc/0x24
>>> [   53.450175] Exception stack(0xe093dfb0 to 0xe093dff8)
>>> [   53.450190] dfa0:                                     00000000 00000009 00000000 00000000
>>> [   53.450205] dfc0: be9e0b2c 004e2aa0 be9e0a20 00000034 be9e0a04 00000000 be9e0a20 00000000
>>> [   53.450218] dfe0: 00000034 be9e095c b6ba609b b6b0f736 00030030 004e2ac0
>>> [   53.730379] reboot: Power down
>>>
>>> I'm not getting the warning with the same image but kernels 6.18+ or 
>>> also 6.17.13 (the latter received this as backport as well). I do get 
>>> the warning with 6.1.159 as well, and also when moving up to 6.12.63 
>>> which received further ext4 backports. I didn't test 6.6 or 5.15 so far, 
>>> but I suspect they are equally affected.
>>>
>>> Before digging deep into this to me unfamiliar subsystem: Could we miss 
>>> some backport(s) to 6.12 and below that 6.17+ have? Any suggestions to 
>>> try out first?
>>
>> I suspect you're missing 4091c8206cfd ("ext4: clear i_state_flags when
>> alloc inode") (which BTW has Fixes tag to this commit).
> 
> That is queued up for the next round of stable releases.  Hopefully the
> -rc releases for them will go out in a day or so.
> 

Perfect. It indeed looks like that this missing commit was causing the
issue.

Jan

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