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From: "Fengnan Chang" <changfengnan@bytedance.com>
To: <brauner@kernel.org>, <djwong@kernel.org>, <hch@infradead.org>,
	 <ojaswin@linux.ibm.com>, <dgc@kernel.org>,
	<linux-xfs@vger.kernel.org>,  <linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org>,
	<linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org>,  <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
	<lidiangang@bytedance.com>,  <pankaj.raghav@linux.dev>
Cc: "Fengnan Chang" <changfengnan@bytedance.com>
Subject: [PATCH v6 0/3] iomap: add simple dio path for small direct I/O
Date: Wed,  1 Jul 2026 11:32:50 +0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20260701033253.46420-1-changfengnan@bytedance.com> (raw)

When running 4K random read workloads on high-performance Gen5 NVMe
SSDs, the software overhead in the iomap direct I/O path
(__iomap_dio_rw) becomes a significant bottleneck.

Using io_uring with poll mode for a 4K randread test on a raw block
device:
taskset -c 30 ./t/io_uring -p1 -d512 -b4096 -s32 -c32 -F1 -B1 -R1 -X1
-n1 -P1 /dev/nvme10n1
Result: ~3.2M IOPS

Running the exact same workload on ext4 and XFS:
taskset -c 30 ./t/io_uring -p1 -d512 -b4096 -s32 -c32 -F1 -B1 -R1 -X1
-n1 -P1 /mnt/testfile
Result: ~1.92M IOPS

Profiling the ext4 workload reveals that a significant portion of CPU
time is spent on memory allocation and the iomap state machine
iteration:
  5.33%  [kernel]  [k] __iomap_dio_rw
  3.26%  [kernel]  [k] iomap_iter
  2.37%  [kernel]  [k] iomap_dio_bio_iter
  2.35%  [kernel]  [k] kfree
  1.33%  [kernel]  [k] iomap_dio_complete

Introduce a simple dio path to reduce the overhead of iomap. It is
triggered when the request satisfies all of:
- a READ request whose I/O size is <= inode blocksize (fits in a single
  block, no splits);
- no custom iomap_dio_ops (dops) registered by the filesystem;
- no caller-accumulated residual (done_before == 0);
- none of IOMAP_DIO_FORCE_WAIT / IOMAP_DIO_PARTIAL / IOMAP_DIO_BOUNCE
  set, the range is within i_size, and the inode is not encrypted.

The bio is allocated from a dedicated bioset whose front_pad embeds
struct iomap_dio_simple, so the whole request lives in a single
cacheline-aligned allocation and no separate struct iomap_dio is
needed.  Completion is handled inline from ->bi_end_io for the common
success case, and only punted to the s_dio_done_wq workqueue on error.

After this optimization, the heavy generic functions disappear from the
profile, replaced by a single streamlined execution path:
  4.83%  [kernel]  [k] iomap_dio_simple

With this patch, 4K random read IOPS on ext4 increases from 1.92M to
2.19M in the original single-core io_uring poll-mode workload.

Below are the test results using fio:

  fs    workload       qd    simple=0      simple=1      gain
  ext4  libaio         1     18,740        18,761        +0.11%
  ext4  libaio         64    462,850       480,587       +3.83%
  ext4  libaio         128   459,498       478,824       +4.21%
  ext4  libaio         256   459,938       480,156       +4.40%
  ext4  io_uring       1     18,836        18,880        +0.24%
  ext4  io_uring       64    568,193       600,625       +5.71%
  ext4  io_uring       128   570,998       602,148       +5.46%
  ext4  io_uring       256   572,052       602,536       +5.33%
  ext4  io_uring_poll  1     19,283        19,272        -0.06%
  ext4  io_uring_poll  64    989,735       1,013,342     +2.39%
  ext4  io_uring_poll  128   1,467,336     1,538,444     +4.85%
  ext4  io_uring_poll  256   1,663,498     1,830,842     +10.06%
  xfs   libaio         1     18,764        18,776        +0.06%
  xfs   libaio         64    462,408       480,860       +3.99%
  xfs   libaio         128   461,280       480,819       +4.24%
  xfs   libaio         256   461,626       480,190       +4.02%
  xfs   io_uring       1     18,871        18,903        +0.17%
  xfs   io_uring       64    570,383       597,399       +4.74%
  xfs   io_uring       128   568,290       597,370       +5.12%
  xfs   io_uring       256   570,616       598,775       +4.93%
  xfs   io_uring_poll  1     19,211        19,315        +0.54%
  xfs   io_uring_poll  64    989,726       1,008,455     +1.89%
  xfs   io_uring_poll  128   1,430,426     1,513,064     +5.78%
  xfs   io_uring_poll  256   1,587,339     1,742,220     +9.76%

Changes since v5:
- Collect Reviewed-by tags from Christoph for the two prep patches.
- Drop the iomap_dio_bio_release_pages() helper and open-code the simple
  path page release logic.
- Remove unused kobject.h and sysfs.h includes.
- Clean up iomap_dio_simple_complete() to branch on bio->bi_status and
  pass the final error value to trace_iomap_dio_complete().
- Move the fast path documentation above iomap_dio_simple(), and fold
  the dops and done_before checks into iomap_dio_simple_supported().
- Fix declaration ordering, indentation, and field alignment nits.

Changes since v4:
- Update test data based on v7.2-rc1.
- Split refactoring into prep patches.
- Remove three-state atomic synchronization; use submit_bio_wait for
  sync and direct ki_complete from end_io for async.
- Drop the _read suffix from struct and function names.
- Remove bounce buffer handling as bounce requires dops.
- Remove redundant iomap.offset > pos check.
- Guard s_dio_done_wq allocation with !wait_for_completion.
- Add explicit !count early-return in supported() check.

Changes since v3:
- Fix fserror report and update test data based on v7.1-rc3.

Changes since v2:
- Update test data based on v7.1-rc3.

Fengnan Chang (3):
  iomap: factor out iomap_dio_alignment helper
  iomap: pass error code to should_report_dio_fserror directly
  iomap: add simple dio path for small direct I/O

 fs/iomap/direct-io.c | 293 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 286 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-)

-- 
2.39.5 (Apple Git-154)

             reply	other threads:[~2026-07-01  3:33 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 15+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2026-07-01  3:32 Fengnan Chang [this message]
2026-07-01  3:32 ` [PATCH v6 1/3] iomap: factor out iomap_dio_alignment helper Fengnan Chang
2026-07-01  3:32 ` [PATCH v6 2/3] iomap: pass error code to should_report_dio_fserror directly Fengnan Chang
2026-07-01  3:32 ` [PATCH v6 3/3] iomap: add simple dio path for small direct I/O Fengnan Chang
2026-07-01 11:23   ` Christoph Hellwig
2026-07-01 19:35     ` Joanne Koong
2026-07-02 14:35       ` Christoph Hellwig
2026-07-03  3:05         ` Joanne Koong
2026-07-03  9:13           ` changfengnan
2026-07-03 12:40             ` Christoph Hellwig
2026-07-06 11:09               ` changfengnan
2026-07-06 19:27                 ` Joanne Koong
2026-07-07  6:57                   ` changfengnan
2026-07-03  9:22           ` changfengnan
2026-07-01 12:44 ` [PATCH v6 0/3] " Christian Brauner

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