[PATCH] ext4: fix shrinker scan budget accounting in ext4_es_scan()

[PATCH] ext4: fix shrinker scan budget accounting in ext4_es_scan()

[Qiliang Yuan]

The extents_status shrinker's count_objects() callback,
ext4_es_count(), reports the number of shrinkable extent_status
objects via a percpu counter. do_shrink_slab() reads this count
exactly once per invocation and derives a one-shot scan budget
(total_scan) from it, then repeatedly calls scan_objects() in
fixed-size batches until that budget is exhausted.

ext4_es_scan() never updates sc->nr_scanned, even though
include/linux/shrinker.h documents that "the callee should track
its actual progress" in that field. Because sc->nr_scanned defaults
to sc->nr_to_scan before every call, do_shrink_slab() always
believes a full batch was examined, regardless of what __es_shrink()
actually did. When __es_shrink() hits an empty sbi->s_es_list and
returns immediately having examined nothing, do_shrink_slab() has
no way to tell "there was nothing to scan" from "a full batch was
scanned and none of it was freeable". It keeps calling scan_objects()
until the original, one-shot total_scan budget is drained, even
though the shrinkable list emptied out long before that budget was
used up.

Make __es_shrink() report the number of extent_status objects it
actually examined through a new nr_scanned output parameter, derived
from the existing per-extent nr_to_scan counter that es_reclaim_extents()
already decrements as it walks the tree. Have ext4_es_scan() copy this
value into sc->nr_scanned, and return SHRINK_STOP once nr_scanned comes
back as zero, since that only happens when sbi->s_es_list was already
empty and no further calls in this reclaim pass can make progress.

Tested by fallocate(2)-ing 10000 4K files (to populate the shrinker
with reclaimable unwritten extents without also exercising the
extent_status "referenced" second-chance path, which needs a
separate two-pass accounting of its own) and triggering
"echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches", while tracing the
ext4_es_shrink* tracepoints:

                      total scan_objects()   calls with
                      calls                  nr_shrunk == 0
  before this patch   429                    189 (44%)
  after this patch    165                    1 (0.6%)
  after (rerun)        242                    1 (0.4%)

nr_skipped stayed at 0 throughout every run, confirming the wasted
calls came from the stale one-shot budget racing ahead of the real
list state, not from the existing precached/trylock skip paths.

Signed-off-by: Qiliang Yuan <odys.yuan@gmail.com>
---
 fs/ext4/extents_status.c | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++----
 1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/ext4/extents_status.c b/fs/ext4/extents_status.c
index 6e4a191e82191..05ded0c018e08 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/extents_status.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/extents_status.c
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ static int __es_remove_extent(struct inode *inode, ext4_lblk_t lblk,
 			      struct extent_status *prealloc);
 static int es_reclaim_extents(struct ext4_inode_info *ei, int *nr_to_scan);
 static int __es_shrink(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi, int nr_to_scan,
-		       struct ext4_inode_info *locked_ei);
+		       struct ext4_inode_info *locked_ei, int *nr_scanned);
 static int __revise_pending(struct inode *inode, ext4_lblk_t lblk,
 			    ext4_lblk_t len,
 			    struct pending_reservation **prealloc);
@@ -1670,7 +1670,7 @@ void ext4_es_remove_extent(struct inode *inode, ext4_lblk_t lblk,
 }
 
 static int __es_shrink(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi, int nr_to_scan,
-		       struct ext4_inode_info *locked_ei)
+		       struct ext4_inode_info *locked_ei, int *nr_scanned)
 {
 	struct ext4_inode_info *ei;
 	struct ext4_es_stats *es_stats;
@@ -1679,6 +1679,7 @@ static int __es_shrink(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi, int nr_to_scan,
 	int nr_to_walk;
 	int nr_shrunk = 0;
 	int retried = 0, nr_skipped = 0;
+	int orig_nr_to_scan = nr_to_scan;
 
 	es_stats = &sbi->s_es_stats;
 	start_time = ktime_get();
@@ -1738,6 +1739,8 @@ static int __es_shrink(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi, int nr_to_scan,
 		nr_shrunk = es_reclaim_extents(locked_ei, &nr_to_scan);
 
 out:
+	*nr_scanned = orig_nr_to_scan - nr_to_scan;
+
 	scan_time = ktime_to_ns(ktime_sub(ktime_get(), start_time));
 	if (likely(es_stats->es_stats_scan_time))
 		es_stats->es_stats_scan_time = (scan_time +
@@ -1774,15 +1777,30 @@ static unsigned long ext4_es_scan(struct shrinker *shrink,
 {
 	struct ext4_sb_info *sbi = shrink->private_data;
 	int nr_to_scan = sc->nr_to_scan;
-	int ret, nr_shrunk;
+	int ret, nr_shrunk, nr_scanned;
 
 	ret = percpu_counter_read_positive(&sbi->s_es_stats.es_stats_shk_cnt);
 	trace_ext4_es_shrink_scan_enter(sbi->s_sb, nr_to_scan, ret);
 
-	nr_shrunk = __es_shrink(sbi, nr_to_scan, NULL);
+	nr_shrunk = __es_shrink(sbi, nr_to_scan, NULL, &nr_scanned);
+	sc->nr_scanned = nr_scanned;
 
 	ret = percpu_counter_read_positive(&sbi->s_es_stats.es_stats_shk_cnt);
 	trace_ext4_es_shrink_scan_exit(sbi->s_sb, nr_shrunk, ret);
+
+	/*
+	 * es_stats_shk_cnt is a percpu counter, so count_objects() can report
+	 * a stale/approximate value that is still positive even though
+	 * sbi->s_es_list is actually empty by the time we get here. When that
+	 * happens __es_shrink() returns immediately having examined nothing
+	 * (nr_scanned == 0). Without SHRINK_STOP, do_shrink_slab() has no way
+	 * to tell "nothing was there" from "nothing was scanned yet" and will
+	 * keep calling us with the same stale freeable count until its scan
+	 * budget for this priority level is exhausted one batch at a time.
+	 */
+	if (nr_scanned == 0)
+		return SHRINK_STOP;
+
 	return nr_shrunk;
 }
 

---
base-commit: 502d801f0ab03e4f32f9a33d203154ce84887921
change-id: 20260928-fix-ext4-es-scan-nr-scanned-5af70744f6cd

Best regards,
-- 
Qiliang Yuan <odys.yuan@gmail.com>

Re: [PATCH] ext4: fix shrinker scan budget accounting in ext4_es_scan()

[sashiko-bot]

> The extents_status shrinker's count_objects() callback,
> ext4_es_count(), reports the number of shrinkable extent_status
> objects via a percpu counter. do_shrink_slab() reads this count
> exactly once per invocation and derives a one-shot scan budget
> (total_scan) from it, then repeatedly calls scan_objects() in
> fixed-size batches until that budget is exhausted.
> 
> ext4_es_scan() never updates sc->nr_scanned, even though
> include/linux/shrinker.h documents that "the callee should track
> its actual progress" in that field. Because sc->nr_scanned defaults
> to sc->nr_to_scan before every call, do_shrink_slab() always
> believes a full batch was examined, regardless of what __es_shrink()
> actually did. When __es_shrink() hits an empty sbi->s_es_list and
> returns immediately having examined nothing, do_shrink_slab() has
> no way to tell "there was nothing to scan" from "a full batch was
> [ ... ]
> nr_skipped stayed at 0 throughout every run, confirming the wasted
> calls came from the stale one-shot budget racing ahead of the real
> list state, not from the existing precached/trylock skip paths.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Qiliang Yuan <odys.yuan@gmail.com>

Sashiko has reviewed this patch and found no issues. It looks great!

-- 
Sashiko AI review · https://sashiko.dev/#/patchset/20260928-fix-ext4-es-scan-nr-scanned-v1-1-91d88228b0c8@gmail.com?part=1

Re: [PATCH] ext4: fix shrinker scan budget accounting in ext4_es_scan()

[Jan Kara]

On Mon 28-09-26 19:40:21, Qiliang Yuan wrote:
> The extents_status shrinker's count_objects() callback,
> ext4_es_count(), reports the number of shrinkable extent_status
> objects via a percpu counter. do_shrink_slab() reads this count
> exactly once per invocation and derives a one-shot scan budget
> (total_scan) from it, then repeatedly calls scan_objects() in
> fixed-size batches until that budget is exhausted.
> 
> ext4_es_scan() never updates sc->nr_scanned, even though
> include/linux/shrinker.h documents that "the callee should track
> its actual progress" in that field. Because sc->nr_scanned defaults
> to sc->nr_to_scan before every call, do_shrink_slab() always
> believes a full batch was examined, regardless of what __es_shrink()
> actually did. When __es_shrink() hits an empty sbi->s_es_list and
> returns immediately having examined nothing, do_shrink_slab() has
> no way to tell "there was nothing to scan" from "a full batch was
> scanned and none of it was freeable". It keeps calling scan_objects()
> until the original, one-shot total_scan budget is drained, even
> though the shrinkable list emptied out long before that budget was
> used up.
> 
> Make __es_shrink() report the number of extent_status objects it
> actually examined through a new nr_scanned output parameter, derived
> from the existing per-extent nr_to_scan counter that es_reclaim_extents()
> already decrements as it walks the tree. Have ext4_es_scan() copy this
> value into sc->nr_scanned, and return SHRINK_STOP once nr_scanned comes
> back as zero, since that only happens when sbi->s_es_list was already
> empty and no further calls in this reclaim pass can make progress.
> 
> Tested by fallocate(2)-ing 10000 4K files (to populate the shrinker
> with reclaimable unwritten extents without also exercising the
> extent_status "referenced" second-chance path, which needs a
> separate two-pass accounting of its own) and triggering
> "echo 2 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches", while tracing the
> ext4_es_shrink* tracepoints:
> 
>                       total scan_objects()   calls with
>                       calls                  nr_shrunk == 0
>   before this patch   429                    189 (44%)
>   after this patch    165                    1 (0.6%)
>   after (rerun)        242                    1 (0.4%)
> 
> nr_skipped stayed at 0 throughout every run, confirming the wasted
> calls came from the stale one-shot budget racing ahead of the real
> list state, not from the existing precached/trylock skip paths.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Qiliang Yuan <odys.yuan@gmail.com>

Looks good. Feel free to add:

Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>

								Honza

> ---
>  fs/ext4/extents_status.c | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++----
>  1 file changed, 22 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/fs/ext4/extents_status.c b/fs/ext4/extents_status.c
> index 6e4a191e82191..05ded0c018e08 100644
> --- a/fs/ext4/extents_status.c
> +++ b/fs/ext4/extents_status.c
> @@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ static int __es_remove_extent(struct inode *inode, ext4_lblk_t lblk,
>  			      struct extent_status *prealloc);
>  static int es_reclaim_extents(struct ext4_inode_info *ei, int *nr_to_scan);
>  static int __es_shrink(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi, int nr_to_scan,
> -		       struct ext4_inode_info *locked_ei);
> +		       struct ext4_inode_info *locked_ei, int *nr_scanned);
>  static int __revise_pending(struct inode *inode, ext4_lblk_t lblk,
>  			    ext4_lblk_t len,
>  			    struct pending_reservation **prealloc);
> @@ -1670,7 +1670,7 @@ void ext4_es_remove_extent(struct inode *inode, ext4_lblk_t lblk,
>  }
>  
>  static int __es_shrink(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi, int nr_to_scan,
> -		       struct ext4_inode_info *locked_ei)
> +		       struct ext4_inode_info *locked_ei, int *nr_scanned)
>  {
>  	struct ext4_inode_info *ei;
>  	struct ext4_es_stats *es_stats;
> @@ -1679,6 +1679,7 @@ static int __es_shrink(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi, int nr_to_scan,
>  	int nr_to_walk;
>  	int nr_shrunk = 0;
>  	int retried = 0, nr_skipped = 0;
> +	int orig_nr_to_scan = nr_to_scan;
>  
>  	es_stats = &sbi->s_es_stats;
>  	start_time = ktime_get();
> @@ -1738,6 +1739,8 @@ static int __es_shrink(struct ext4_sb_info *sbi, int nr_to_scan,
>  		nr_shrunk = es_reclaim_extents(locked_ei, &nr_to_scan);
>  
>  out:
> +	*nr_scanned = orig_nr_to_scan - nr_to_scan;
> +
>  	scan_time = ktime_to_ns(ktime_sub(ktime_get(), start_time));
>  	if (likely(es_stats->es_stats_scan_time))
>  		es_stats->es_stats_scan_time = (scan_time +
> @@ -1774,15 +1777,30 @@ static unsigned long ext4_es_scan(struct shrinker *shrink,
>  {
>  	struct ext4_sb_info *sbi = shrink->private_data;
>  	int nr_to_scan = sc->nr_to_scan;
> -	int ret, nr_shrunk;
> +	int ret, nr_shrunk, nr_scanned;
>  
>  	ret = percpu_counter_read_positive(&sbi->s_es_stats.es_stats_shk_cnt);
>  	trace_ext4_es_shrink_scan_enter(sbi->s_sb, nr_to_scan, ret);
>  
> -	nr_shrunk = __es_shrink(sbi, nr_to_scan, NULL);
> +	nr_shrunk = __es_shrink(sbi, nr_to_scan, NULL, &nr_scanned);
> +	sc->nr_scanned = nr_scanned;
>  
>  	ret = percpu_counter_read_positive(&sbi->s_es_stats.es_stats_shk_cnt);
>  	trace_ext4_es_shrink_scan_exit(sbi->s_sb, nr_shrunk, ret);
> +
> +	/*
> +	 * es_stats_shk_cnt is a percpu counter, so count_objects() can report
> +	 * a stale/approximate value that is still positive even though
> +	 * sbi->s_es_list is actually empty by the time we get here. When that
> +	 * happens __es_shrink() returns immediately having examined nothing
> +	 * (nr_scanned == 0). Without SHRINK_STOP, do_shrink_slab() has no way
> +	 * to tell "nothing was there" from "nothing was scanned yet" and will
> +	 * keep calling us with the same stale freeable count until its scan
> +	 * budget for this priority level is exhausted one batch at a time.
> +	 */
> +	if (nr_scanned == 0)
> +		return SHRINK_STOP;
> +
>  	return nr_shrunk;
>  }
>  
> 
> ---
> base-commit: 502d801f0ab03e4f32f9a33d203154ce84887921
> change-id: 20260928-fix-ext4-es-scan-nr-scanned-5af70744f6cd
> 
> Best regards,
> -- 
> Qiliang Yuan <odys.yuan@gmail.com>
> 
-- 
Jan Kara <jack@suse.com>
SUSE Labs, CR