Re: [PATCH] mke2fs reserved_ratio default value is nonsensical

[Eric Sandeen <sandeen@redhat.com>]

On 3/28/11 1:02 PM, Oren Elrad wrote:
> Undesired behavior; mke2fs defaults to reserving 5% of the volume for
> the root user. 5% of a 2TB volume is 100GB. The rationale for root
> reservation (syslogd, etc...) does not require 100GB. As volumes get
> larger, this default makes less and less sense.
> 
> Proposal; If the user does not specify their preferred reserve_ratio
> on the command-line (-m), use the less of 5% or MAX_RSRV_SIZE. I
> propose 10GiB as a sensible maximum default reservation for root.
> 
> Patch: Follows and http://capsid.brandeis.edu/~elrad/e2fsprog.gitdiff
> 
> Tested on the latest git+patch, RHEL5 (2.6.18-194.17.1.el5) with a
> 12TB volume (which would reserve 600GB under the default!):

There's been a bit of debate about this; is the space really saved
for root, or is it to stop the allocator from going off the rails
when the fs nears capacity?  Both, really.

I don't really have a horse in the race, but the complaint has certainly
come up before... it's just important to realize that the space isn't 
only there for root's eventual use.

No other fs that I know of enforces this "don't fill the fs to capacity" 
common sense programatically, though.

-Eric

> # /root/e2fsprogs/misc/mke2fs -T ext4 -L scratch /dev/sdd1
> [...]
> OS type: Linux
> Block size=4096 (log=2)
> Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
> Stride=0 blocks, Stripe width=0 blocks
> 732422144 inodes, 2929671159 blocks
> 2621440 blocks (0.09%) reserved for the super user
> [...]
> 
> Oren Elrad
> Dept. of Physics
> Brandeis University
> 
> ---- Patch follows ----
> 
> diff --git a/misc/mke2fs.c b/misc/mke2fs.c
> index 9798b88..0ff3785 100644
> --- a/misc/mke2fs.c
> +++ b/misc/mke2fs.c
> @@ -108,6 +108,8 @@ profile_t	profile;
>  int sys_page_size = 4096;
>  int linux_version_code = 0;
> 
> +static const unsigned long long MAX_RSRV_SIZE = 10ULL * (1 << 30); // 10 GiB
> +
>  static void usage(void)
>  {
>  	fprintf(stderr, _("Usage: %s [-c|-l filename] [-b block-size] "
> @@ -1154,7 +1156,7 @@ static void PRS(int argc, char *argv[])
>  	int		inode_ratio = 0;
>  	int		inode_size = 0;
>  	unsigned long	flex_bg_size = 0;
> -	double		reserved_ratio = 5.0;
> +	double		reserved_ratio = -1.0; // Default: lesser of 5%, MAX_RSRV_SIZE
>  	int		lsector_size = 0, psector_size = 0;
>  	int		show_version_only = 0;
>  	unsigned long long num_inodes = 0; /* unsigned long long to catch
> too-large input */
> @@ -1893,9 +1895,17 @@ profile_error:
> 
>  	/*
>  	 * Calculate number of blocks to reserve
> +	 * If reserved_ratio >= 0.0, it was passed as an argument, use it as-is
> +	 * If reserved_ratio < 0.0, no argument was passed, choose the
> lesser of 5%, MAX_RSRV_SIZE
>  	 */
> -	ext2fs_r_blocks_count_set(&fs_param, reserved_ratio *
> -				  ext2fs_blocks_count(&fs_param) / 100.0);
> +	if ( reserved_ratio >= 0.0 ) {
> +		ext2fs_r_blocks_count_set(&fs_param, reserved_ratio *
> +					  ext2fs_blocks_count(&fs_param) / 100.0);
> +	} else {
> +		const blk64_t r_blk_count = ext2fs_blocks_count(&fs_param) / 20.0;
> +		const blk64_t max_r_blk_count = MAX_RSRV_SIZE / blocksize;
> +		ext2fs_r_blocks_count_set(&fs_param, (r_blk_count < max_r_blk_count
> ? r_blk_count : max_r_blk_count));
> +	}
>  }
> 
>  static int should_do_undo(const char *name)
> 
> By making a contribution to this project, I certify that:
> 
> 	(a) The contribution was created in whole or in part by me and I
>             have the right to submit it under the open source license
>             indicated in the file;
> 
> 	(d) I understand and agree that this project and the contribution
> 	    are public and that a record of the contribution (including all
> 	    personal information I submit with it, including my sign-off) is
> 	    maintained indefinitely and may be redistributed consistent with
> 	    this project or the open source license(s) involved.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Oren M Elrad <elrad@brandeis.edu>
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ext4" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html