Re: [PATCH RFC] iomap: only return IO error if no data has been transferred

Jens Axboe
2020-11-18T21:37:13Z

On 11/18/20 2:33 PM, Dave Chinner wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 18, 2020 at 02:19:30PM -0700, Jens Axboe wrote:
>> On 11/18/20 2:15 PM, Dave Chinner wrote:
>>> On Wed, Nov 18, 2020 at 02:00:06PM -0700, Jens Axboe wrote:
>>>> On 11/18/20 1:37 PM, Dave Chinner wrote:
>>>>> On Wed, Nov 18, 2020 at 08:26:50AM -0700, Jens Axboe wrote:
>>>>>> On 11/18/20 12:19 AM, Dave Chinner wrote:
>>>>>>> On Tue, Nov 17, 2020 at 03:17:18PM -0700, Jens Axboe wrote:
>>>>>>>> If we've successfully transferred some data in __iomap_dio_rw(),
>>>>>>>> don't mark an error for a latter segment in the dio.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> ---
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Debugging an issue with io_uring, which uses IOCB_NOWAIT for the
>>>>>>>> IO. If we do parts of an IO, then once that completes, we still
>>>>>>>> return -EAGAIN if we ran into a problem later on. That seems wrong,
>>>>>>>> normal convention would be to return the short IO instead. For the
>>>>>>>> -EAGAIN case, io_uring will retry later parts without IOCB_NOWAIT
>>>>>>>> and complete it successfully.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> So you are getting a write IO that is split across an allocated
>>>>>>> extent and a hole, and the second mapping is returning EAGAIN
>>>>>>> because allocation would be required? This sort of split extent IO
>>>>>>> is fairly common, so I'm not sure that splitting them into two
>>>>>>> separate IOs may not be the best approach.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The case I seem to be hitting is this one:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> if (iocb->ki_flags & IOCB_NOWAIT) {
>>>>>> if (filemap_range_has_page(mapping, pos, end)) {
>>>>>> ret = -EAGAIN;
>>>>>> goto out_free_dio;
>>>>>> }
>>>>>> flags |= IOMAP_NOWAIT;
>>>>>> }
>>>>>>
>>>>>> in __iomap_dio_rw(), which isn't something we can detect upfront like IO
>>>>>> over a multiple extents...
>>>>>
>>>>> This specific situation cannot result in the partial IO behaviour
>>>>> you described. It is an -upfront check- that is done before any IO
>>>>> is mapped or issued so results in the entire IO being skipped and we
>>>>> don't get anywhere near the code you changed.
>>>>>
>>>>> IOWs, this doesn't explain why you saw a partial IO, or why changing
>>>>> partial IO return values avoids -EAGAIN from a range we apparently
>>>>> just did a partial IO over and -didn't have page cache pages-
>>>>> sitting over it.
>>>>
>>>> You are right, I double checked and recreated my debugging. What's
>>>> triggering is that we're hitting this in xfs_direct_write_iomap_begin()
>>>> after we've already done some IO:
>>>>
>>>> allocate_blocks:
>>>> error = -EAGAIN;
>>>> if (flags & IOMAP_NOWAIT)
>>>> goto out_unlock;
>>>
>>> Ok, that's exactly the case the reproducer I wrote triggers.
>>
>> OK good, then we're on the same page :-)
>>
>>>>> Can you provide an actual event trace of the IOs in question that
>>>>> are failing in your tests (e.g. from something like `trace-cmd
>>>>> record -e xfs_file\* -e xfs_i\* -e xfs_\*write -e iomap\*` over the
>>>>> sequential that reproduces the issue) so that there's no ambiguity
>>>>> over how this problem is occurring in your systems?
>>>>
>>>> Let me know if you still want this!
>>>
>>> No, it makes sense now :)
>>
>> What's the next step here? Are you working on an XFS fix for this?
>
> I'm just building the patch now for testing.

Nice, you're fast...

>> Was looking at other potential -EAGAIN during the loop, and seems like
>> we'd be able to hit this if we fail xfs_ilock_for_iomap() as well. And
>> not sure how that would be solvable, without accepting that IOCB_NOWAIT
>> reads/writes can be short.
>
> The change I'm making should solves that, too. i.e. NOWAIT IO must
> map entirely within a single extent, so there is no scope for a
> short IO and re-entering the mapping code under NOWAIT conditions
> that could then fail.

Perfect, thanks Dave!

--
Jens Axboe