[PATCH 1/4] mm: fix IOCB_DONTCACHE write performance with rate-limited writeback

Jeff Layton
2026-04-01T19:11:20Z

IOCB_DONTCACHE calls filemap_flush_range() with nr_to_write=LONG_MAX
on every write, which flushes all dirty pages in the written range.
Under concurrent writers this creates severe serialization on the
writeback submission path, causing throughput to collapse to ~47% of
buffered I/O with multi-second tail latency. Even single-client
sequential writes suffer: on a 512GB file with 256GB RAM, the
aggressive flushing triggers dirty throttling that limits throughput
to 575 MB/s vs 1442 MB/s with rate-limited writeback.

Replace the filemap_flush_range() call in generic_write_sync() with a
new filemap_dontcache_writeback_range() that uses two rate-limiting
mechanisms:

1. Skip-if-busy: check mapping_tagged(PAGECACHE_TAG_WRITEBACK)
before flushing. If writeback is already in progress on the
mapping, skip the flush entirely. This eliminates writeback
submission contention between concurrent writers.

2. Proportional cap: when flushing does occur, cap nr_to_write to
the number of pages just written. This prevents any single
write from triggering a large flush that would starve concurrent
readers.

Both mechanisms are necessary: skip-if-busy alone causes I/O bursts
when the tag clears (reader p99.9 spikes 83x); proportional cap alone
still serializes on xarray locks regardless of submission size.

Pages touched under IOCB_DONTCACHE continue to be marked for eviction
(dropbehind), so page cache usage remains bounded. Ranges skipped by
the busy check are eventually flushed by background writeback or by
the next writer to find the tag clear.

Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org>
---
include/linux/fs.h | 7 +++++--
mm/filemap.c | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
2 files changed, 34 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/fs.h b/include/linux/fs.h
index 8b3dd145b25ec12b00ac1df17a952d9116b88047..53e9cca1b50a946a1276c49902294c3ae0ab3500 100644
--- a/include/linux/fs.h
+++ b/include/linux/fs.h
@@ -2610,6 +2610,8 @@ extern int __must_check file_write_and_wait_range(struct file *file,
loff_t start, loff_t end);
int filemap_flush_range(struct address_space *mapping, loff_t start,
loff_t end);
+int filemap_dontcache_writeback_range(struct address_space *mapping,
+ loff_t start, loff_t end, ssize_t nr_written);

static inline int file_write_and_wait(struct file *file)
{
@@ -2645,8 +2647,9 @@ static inline ssize_t generic_write_sync(struct kiocb *iocb, ssize_t count)
} else if (iocb->ki_flags & IOCB_DONTCACHE) {
struct address_space *mapping = iocb->ki_filp->f_mapping;

- filemap_flush_range(mapping, iocb->ki_pos - count,
- iocb->ki_pos - 1);
+ filemap_dontcache_writeback_range(mapping,
+ iocb->ki_pos - count,
+ iocb->ki_pos - 1, count);
}

return count;
diff --git a/mm/filemap.c b/mm/filemap.c
index 406cef06b684a84a1e0c27d8267e95f32282ffdc..af2024b736bef74571cc22ab7e3cde2c8e872efe 100644
--- a/mm/filemap.c
+++ b/mm/filemap.c
@@ -437,6 +437,35 @@ int filemap_flush_range(struct address_space *mapping, loff_t start,
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(filemap_flush_range);

+/**
+ * filemap_dontcache_writeback_range - rate-limited writeback for dontcache I/O
+ * @mapping: target address_space
+ * @start: byte offset to start writeback
+ * @end: last byte offset (inclusive) for writeback
+ * @nr_written: number of bytes just written by the caller
+ *
+ * Rate-limited writeback for IOCB_DONTCACHE writes. Skips the flush
+ * entirely if writeback is already in progress on the mapping (skip-if-busy),
+ * and when flushing, caps nr_to_write to the number of pages just written
+ * (proportional cap). Together these avoid writeback contention between
+ * concurrent writers and prevent I/O bursts that starve readers.
+ *
+ * Return: %0 on success, negative error code otherwise.
+ */
+int filemap_dontcache_writeback_range(struct address_space *mapping,
+ loff_t start, loff_t end, ssize_t nr_written)
+{
+ long nr;
+
+ if (mapping_tagged(mapping, PAGECACHE_TAG_WRITEBACK))
+ return 0;
+
+ nr = (nr_written + PAGE_SIZE - 1) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
+ return filemap_writeback(mapping, start, end, WB_SYNC_NONE, &nr,
+ WB_REASON_BACKGROUND);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(filemap_dontcache_writeback_range);
+
/**
* filemap_flush - mostly a non-blocking flush
* @mapping: target address_space

--
2.53.0