Re: [PATCH][RFC] fast file mapping for loop

[Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org>]

Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com> writes:
>
> So how does it work? Instead of punting IO to a thread and passing it
> through the page cache, we instead attempt to send the IO directly to the

Great -- something like this was needed for a long time.

> - The file block mappings must not change while loop is using the file.
>   This means that we have to ensure exclusive access to the file and
>   this is the bit that is currently missing in the implementation. It
>   would be nice if we could just do this via open(), ideas welcome...

get_write_access()/put_write_access() will block other writers.

But as pointed out by others that is not enough for this.

I suppose you could use a white list like a special flag for file systems 
(like ext2/ext3) that do not reallocate blocks.

-Andi