Re: [PATCH v4 2/9] fs: add infrastructure for multigrain inode i_m/ctime

Jan Kara
2023-05-23T10:03:10Z

On Thu 18-05-23 07:47:35, Jeff Layton wrote:
> The VFS always uses coarse-grained timestamp updates for filling out the
> ctime and mtime after a change. This has the benefit of allowing
> filesystems to optimize away a lot metadata updates, down to around 1
> per jiffy, even when a file is under heavy writes.
>
> Unfortunately, this has always been an issue when we're exporting via
> NFSv3, which relies on timestamps to validate caches. Even with NFSv4, a
> lot of exported filesystems don't properly support a change attribute
> and are subject to the same problems with timestamp granularity. Other
> applications have similar issues (e.g backup applications).
>
> Switching to always using fine-grained timestamps would improve the
> situation, but that becomes rather expensive, as the underlying
> filesystem will have to log a lot more metadata updates.
>
> What we need is a way to only use fine-grained timestamps when they are
> being actively queried.
>
> The kernel always stores normalized ctime values, so only the first 30
> bits of the tv_nsec field are ever used. Whenever the mtime changes, the
> ctime must also change.
>
> Use the 31st bit of the ctime tv_nsec field to indicate that something
> has queried the inode for the i_mtime or i_ctime. When this flag is set,
> on the next timestamp update, the kernel can fetch a fine-grained
> timestamp instead of the usual coarse-grained one.
>
> This patch adds the infrastructure this scheme. Filesytems can opt
> into it by setting the FS_MULTIGRAIN_TS flag in the fstype.
>
> Later patches will convert individual filesystems over to use it.
>
> Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@kernel.org>

So there are two things I dislike about this series because I think they
are fragile:

1) If we have a filesystem supporting multigrain ts and someone
accidentally directly uses the value of inode->i_ctime, he can get bogus
value (with QUERIED flag). This mistake is very easy to do. So I think we
should rename i_ctime to something like __i_ctime and always use accessor
function for it.

2) As I already commented in a previous version of the series, the scheme
with just one flag for both ctime and mtime and flag getting cleared in
current_time() relies on the fact that filesystems always do an equivalent
of:

inode->i_mtime = inode->i_ctime = current_time();

Otherwise we can do coarse grained update where we should have done a fine
grained one. Filesystems often update timestamps like this but not
universally. Grepping shows some instances where only inode->i_mtime is set
from current_time() e.g. in autofs or bfs. Again a mistake that is rather
easy to make and results in subtle issues. I think this would be also
nicely solved by renaming i_ctime to __i_ctime and using a function to set
ctime. Mtime could then be updated with inode->i_mtime = ctime_peek().

I understand this is quite some churn but a very mechanical one that could
be just done with Coccinelle and a few manual fixups. So IMHO it is worth
the more robust result.

Some more nits below.

> +/**
> + * current_mg_time - Return FS time (possibly fine-grained)
> + * @inode: inode.
> + *
> + * Return the current time truncated to the time granularity supported by
> + * the fs, as suitable for a ctime/mtime change. If the ctime is flagged
> + * as having been QUERIED, get a fine-grained timestamp.
> + */

The comment should also mention that QUERIED flag is cleared from the ctime.

> +static struct timespec64 current_mg_time(struct inode *inode)
> +{
> + struct timespec64 now;
> + atomic_long_t *pnsec = (atomic_long_t *)&inode->i_ctime.tv_nsec;
> + long nsec = atomic_long_fetch_andnot(I_CTIME_QUERIED, pnsec);
> +
> + if (nsec & I_CTIME_QUERIED) {
> + ktime_get_real_ts64(&now);
> + } else {
> + struct timespec64 ctime;
> +
> + ktime_get_coarse_real_ts64(&now);
> +
> + /*
> + * If we've recently fetched a fine-grained timestamp
> + * then the coarse-grained one may still be earlier than the
> + * existing one. Just keep the existing ctime if so.
> + */
> + ctime = ctime_peek(inode);
> + if (timespec64_compare(&ctime, &now) > 0)
> + now = ctime;
> + }
> +
> + return now;
> +}
> +

...

> +/**
> + * ctime_nsec_peek - peek at (but don't query) the ctime tv_nsec field
> + * @inode: inode to fetch the ctime from
> + *
> + * Grab the current ctime tv_nsec field from the inode, mask off the
> + * I_CTIME_QUERIED flag and return it. This is mostly intended for use by
> + * internal consumers of the ctime that aren't concerned with ensuring a
> + * fine-grained update on the next change (e.g. when preparing to store
> + * the value in the backing store for later retrieval).
> + *
> + * This is safe to call regardless of whether the underlying filesystem
> + * is using multigrain timestamps.
> + */
> +static inline long ctime_nsec_peek(const struct inode *inode)
> +{
> + return inode->i_ctime.tv_nsec &~ I_CTIME_QUERIED;

This is somewhat unusual spacing. I'd use:

inode->i_ctime.tv_nsec & ~I_CTIME_QUERIED

> +}
> +
> +/**
> + * ctime_peek - peek at (but don't query) the ctime
> + * @inode: inode to fetch the ctime from
> + *
> + * Grab the current ctime from the inode, sans I_CTIME_QUERIED flag. For
> + * use by internal consumers that don't require a fine-grained update on
> + * the next change.
> + *
> + * This is safe to call regardless of whether the underlying filesystem
> + * is using multigrain timestamps.
> + */
> +static inline struct timespec64 ctime_peek(const struct inode *inode)
> +{
> + struct timespec64 ctime;
> +
> + ctime.tv_sec = inode->i_ctime.tv_sec;
> + ctime.tv_nsec = ctime_nsec_peek(inode);
> +
> + return ctime;
> +}

Given this is in a header that gets included in a lot of places, maybe we
should call it like inode_ctime_peek() or inode_ctime_get() to reduce
chances of a name clash?

Honza
--
Jan Kara <jack@suse.com>
SUSE Labs, CR