[PATCH 0/4] hfsplus: stop using write_supers and s_dirt

Artem Bityutskiy
2012-06-13T11:36:33Z

This patch-set makes HFSPLUS file-system stop using the VFS '->write_supers()'
call-back and the '->s_dirt' superblock field because I plan to remove them
once all users are gone.

Like the other similar patch-sets, we switch to a delayed job for writing out
the superblock instead of using the 's_dirt' flag. Additionally, this patch-set
includes several clean-ups.

Reminder:

The goal is to get rid of the 'sync_supers()' kernel thread. This kernel thread
wakes up every 5 seconds (by default) and calls '->write_super()' for all
mounted file-systems. And the bad thing is that this is done even if all the
superblocks are clean. Moreover, many file-systems do not even need this end
they do not register the '->write_super()' method at all (e.g., btrfs).

So 'sync_supers()' most often just generates useless wake-ups and wastes power.
I am trying to make all file-systems independent of '->write_super()' and plan
to remove 'sync_supers()' and '->write_super()' completely once there are no
more users.

Al, in the past I was trying to upstream patches which optimized 'sync_super()',
but you wanted me to kill it completely instead, which I am trying to do
now, see http://lkml.org/lkml/2010/7/22/96

Tested using the fsstress test from the LTP project.

======
Overall status:

1. ext4: patches submitted, waiting for review from Ted Ts'o:
https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/4/2/111
2. hfs: patches submitted, see
http://lkml.org/lkml/2012/6/12/82
3. hfsplus: this patch-set
4. udf: patch submitted, should be in Jan Kara's tree:
https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/6/4/233
5. exofs: patch submitted, not sure if it will go to the exofs tree:
https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/6/4/211
6. affs: patches submitted, should be in Al Viro's tree:
https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/6/6/400
7. ext2: done, see commit f72cf5e223a28d3b3ea7dc9e40464fd534e359e8
8. vfat: done, see commit 78491189ddb6d84d4a4abae992ed891a236d0263
9. jffs2: done, see commit 208b14e507c00ff7f108e1a388dd3d8cc805a443
10. reiserfs: done, see commit 033369d1af1264abc23bea2e174aa47cdd212f6f

TODO: sysv, ufs
======

fs/hfsplus/bitmap.c | 4 ++--
fs/hfsplus/dir.c | 2 +-
fs/hfsplus/hfsplus_fs.h | 7 +++++--
fs/hfsplus/inode.c | 6 +++---
fs/hfsplus/super.c | 46 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------
5 files changed, 45 insertions(+), 20 deletions(-)

Thanks,
Artem.