* [PATCH 6.18] backing-file: always end a queued write
2026-11-07 10:59 [PATCH 6.12] backing-file: always end a queued write Amir Goldstein
@ 2026-11-07 10:59 ` Amir Goldstein
2026-11-07 10:59 ` [PATCH 6.1] " Amir Goldstein
2026-11-07 10:59 ` [PATCH 6.6] " Amir Goldstein
2 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Amir Goldstein @ 2026-11-07 10:59 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Greg Kroah-Hartman
Cc: Sasha Levin, Christian Brauner, Miklos Szeredi, stable,
linux-unionfs, linux-fsdevel, Chris Mason
From: Chris Mason <mason@kernel.org>
commit 627cdcbc2a2eceb0452078a0c14370f9f1f17a91 upstream.
Writes to a loop device with direct I/O on an overlay file make the
next freeze of the upper filesystem hang for ever.
Every kiocb_start_write() needs a kiocb_end_write(). For a write that
is queued, vfs_iocb_iter_write() leaves the end to the completion, and
backing_aio_rw_complete() only calls kiocb_end_write() when IOCB_WRITE
is set in the flags copied from the submitter. In-kernel submitters
such as loop do not set that flag, so each queued write keeps the
freeze protection of the backing filesystem.
Direct writes to a loop device with direct I/O backed by an overlay
file left fsfreeze of the ext4 upper filesystem, and a later touch
there, blocked in D state. It takes write access to the node of the
loop device, which root has by default, to attach the file and to write.
The fix used here is to mark a write in struct backing_aio and to call
kiocb_end_write() on completion of every marked write.
Reproduced under qemu without KVM, on v7.3-rc6-21-g602042bf29f6 with
earlier fixes of this series applied, with and without this change,
once each. The kernel was not changed for the run. With this change
fsfreeze finished in about a second. Not run: the nvmet and LIO file
backends, which do not set IOCB_WRITE either, FUSE passthrough, and an
xfs upper filesystem.
Fixes: 2406a307ac7d ("ovl: implement async IO routines")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Chris Mason <mason@kernel.org>
[amir: use aio->is_write to explicitly mark a write aio]
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20261029180319.2852090-1-amir73il@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <brauner@kernel.org>
---
[ backport: context: no do_backing_file_write_iter(), the write is marked
in backing_file_write_iter() ]
fs/backing-file.c | 5 ++++-
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/fs/backing-file.c b/fs/backing-file.c
--- a/fs/backing-file.c
+++ b/fs/backing-file.c
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ struct backing_aio {
refcount_t ref;
struct kiocb *orig_iocb;
/* used for aio completion */
+ bool is_write;
void (*end_write)(struct kiocb *iocb, ssize_t);
struct work_struct work;
long res;
@@ -123,7 +124,8 @@ static void backing_aio_rw_complete(struct kiocb *iocb, long res)
struct backing_aio *aio = container_of(iocb, struct backing_aio, iocb);
struct kiocb *orig_iocb = aio->orig_iocb;
- if (iocb->ki_flags & IOCB_WRITE)
+ /* Pairs with kiocb_start_write() in vfs_iocb_iter_write() */
+ if (aio->is_write)
kiocb_end_write(iocb);
backing_aio_cleanup(aio, res);
@@ -255,6 +257,7 @@ ssize_t backing_file_write_iter(struct file *file, struct iov_iter *iter,
if (!aio)
goto out;
aio->orig_iocb = iocb;
+ aio->is_write = true;
aio->end_write = ctx->end_write;
kiocb_clone(&aio->iocb, iocb, get_file(file));
aio->iocb.ki_flags = flags;
--
backport
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread* [PATCH 6.1] backing-file: always end a queued write
2026-11-07 10:59 [PATCH 6.12] backing-file: always end a queued write Amir Goldstein
2026-11-07 10:59 ` [PATCH 6.18] " Amir Goldstein
@ 2026-11-07 10:59 ` Amir Goldstein
2026-11-07 10:59 ` [PATCH 6.6] " Amir Goldstein
2 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Amir Goldstein @ 2026-11-07 10:59 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Greg Kroah-Hartman
Cc: Sasha Levin, Christian Brauner, Miklos Szeredi, stable,
linux-unionfs, linux-fsdevel, Chris Mason
From: Chris Mason <mason@kernel.org>
commit 627cdcbc2a2eceb0452078a0c14370f9f1f17a91 upstream.
Writes to a loop device with direct I/O on an overlay file make the
next freeze of the upper filesystem hang for ever.
Every kiocb_start_write() needs a kiocb_end_write(). For a write that
is queued, vfs_iocb_iter_write() leaves the end to the completion, and
backing_aio_rw_complete() only calls kiocb_end_write() when IOCB_WRITE
is set in the flags copied from the submitter. In-kernel submitters
such as loop do not set that flag, so each queued write keeps the
freeze protection of the backing filesystem.
Direct writes to a loop device with direct I/O backed by an overlay
file left fsfreeze of the ext4 upper filesystem, and a later touch
there, blocked in D state. It takes write access to the node of the
loop device, which root has by default, to attach the file and to write.
The fix used here is to mark a write in struct backing_aio and to call
kiocb_end_write() on completion of every marked write.
Reproduced under qemu without KVM, on v7.3-rc6-21-g602042bf29f6 with
earlier fixes of this series applied, with and without this change,
once each. The kernel was not changed for the run. With this change
fsfreeze finished in about a second. Not run: the nvmet and LIO file
backends, which do not set IOCB_WRITE either, FUSE passthrough, and an
xfs upper filesystem.
Fixes: 2406a307ac7d ("ovl: implement async IO routines")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Chris Mason <mason@kernel.org>
[amir: use aio->is_write to explicitly mark a write aio]
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20261029180319.2852090-1-amir73il@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <brauner@kernel.org>
[backport: no fs/backing-file.c, mark the write in struct ovl_aio_req and
test it in ovl_aio_cleanup_handler()]
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>
---
fs/overlayfs/file.c | 4 +++-
1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/file.c b/fs/overlayfs/file.c
--- a/fs/overlayfs/file.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/file.c
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ struct ovl_aio_req {
struct kiocb iocb;
refcount_t ref;
struct kiocb *orig_iocb;
+ bool is_write;
};
static struct kmem_cache *ovl_aio_request_cachep;
@@ -269,7 +270,7 @@ static void ovl_aio_cleanup_handler(struct ovl_aio_req *aio_req)
struct kiocb *iocb = &aio_req->iocb;
struct kiocb *orig_iocb = aio_req->orig_iocb;
- if (iocb->ki_flags & IOCB_WRITE) {
+ if (aio_req->is_write) {
struct inode *inode = file_inode(orig_iocb->ki_filp);
/* Actually acquired in ovl_write_iter() */
@@ -396,6 +397,7 @@ static ssize_t ovl_write_iter(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *iter)
SB_FREEZE_WRITE);
real.flags = 0;
aio_req->orig_iocb = iocb;
+ aio_req->is_write = true;
kiocb_clone(&aio_req->iocb, iocb, get_file(real.file));
aio_req->iocb.ki_flags = ifl;
aio_req->iocb.ki_complete = ovl_aio_rw_complete;
--
backport
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread* [PATCH 6.6] backing-file: always end a queued write
2026-11-07 10:59 [PATCH 6.12] backing-file: always end a queued write Amir Goldstein
2026-11-07 10:59 ` [PATCH 6.18] " Amir Goldstein
2026-11-07 10:59 ` [PATCH 6.1] " Amir Goldstein
@ 2026-11-07 10:59 ` Amir Goldstein
2 siblings, 0 replies; 4+ messages in thread
From: Amir Goldstein @ 2026-11-07 10:59 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: Greg Kroah-Hartman
Cc: Sasha Levin, Christian Brauner, Miklos Szeredi, stable,
linux-unionfs, linux-fsdevel, Chris Mason
From: Chris Mason <mason@kernel.org>
commit 627cdcbc2a2eceb0452078a0c14370f9f1f17a91 upstream.
Writes to a loop device with direct I/O on an overlay file make the
next freeze of the upper filesystem hang for ever.
Every kiocb_start_write() needs a kiocb_end_write(). For a write that
is queued, vfs_iocb_iter_write() leaves the end to the completion, and
backing_aio_rw_complete() only calls kiocb_end_write() when IOCB_WRITE
is set in the flags copied from the submitter. In-kernel submitters
such as loop do not set that flag, so each queued write keeps the
freeze protection of the backing filesystem.
Direct writes to a loop device with direct I/O backed by an overlay
file left fsfreeze of the ext4 upper filesystem, and a later touch
there, blocked in D state. It takes write access to the node of the
loop device, which root has by default, to attach the file and to write.
The fix used here is to mark a write in struct backing_aio and to call
kiocb_end_write() on completion of every marked write.
Reproduced under qemu without KVM, on v7.3-rc6-21-g602042bf29f6 with
earlier fixes of this series applied, with and without this change,
once each. The kernel was not changed for the run. With this change
fsfreeze finished in about a second. Not run: the nvmet and LIO file
backends, which do not set IOCB_WRITE either, FUSE passthrough, and an
xfs upper filesystem.
Fixes: 2406a307ac7d ("ovl: implement async IO routines")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Chris Mason <mason@kernel.org>
[amir: use aio->is_write to explicitly mark a write aio]
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20261029180319.2852090-1-amir73il@gmail.com
Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner (Amutable) <brauner@kernel.org>
[backport: no fs/backing-file.c, mark the write in struct ovl_aio_req and
test it in ovl_aio_cleanup_handler()]
Signed-off-by: Amir Goldstein <amir73il@gmail.com>
---
fs/overlayfs/file.c | 5 ++++-
1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/fs/overlayfs/file.c b/fs/overlayfs/file.c
--- a/fs/overlayfs/file.c
+++ b/fs/overlayfs/file.c
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ struct ovl_aio_req {
struct kiocb iocb;
refcount_t ref;
struct kiocb *orig_iocb;
+ bool is_write;
};
static struct kmem_cache *ovl_aio_request_cachep;
@@ -289,7 +290,8 @@ static void ovl_aio_cleanup_handler(struct ovl_aio_req *aio_req)
struct kiocb *iocb = &aio_req->iocb;
struct kiocb *orig_iocb = aio_req->orig_iocb;
- if (iocb->ki_flags & IOCB_WRITE) {
+ /* Pairs with kiocb_start_write() in ovl_write_iter() */
+ if (aio_req->is_write) {
struct inode *inode = file_inode(orig_iocb->ki_filp);
kiocb_end_write(iocb);
@@ -413,6 +415,7 @@ static ssize_t ovl_write_iter(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *iter)
goto out;
aio_req->orig_iocb = iocb;
+ aio_req->is_write = true;
kiocb_clone(&aio_req->iocb, iocb, get_file(real.file));
aio_req->iocb.ki_flags = ifl;
aio_req->iocb.ki_complete = ovl_aio_rw_complete;
--
backport
^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 4+ messages in thread