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Boris Burkov 030d3514c6 btrfs: release extent lock per folio in readahead
In Meta production, we have observed a large number of hosts running
kernels newer than 6.13 which hit hung tasks on
btrfs_read_folio()->lock_extents_for_read(). Looking through the history
in this codepath reveals an interesting history.

in 6.12, we merged
commit ac325fc2aa ("btrfs: do not hold the extent lock for entire read")
which holds the extent lock very narrowly while looking up the
extent_map. However, this proved to introduce a serious race with DIO
writes which was fixed in 6.14 with
commit acc18e1c1d ("btrfs: fix stale page cache after race between readahead and direct IO write")

That latter fix subtly changed the extent unlock point from the pre-6.12
regime. In 6.11, each read endio unlocked the extent it finished
reading, but in 6.14, the extent is locked/unlocked as a unit around the
entire readahead loop, while the individual folios are still unlocked as
the endios finish. This is mostly the same behavior, as all successful
reads will populate the page cache, so subsequent reads won't enter
btrfs and hit the extent lock. But in the case where the readahead
fails, perhaps because of a memory allocation failure doing compressed
reads, the page will not be brought up to date and a later read of an
overlapping range *will* block on the extent lock.

Why is this a problem?

On sufficiently large loaded systems, I have observed that direct
reclaim can run for minutes. Given that, consider two tasks on such a
system reading an overlapping range of a compressed file:

  Task 1 locks the whole range and starts to read. Some allocation for
  the compressed read for folio F fails and we carry on while holding the
  extent lock for the full range.

  Task 2 wants to read F, which is not uptodate and in page cache, so it
  blocks on the extent lock held by Task 1.

  Task 1 keeps getting stuck in direct reclaim (likely, we already
  supposed an allocation failure above)

  Task 2 stays blocked on the extent lock the whole time.

If you consider the effects of readahead_expand and imagine a file with
a 128k compressed extent followed by many smaller compressed extents,
you can imagine that the expanded window will result in subsequent reads
hitting many extents (128k/4k = 32) per lock window in the worst case.

The system likeley wouldn't be all that healthy anyway, so this is
likely not a critical improvement, but it does alleviate this one source
of stress and one thread's slowdown escalating to others.

To bring this behavior back to the old model, we should unlock the
extent at each loop of the readahead loop rather than in one shot at the
end. This allows such overlapping reads to proceed as they should.
Writes are fine because either the page has already been read and has an
appropriate state in the page cache to be invalidated (or not uptodate)
or it is still-to-be-read and the extent lock is still held protecting
it.

Reviewed-by: Filipe Manana <fdmanana@suse.com>
Reviewed-by: Qu Wenruo <wqu@suse.com>
Signed-off-by: Boris Burkov <boris@bur.io>
Signed-off-by: David Sterba <dsterba@suse.com>
History 2026-08-07 19:16:28 +02:00
arch s390: 2026-08-07 07:41:40 -07:00
block block: stop the timeout timer when releasing a never added disk 2026-07-29 05:23:20 -06:00
certs treewide: fix indentation and whitespace in Kconfig files 2026-05-28 21:24:42 -07:00
crypto crypto: aes - Fix conditions for selecting MAC dependencies 2026-07-09 11:06:22 -04:00
Documentation Including fixes from netfilter. 2026-08-06 11:39:20 -07:00
drivers s390: 2026-08-07 07:41:40 -07:00
fs btrfs: release extent lock per folio in readahead 2026-08-07 19:16:28 +02:00
include Thermal control fixes for 7.2-rc7 2026-08-07 06:48:51 -07:00
init rust: allow suspicious_runtime_symbol_definitions lint for Rust >= 1.98 2026-06-29 13:02:15 +02:00
io_uring io_uring: preserve task restrictions across exec 2026-07-30 14:40:22 -06:00
ipc kernel-7.2-rc1.misc 2026-06-15 03:05:50 +05:30
kernel BPF fixes: 2026-08-07 08:08:57 -07:00
lib hardening fixes for v7.2-rc6 2026-07-28 13:36:01 -07:00
LICENSES LICENSES: Add modern form of the LGPL-2.1 tags to the usage guide section 2025-10-22 07:58:19 +02:00
mm 17 hotfixes. 15 are cc:stable. 16 are for MM. 2026-08-06 20:29:38 -07:00
net BPF fixes: 2026-08-07 08:08:57 -07:00
rust rust: time: fix as_micros_ceil() to round correctly for negative Delta 2026-07-18 19:07:35 +02:00
samples samples/damon/mtier: error out for zero quota goal target values 2026-08-04 20:02:02 -07:00
scripts kbuild: rpm-pkg: Preserve BTF sections in kernel modules during debuginfo stripping 2026-07-29 16:21:42 -07:00
security selinux/stable-7.2 PR 20260805 2026-08-05 13:40:11 -07:00
sound ALSA: usb-audio: Fix sticky mixer regressions on M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 2026-08-07 10:35:31 +02:00
tools BPF fixes: 2026-08-07 08:08:57 -07:00
usr kbuild: uapi: also test UAPI headers against C++ compilers 2026-03-25 13:24:42 +01:00
virt KVM/arm64 fixes for 7.2, take #2 2026-07-15 12:13:30 +02:00
.clang-format clang-format: fix formatting of guard() and scoped_guard() statements 2026-05-28 21:24:41 -07:00
.clippy.toml rust: bump Clippy's MSRV and clean incompatible_msrv allows 2026-04-07 09:51:39 +02:00
.cocciconfig scripts: add Linux .cocciconfig for coccinelle 2016-07-22 12:13:39 +02:00
.editorconfig editorconfig: add rst extension 2026-01-26 19:07:09 -08:00
.get_maintainer.ignore .get_maintainer.ignore: add myself 2026-04-02 16:48:25 +02:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore SPDX patches for 7.2-rc1 2026-06-22 12:06:22 -07:00
.mailmap 17 hotfixes. 15 are cc:stable. 16 are for MM. 2026-08-06 20:29:38 -07:00
.pylintrc docs: Move the python libraries to tools/lib/python 2025-11-18 09:22:40 -07:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS CREDITS: Add Wolfram Sang 2026-07-14 16:34:04 +02:00
Kbuild checksyscalls: move instance functionality into generic code 2026-04-05 09:21:32 +02:00
Kconfig io_uring: Rename KConfig to Kconfig 2025-02-19 14:53:27 -07:00
MAINTAINERS sound fixes for 7.2-rc7 2026-08-07 06:36:11 -07:00
Makefile Linux 7.2-rc6 2026-08-02 16:24:24 -07:00
README docs: add AI Coding Assistants documentation 2026-01-06 14:55:06 -07:00

Linux kernel
============

The Linux kernel is the core of any Linux operating system. It manages hardware,
system resources, and provides the fundamental services for all other software.

Quick Start
-----------

* Report a bug: See Documentation/admin-guide/reporting-issues.rst
* Get the latest kernel: https://kernel.org
* Build the kernel: See Documentation/admin-guide/quickly-build-trimmed-linux.rst
* Join the community: https://lore.kernel.org/

Essential Documentation
-----------------------

All users should be familiar with:

* Building requirements: Documentation/process/changes.rst
* Code of Conduct: Documentation/process/code-of-conduct.rst
* License: See COPYING

Documentation can be built with make htmldocs or viewed online at:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/


Who Are You?
============

Find your role below:

* New Kernel Developer - Getting started with kernel development
* Academic Researcher - Studying kernel internals and architecture
* Security Expert - Hardening and vulnerability analysis
* Backport/Maintenance Engineer - Maintaining stable kernels
* System Administrator - Configuring and troubleshooting
* Maintainer - Leading subsystems and reviewing patches
* Hardware Vendor - Writing drivers for new hardware
* Distribution Maintainer - Packaging kernels for distros
* AI Coding Assistant - LLMs and AI-powered development tools


For Specific Users
==================

New Kernel Developer
--------------------

Welcome! Start your kernel development journey here:

* Getting Started: Documentation/process/development-process.rst
* Your First Patch: Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst
* Coding Style: Documentation/process/coding-style.rst
* Build System: Documentation/kbuild/index.rst
* Development Tools: Documentation/dev-tools/index.rst
* Kernel Hacking Guide: Documentation/kernel-hacking/hacking.rst
* Core APIs: Documentation/core-api/index.rst

Academic Researcher
-------------------

Explore the kernel's architecture and internals:

* Researcher Guidelines: Documentation/process/researcher-guidelines.rst
* Memory Management: Documentation/mm/index.rst
* Scheduler: Documentation/scheduler/index.rst
* Networking Stack: Documentation/networking/index.rst
* Filesystems: Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
* RCU (Read-Copy Update): Documentation/RCU/index.rst
* Locking Primitives: Documentation/locking/index.rst
* Power Management: Documentation/power/index.rst

Security Expert
---------------

Security documentation and hardening guides:

* Security Documentation: Documentation/security/index.rst
* LSM Development: Documentation/security/lsm-development.rst
* Self Protection: Documentation/security/self-protection.rst
* Reporting Vulnerabilities: Documentation/process/security-bugs.rst
* CVE Procedures: Documentation/process/cve.rst
* Embargoed Hardware Issues: Documentation/process/embargoed-hardware-issues.rst
* Security Features: Documentation/userspace-api/seccomp_filter.rst

Backport/Maintenance Engineer
-----------------------------

Maintain and stabilize kernel versions:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* Backporting Guide: Documentation/process/backporting.rst
* Applying Patches: Documentation/process/applying-patches.rst
* Subsystem Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git for Maintainers: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

System Administrator
--------------------

Configure, tune, and troubleshoot Linux systems:

* Admin Guide: Documentation/admin-guide/index.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Sysctl Tuning: Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/index.rst
* Tracing/Debugging: Documentation/trace/index.rst
* Performance Security: Documentation/admin-guide/perf-security.rst
* Hardware Monitoring: Documentation/hwmon/index.rst

Maintainer
----------

Lead kernel subsystems and manage contributions:

* Maintainer Handbook: Documentation/maintainer/index.rst
* Pull Requests: Documentation/maintainer/pull-requests.rst
* Managing Patches: Documentation/maintainer/modifying-patches.rst
* Rebasing and Merging: Documentation/maintainer/rebasing-and-merging.rst
* Development Process: Documentation/process/maintainer-handbooks.rst
* Maintainer Entry Profile: Documentation/maintainer/maintainer-entry-profile.rst
* Git Configuration: Documentation/maintainer/configure-git.rst

Hardware Vendor
---------------

Write drivers and support new hardware:

* Driver API Guide: Documentation/driver-api/index.rst
* Driver Model: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/driver.rst
* Device Drivers: Documentation/driver-api/infrastructure.rst
* Bus Types: Documentation/driver-api/driver-model/bus.rst
* Device Tree Bindings: Documentation/devicetree/bindings/
* Power Management: Documentation/driver-api/pm/index.rst
* DMA API: Documentation/core-api/dma-api.rst

Distribution Maintainer
-----------------------

Package and distribute the kernel:

* Stable Kernel Rules: Documentation/process/stable-kernel-rules.rst
* ABI Documentation: Documentation/ABI/README
* Kernel Configuration: Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.rst
* Module Signing: Documentation/admin-guide/module-signing.rst
* Kernel Parameters: Documentation/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.rst
* Tainted Kernels: Documentation/admin-guide/tainted-kernels.rst

AI Coding Assistant
-------------------

CRITICAL: If you are an LLM or AI-powered coding assistant, you MUST read and
follow the AI coding assistants documentation before contributing to the Linux
kernel:

* Documentation/process/coding-assistants.rst

This documentation contains essential requirements about licensing, attribution,
and the Developer Certificate of Origin that all AI tools must comply with.


Communication and Support
=========================

* Mailing Lists: https://lore.kernel.org/
* IRC: #kernelnewbies on irc.oftc.net
* Bugzilla: https://bugzilla.kernel.org/
* MAINTAINERS file: Lists subsystem maintainers and mailing lists
* Email Clients: Documentation/process/email-clients.rst