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Baokun Li 07961ebb09 ext4: base unaligned DIO lock decision on partial block zeroing
For unaligned DIO writes, the previous ext4_overwrite_io() required the
entire range to fall within a single written extent.  This was overly
conservative: the DIO layer only performs partial block zeroing for the
head and tail blocks when they are partially covered by the write.
Middle blocks that are fully covered are written as whole blocks
without any zeroing, so they are safe regardless of extent state.

Therefore exclusive lock is only required when partial block zeroing
will actually happen:
 - The head partial block (if any) lands on a hole or unwritten extent.
 - The tail partial block (if any) lands on a hole or unwritten extent.

Middle full-cover blocks can be in any state (hole, unwritten, or
written) - block allocation under shared lock is safe per the previous
patch's analysis (inode_dio_begin + i_data_sem protection).

Replace ext4_overwrite_io() with ext4_dio_needs_zeroing(), which
directly answers the question driving the lock decision.  It uses at
most two ext4_map_blocks() calls: one for the head partial block (also
catching the case where it spans through the tail), and one for the
tail partial block if not already covered.

This enables shared lock for previously-rejected scenarios such as:
 - Unaligned write spanning written extent + mid-range hole + written
   extent at the tail.
 - Unaligned write where the partial blocks land on written extents but
   the middle has unwritten extents.

Performance:

Hardware: /dev/sda (rotational disk, ~1 GB/s sustained write)
Filesystem: ext4 default mkfs

Unaligned DIO writes (14336 bytes at +512 within each 16K stripe).
Each stripe is laid out as [written][unwritten][unwritten][written],
so the head and tail partial blocks land on written extents but the
middle is unwritten.  Metric: IOPS.

  JOBS      Before        After    speedup
  ----    --------    ---------    -------
     1      15,547       17,381      1.12x
     2      15,910       34,172      2.15x
     4      15,014       57,567      3.83x
     8      15,022       81,947      5.46x
    16      14,586       99,126      6.80x
    32      14,047       92,519      6.59x

Wall time at JOBS=32: 149.3s (Before) -> 22.7s (After), 6.58x faster.

Reviewed-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@huawei.com>
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Baokun Li <libaokun@linux.alibaba.com>
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260629113827.4074335-5-libaokun@linux.alibaba.com
Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
History 2026-07-22 11:45:37 -04:00
arch s390 updates for 7.2-rc3 2026-07-12 11:38:00 -07:00
block block: remove redundant GD_NEED_PART_SCAN in add_disk_final() 2026-07-10 09:08:50 -06:00
certs treewide: fix indentation and whitespace in Kconfig files 2026-05-28 21:24:42 -07:00
crypto mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
Documentation Documentation: ext4: fix block_group layout when meta_bg is enabled 2026-07-22 11:45:36 -04:00
drivers tpm: Make the TPM character devices non-seekable 2026-07-12 12:52:34 -07:00
fs ext4: base unaligned DIO lock decision on partial block zeroing 2026-07-22 11:45:37 -04:00
include Android/IIO bugfixes for 7.2-rc3 2026-07-12 12:37:28 -07:00
init mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
io_uring io_uring-7.2-20260710 2026-07-11 09:24:38 -07:00
ipc kernel-7.2-rc1.misc 2026-06-15 03:05:50 +05:30
kernel tracing fixes for 7.2: 2026-07-12 09:46:37 -07:00
lib tracing: Prevent out-of-bounds read in glob matching 2026-07-07 10:42:28 -04:00
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 mm: do file ownership checks with the proper mount idmap 2026-07-01 19:02:56 -07:00
net NFS Client Bugfixes for Linux 7.2-rc3 2026-07-10 18:15:26 -07:00
rust Rust changes for v7.2 (addendum) 2026-06-24 15:11:08 -07:00
samples tracing fixes for 7.2: 2026-07-12 09:46:37 -07:00
scripts scripts/sorttable: Handle RISC-V patchable ftrace entries 2026-06-25 13:15:03 -06:00
security selinux/stable-7.2 PR 20260710 2026-07-10 18:59:29 -07:00
sound sound fixes for 7.2-rc2 2026-07-05 05:26:45 -10:00
tools USB fixes for 7.2-rc3 2026-07-12 12:12:41 -07:00
usr kbuild: uapi: also test UAPI headers against C++ compilers 2026-03-25 13:24:42 +01:00
virt s390: 2026-06-25 10:21:13 -07:00
.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 20 hotfixes. 17 are for MM. 12 are cc:stable and the remaining 8 2026-07-06 18:51:36 -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 mm.git review status for mm-hotfixes-stable..mm-nonmm-stable 2026-06-21 13:20:19 -07:00
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 USB fixes for 7.2-rc3 2026-07-12 12:12:41 -07:00
Makefile Linux 7.2-rc3 2026-07-12 14:16:39 -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