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257 lines
9.8 KiB
257 lines
9.8 KiB
Direct Access for files |
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----------------------- |
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Motivation |
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---------- |
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The page cache is usually used to buffer reads and writes to files. |
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It is also used to provide the pages which are mapped into userspace |
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by a call to mmap. |
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For block devices that are memory-like, the page cache pages would be |
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unnecessary copies of the original storage. The DAX code removes the |
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extra copy by performing reads and writes directly to the storage device. |
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For file mappings, the storage device is mapped directly into userspace. |
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Usage |
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----- |
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If you have a block device which supports DAX, you can make a filesystem |
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on it as usual. The DAX code currently only supports files with a block |
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size equal to your kernel's PAGE_SIZE, so you may need to specify a block |
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size when creating the filesystem. |
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Currently 3 filesystems support DAX: ext2, ext4 and xfs. Enabling DAX on them |
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is different. |
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Enabling DAX on ext2 |
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----------------------------- |
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When mounting the filesystem, use the "-o dax" option on the command line or |
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add 'dax' to the options in /etc/fstab. This works to enable DAX on all files |
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within the filesystem. It is equivalent to the '-o dax=always' behavior below. |
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Enabling DAX on xfs and ext4 |
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---------------------------- |
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Summary |
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------- |
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1. There exists an in-kernel file access mode flag S_DAX that corresponds to |
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the statx flag STATX_ATTR_DAX. See the manpage for statx(2) for details |
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about this access mode. |
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2. There exists a persistent flag FS_XFLAG_DAX that can be applied to regular |
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files and directories. This advisory flag can be set or cleared at any |
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time, but doing so does not immediately affect the S_DAX state. |
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3. If the persistent FS_XFLAG_DAX flag is set on a directory, this flag will |
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be inherited by all regular files and subdirectories that are subsequently |
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created in this directory. Files and subdirectories that exist at the time |
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this flag is set or cleared on the parent directory are not modified by |
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this modification of the parent directory. |
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4. There exist dax mount options which can override FS_XFLAG_DAX in the |
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setting of the S_DAX flag. Given underlying storage which supports DAX the |
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following hold: |
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"-o dax=inode" means "follow FS_XFLAG_DAX" and is the default. |
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"-o dax=never" means "never set S_DAX, ignore FS_XFLAG_DAX." |
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"-o dax=always" means "always set S_DAX ignore FS_XFLAG_DAX." |
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"-o dax" is a legacy option which is an alias for "dax=always". |
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This may be removed in the future so "-o dax=always" is |
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the preferred method for specifying this behavior. |
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NOTE: Modifications to and the inheritance behavior of FS_XFLAG_DAX remain |
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the same even when the filesystem is mounted with a dax option. However, |
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in-core inode state (S_DAX) will be overridden until the filesystem is |
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remounted with dax=inode and the inode is evicted from kernel memory. |
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5. The S_DAX policy can be changed via: |
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a) Setting the parent directory FS_XFLAG_DAX as needed before files are |
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created |
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b) Setting the appropriate dax="foo" mount option |
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c) Changing the FS_XFLAG_DAX flag on existing regular files and |
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directories. This has runtime constraints and limitations that are |
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described in 6) below. |
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6. When changing the S_DAX policy via toggling the persistent FS_XFLAG_DAX |
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flag, the change to existing regular files won't take effect until the |
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files are closed by all processes. |
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Details |
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------- |
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There are 2 per-file dax flags. One is a persistent inode setting (FS_XFLAG_DAX) |
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and the other is a volatile flag indicating the active state of the feature |
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(S_DAX). |
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FS_XFLAG_DAX is preserved within the filesystem. This persistent config |
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setting can be set, cleared and/or queried using the FS_IOC_FS[GS]ETXATTR ioctl |
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(see ioctl_xfs_fsgetxattr(2)) or an utility such as 'xfs_io'. |
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New files and directories automatically inherit FS_XFLAG_DAX from |
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their parent directory _when_ _created_. Therefore, setting FS_XFLAG_DAX at |
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directory creation time can be used to set a default behavior for an entire |
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sub-tree. |
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To clarify inheritance, here are 3 examples: |
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Example A: |
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mkdir -p a/b/c |
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xfs_io -c 'chattr +x' a |
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mkdir a/b/c/d |
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mkdir a/e |
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dax: a,e |
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no dax: b,c,d |
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Example B: |
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mkdir a |
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xfs_io -c 'chattr +x' a |
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mkdir -p a/b/c/d |
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dax: a,b,c,d |
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no dax: |
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Example C: |
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mkdir -p a/b/c |
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xfs_io -c 'chattr +x' c |
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mkdir a/b/c/d |
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dax: c,d |
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no dax: a,b |
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The current enabled state (S_DAX) is set when a file inode is instantiated in |
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memory by the kernel. It is set based on the underlying media support, the |
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value of FS_XFLAG_DAX and the filesystem's dax mount option. |
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statx can be used to query S_DAX. NOTE that only regular files will ever have |
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S_DAX set and therefore statx will never indicate that S_DAX is set on |
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directories. |
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Setting the FS_XFLAG_DAX flag (specifically or through inheritance) occurs even |
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if the underlying media does not support dax and/or the filesystem is |
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overridden with a mount option. |
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Implementation Tips for Block Driver Writers |
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-------------------------------------------- |
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To support DAX in your block driver, implement the 'direct_access' |
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block device operation. It is used to translate the sector number |
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(expressed in units of 512-byte sectors) to a page frame number (pfn) |
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that identifies the physical page for the memory. It also returns a |
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kernel virtual address that can be used to access the memory. |
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The direct_access method takes a 'size' parameter that indicates the |
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number of bytes being requested. The function should return the number |
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of bytes that can be contiguously accessed at that offset. It may also |
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return a negative errno if an error occurs. |
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In order to support this method, the storage must be byte-accessible by |
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the CPU at all times. If your device uses paging techniques to expose |
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a large amount of memory through a smaller window, then you cannot |
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implement direct_access. Equally, if your device can occasionally |
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stall the CPU for an extended period, you should also not attempt to |
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implement direct_access. |
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These block devices may be used for inspiration: |
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- brd: RAM backed block device driver |
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- dcssblk: s390 dcss block device driver |
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- pmem: NVDIMM persistent memory driver |
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Implementation Tips for Filesystem Writers |
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------------------------------------------ |
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Filesystem support consists of |
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- adding support to mark inodes as being DAX by setting the S_DAX flag in |
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i_flags |
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- implementing ->read_iter and ->write_iter operations which use dax_iomap_rw() |
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when inode has S_DAX flag set |
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- implementing an mmap file operation for DAX files which sets the |
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VM_MIXEDMAP and VM_HUGEPAGE flags on the VMA, and setting the vm_ops to |
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include handlers for fault, pmd_fault, page_mkwrite, pfn_mkwrite. These |
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handlers should probably call dax_iomap_fault() passing the appropriate |
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fault size and iomap operations. |
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- calling iomap_zero_range() passing appropriate iomap operations instead of |
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block_truncate_page() for DAX files |
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- ensuring that there is sufficient locking between reads, writes, |
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truncates and page faults |
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The iomap handlers for allocating blocks must make sure that allocated blocks |
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are zeroed out and converted to written extents before being returned to avoid |
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exposure of uninitialized data through mmap. |
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These filesystems may be used for inspiration: |
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- ext2: see Documentation/filesystems/ext2.rst |
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- ext4: see Documentation/filesystems/ext4/ |
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- xfs: see Documentation/admin-guide/xfs.rst |
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Handling Media Errors |
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--------------------- |
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The libnvdimm subsystem stores a record of known media error locations for |
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each pmem block device (in gendisk->badblocks). If we fault at such location, |
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or one with a latent error not yet discovered, the application can expect |
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to receive a SIGBUS. Libnvdimm also allows clearing of these errors by simply |
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writing the affected sectors (through the pmem driver, and if the underlying |
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NVDIMM supports the clear_poison DSM defined by ACPI). |
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Since DAX IO normally doesn't go through the driver/bio path, applications or |
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sysadmins have an option to restore the lost data from a prior backup/inbuilt |
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redundancy in the following ways: |
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1. Delete the affected file, and restore from a backup (sysadmin route): |
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This will free the filesystem blocks that were being used by the file, |
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and the next time they're allocated, they will be zeroed first, which |
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happens through the driver, and will clear bad sectors. |
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2. Truncate or hole-punch the part of the file that has a bad-block (at least |
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an entire aligned sector has to be hole-punched, but not necessarily an |
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entire filesystem block). |
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These are the two basic paths that allow DAX filesystems to continue operating |
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in the presence of media errors. More robust error recovery mechanisms can be |
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built on top of this in the future, for example, involving redundancy/mirroring |
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provided at the block layer through DM, or additionally, at the filesystem |
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level. These would have to rely on the above two tenets, that error clearing |
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can happen either by sending an IO through the driver, or zeroing (also through |
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the driver). |
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Shortcomings |
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------------ |
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Even if the kernel or its modules are stored on a filesystem that supports |
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DAX on a block device that supports DAX, they will still be copied into RAM. |
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The DAX code does not work correctly on architectures which have virtually |
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mapped caches such as ARM, MIPS and SPARC. |
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Calling get_user_pages() on a range of user memory that has been mmaped |
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from a DAX file will fail when there are no 'struct page' to describe |
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those pages. This problem has been addressed in some device drivers |
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by adding optional struct page support for pages under the control of |
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the driver (see CONFIG_NVDIMM_PFN in drivers/nvdimm for an example of |
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how to do this). In the non struct page cases O_DIRECT reads/writes to |
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those memory ranges from a non-DAX file will fail (note that O_DIRECT |
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reads/writes _of a DAX file_ do work, it is the memory that is being |
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accessed that is key here). Other things that will not work in the |
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non struct page case include RDMA, sendfile() and splice().
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