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authorPaulo Alcantara <pc@manguebit.org>2026-09-26 19:20:30 -0300
committerPaulo Alcantara <pc@manguebit.org>2026-09-30 14:24:12 -0300
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tree23efdcaa0b8031f6ac6f57b6734d18d6c1adc6f2 /Documentation/driver-api/md/raid5-ppl.rst
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netfs: zero the tail of a short DIO/unbuffered readgrafted
The buffered read collector zero-fills the tail of a short read that stops below the inode's i_size (netfs_clear_unread()), so a read that races an extending write still returns the expected number of bytes. The non-buffered collector path does no such thing: it just records how much was transferred. Add the same zero-fill for the non-buffered case, gated on NETFS_SREQ_CLEAR_TAIL: a subreq's source sets that flag when a short result from it is known to be safe to treat as a hole, as opposed to NETFS_SREQ_HIT_EOF, which means the read genuinely ran off the end of the file and should be reported short as-is. Only CLEAR_TAIL should zero-fill here; a real EOF must stay a real short read. No source currently sets CLEAR_TAIL on an unbuffered/DIO subrequest, so this is inert on its own -- a following change teaches cifs to set it in the one case that needs it. Fixes: e2d46f2ec332 ("netfs: Change the read result collector to only use one work item") Reviewed-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com> Reviewed-by: Namjae Jeon <linkinjeon@kernel.org> Signed-off-by: Paulo Alcantara <pc@manguebit.org> Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org> Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org> Cc: Ronnie Sahlberg <ronniesahlberg@gmail.com> Cc: Shyam Prasad N <sprasad@microsoft.com> Cc: Tom Talpey <tom@talpey.com> Cc: Bharath SM <bharathsm@microsoft.com> Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
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+==================
+Partial Parity Log
+==================
+
+Partial Parity Log (PPL) is a feature available for RAID5 arrays. The issue
+addressed by PPL is that after a dirty shutdown, parity of a particular stripe
+may become inconsistent with data on other member disks. If the array is also
+in degraded state, there is no way to recalculate parity, because one of the
+disks is missing. This can lead to silent data corruption when rebuilding the
+array or using it is as degraded - data calculated from parity for array blocks
+that have not been touched by a write request during the unclean shutdown can
+be incorrect. Such condition is known as the RAID5 Write Hole. Because of
+this, md by default does not allow starting a dirty degraded array.
+
+Partial parity for a write operation is the XOR of stripe data chunks not
+modified by this write. It is just enough data needed for recovering from the
+write hole. XORing partial parity with the modified chunks produces parity for
+the stripe, consistent with its state before the write operation, regardless of
+which chunk writes have completed. If one of the not modified data disks of
+this stripe is missing, this updated parity can be used to recover its
+contents. PPL recovery is also performed when starting an array after an
+unclean shutdown and all disks are available, eliminating the need to resync
+the array. Because of this, using write-intent bitmap and PPL together is not
+supported.
+
+When handling a write request PPL writes partial parity before new data and
+parity are dispatched to disks. PPL is a distributed log - it is stored on
+array member drives in the metadata area, on the parity drive of a particular
+stripe. It does not require a dedicated journaling drive. Write performance is
+reduced by up to 30%-40% but it scales with the number of drives in the array
+and the journaling drive does not become a bottleneck or a single point of
+failure.
+
+Unlike raid5-cache, the other solution in md for closing the write hole, PPL is
+not a true journal. It does not protect from losing in-flight data, only from
+silent data corruption. If a dirty disk of a stripe is lost, no PPL recovery is
+performed for this stripe (parity is not updated). So it is possible to have
+arbitrary data in the written part of a stripe if that disk is lost. In such
+case the behavior is the same as in plain raid5.
+
+PPL is available for md version-1 metadata and external (specifically IMSM)
+metadata arrays. It can be enabled using mdadm option --consistency-policy=ppl.
+
+There is a limitation of maximum 64 disks in the array for PPL. It allows to
+keep data structures and implementation simple. RAID5 arrays with so many disks
+are not likely due to high risk of multiple disks failure. Such restriction
+should not be a real life limitation.