diff options
| author | Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com> | 2026-09-21 17:37:22 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org> | 2026-09-22 10:49:53 +0200 |
| commit | 0d6526f82c3cdefcca47f73f5fc08dc6f335eac6 (patch) | |
| tree | 176dc2d685debcfb082c151ee94f2425ac96b364 /Documentation/filesystems/ext4/bigalloc.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-0d6526f82c3cdefcca47f73f5fc08dc6f335eac6.tar.gz linux-stable-0d6526f82c3cdefcca47f73f5fc08dc6f335eac6.zip | |
sched/cache: Keep nr_pref_llc_running in the runnable domain, to fix LLC mis-scheduling buggrafted
alb_break_llc() decides whether to break LLC preference during active
load balance. It does so by testing that every runnable fair task on the
source rq prefers its LLC:
env->src_rq->nr_pref_llc_running == env->src_rq->cfs.h_nr_runnable
But the two counters cover different sets. nr_pref_llc_running is updated
in account_llc_enqueue()/account_llc_dequeue(), next to cfs_rq->nr_queued,
so it follows queued tasks. h_nr_runnable is updated in set_delayed()/
clear_delayed() and drops delay-dequeued tasks.
So under DELAY_DEQUEUE, a preferring task that goes to sleep stays counted
in nr_pref_llc_running while h_nr_runnable falls. The equality then breaks,
alb_break_llc() returns false, and active balance is free to pull a task
off its preferred LLC. Active balance only moves runnable tasks, and this
is the only LLC check it consults: once the stopper runs, LBF_ACTIVE_LB
skips the per-task test in can_migrate_task(). The runnable set is the one
we want.
Fix it on the counter side. A task should be counted in
nr_pref_llc_running exactly while it is both queued on its preferred LLC
(pref_llc_queued) and runnable (!sched_delayed). Define that membership
once in task_pref_llc_runnable(), and adjust the counter only through
pref_llc_running_inc()/pref_llc_running_dec() from the four sites that
change either input: account_llc_enqueue(), account_llc_dequeue(),
set_delayed() and clear_delayed(). Gating every update on the same
predicate keeps the delay, wake and dequeue paths from double-counting
or underflowing; see the comments at those sites for the ordering.
nr_llc_running and sd->llc_counts are not touched and stay on queued
semantics.
Fixes: 714059f79ff0 ("sched/cache: Handle moving single tasks to/from their preferred LLC")
Closes: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20260827135000.735138-1-zhanxusheng@xiaomi.com/
Reported-by: Zhan Xusheng <zhanxusheng@xiaomi.com>
Suggested-by: Chen Yu <yu.c.chen@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Tim Chen <tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Peter Zijlstra (Intel) <peterz@infradead.org>
Signed-off-by: Ingo Molnar <mingo@kernel.org>
Reviewed-by: Kayra Cizmeci <kayracizmeci@gmail.com>
Cc: <stable@kernel.org> # v7.2.x
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/06af61afedac32e6477f57feb4d658f6c411c3af.1790035273.git.tim.c.chen@linux.intel.com
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/ext4/bigalloc.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/filesystems/ext4/bigalloc.rst | 34 |
1 files changed, 34 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/ext4/bigalloc.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/ext4/bigalloc.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..976a180b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/ext4/bigalloc.rst @@ -0,0 +1,34 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +Bigalloc +-------- + +At the moment, the default size of a block is 4KiB, which is a commonly +supported page size on most MMU-capable hardware. This is fortunate, as +ext4 code is not prepared to handle the case where the block size +exceeds the page size. However, for a filesystem of mostly huge files, +it is desirable to be able to allocate disk blocks in units of multiple +blocks to reduce both fragmentation and metadata overhead. The +bigalloc feature provides exactly this ability. + +The bigalloc feature (EXT4_FEATURE_RO_COMPAT_BIGALLOC) changes ext4 to +use clustered allocation, so that each bit in the ext4 block allocation +bitmap addresses a power of two number of blocks. For example, if the +file system is mainly going to be storing large files in the 4-32 +megabyte range, it might make sense to set a cluster size of 1 megabyte. +This means that each bit in the block allocation bitmap now addresses +256 4k blocks. This shrinks the total size of the block allocation +bitmaps for a 2T file system from 64 megabytes to 256 kilobytes. It also +means that a block group addresses 32 gigabytes instead of 128 megabytes, +also shrinking the amount of file system overhead for metadata. + +The administrator can set a block cluster size at mkfs time (which is +stored in the s_log_cluster_size field in the superblock); from then +on, the block bitmaps track clusters, not individual blocks. This means +that block groups can be several gigabytes in size (instead of just +128MiB); however, the minimum allocation unit becomes a cluster, not a +block, even for directories. TaoBao had a patchset to extend the “use +units of clusters instead of blocks” to the extent tree, though it is +not clear where those patches went-- they eventually morphed into +“extent tree v2” but that code has not landed as of May 2015. + |
