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| author | Kees Cook <kees+treewide@kernel.org> | 2026-09-02 15:31:14 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Kees Cook <kees@kernel.org> | 2026-09-04 21:37:00 -0700 |
| commit | 3a2c4d55e32ad65efebdb6de44eef3bfa08bb49d (patch) | |
| tree | c65086f9bdcd48c6360fb7cb4598bca084da1f32 /Documentation/filesystems/ext4/blockgroup.rst | |
| download | linux-stable-3a2c4d55e32ad65efebdb6de44eef3bfa08bb49d.tar.gz linux-stable-3a2c4d55e32ad65efebdb6de44eef3bfa08bb49d.zip | |
treewide: refresh kmalloc_obj() conversionsgrafted
This is another run of the Coccinelle script for converting kmalloc()
family of allocations to kmalloc_obj() via the existing rules in
scripts/coccinelle/api/kmalloc_objs.cocci
This catches both the set of kmalloc() uses added since the first
kmalloc_obj() conversions in v7.0 and adds a large group missed in the
first pass due to Coccinelle not interacting well with the cleanup.h
scoped_...() family of macros[1]. I worked around this with spatch's
"--macro-file" argument to a file with all the scoped_...() macros mapped
to Coccinelle's YACFE_ITERATOR[2] as that was the closest viable control
flow indicator I could find.
Build tested allmodconfig on x86, arm64, arm, loongarch, mips, powerpc,
riscv, and s390 with no new warnings.
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/202609021314.8A9C0B8@keescook/ [1]
Link: https://github.com/coccinelle/coccinelle/blob/master/standard.h [2]
Signed-off-by: Kees Cook <kees+treewide@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems/ext4/blockgroup.rst')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/filesystems/ext4/blockgroup.rst | 138 |
1 files changed, 138 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/ext4/blockgroup.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/ext4/blockgroup.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..7cbf0b2b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/filesystems/ext4/blockgroup.rst @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ +.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0 + +Block Groups +------------ + +Layout +~~~~~~ + +The layout of a standard block group is approximately as follows (each +of these fields is discussed in a separate section below): + +.. list-table:: + :widths: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 + :header-rows: 1 + + * - Group 0 Padding + - ext4 Super Block + - Group Descriptors + - Reserved GDT Blocks + - Data Block Bitmap + - inode Bitmap + - inode Table + - Data Blocks + * - 1024 bytes + - 1 block + - many blocks + - many blocks + - 1 block + - 1 block + - many blocks + - many more blocks + +For the special case of block group 0, the first 1024 bytes are unused, +to allow for the installation of x86 boot sectors and other oddities. +The superblock will start at offset 1024 bytes, whichever block that +happens to be (usually 0). However, if for some reason the block size = +1024, then block 0 is marked in use and the superblock goes in block 1. +For all other block groups, there is no padding. + +The ext4 driver primarily works with the superblock and the group +descriptors that are found in block group 0. Redundant copies of the +superblock and group descriptors are written to some of the block groups +across the disk in case the beginning of the disk gets trashed, though +not all block groups necessarily host a redundant copy (see following +paragraph for more details). If the group does not have a redundant +copy, the block group begins with the data block bitmap. Note also that +when the filesystem is freshly formatted, mkfs will allocate “reserve +GDT block” space after the block group descriptors and before the start +of the block bitmaps to allow for future expansion of the filesystem. By +default, a filesystem is allowed to increase in size by a factor of +1024x over the original filesystem size. + +The location of the inode table is given by ``grp.bg_inode_table_*``. It +is continuous range of blocks large enough to contain +``sb.s_inodes_per_group * sb.s_inode_size`` bytes. + +As for the ordering of items in a block group, it is generally +established that the super block and the group descriptor table, if +present, will be at the beginning of the block group. The bitmaps and +the inode table can be anywhere, and it is quite possible for the +bitmaps to come after the inode table, or for both to be in different +groups (flex_bg). Leftover space is used for file data blocks, indirect +block maps, extent tree blocks, and extended attributes. + +Flexible Block Groups +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Starting in ext4, there is a new feature called flexible block groups +(flex_bg). In a flex_bg, several block groups are tied together as one +logical block group; the bitmap spaces and the inode table space in the +first block group of the flex_bg are expanded to include the bitmaps +and inode tables of all other block groups in the flex_bg. For example, +if the flex_bg size is 4, then group 0 will contain (in order) the +superblock, group descriptors, data block bitmaps for groups 0-3, inode +bitmaps for groups 0-3, inode tables for groups 0-3, and the remaining +space in group 0 is for file data. The effect of this is to group the +block group metadata close together for faster loading, and to enable +large files to be continuous on disk. Backup copies of the superblock +and group descriptors are always at the beginning of block groups, even +if flex_bg is enabled. The number of block groups that make up a +flex_bg is given by 2 ^ ``sb.s_log_groups_per_flex``. + +Meta Block Groups +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +Without the option META_BG, for safety concerns, all block group +descriptors copies are kept in the first block group. Given the default +128MiB(2^27 bytes) block group size and 64-byte group descriptors, ext4 +can have at most 2^27/64 = 2^21 block groups. This limits the entire +filesystem size to 2^21 * 2^27 = 2^48bytes or 256TiB. + +The solution to this problem is to use the metablock group feature +(META_BG), which is already in ext3 for all 2.6 releases. With the +META_BG feature, ext4 filesystems are partitioned into many metablock +groups. Each metablock group is a cluster of block groups whose group +descriptor structures can be stored in a single disk block. For ext4 +filesystems with 4 KB block size, a single metablock group partition +includes 64 block groups, or 8 GiB of disk space. The metablock group +feature moves the location of the group descriptors from the congested +first block group of the whole filesystem into the first group of each +metablock group itself. The backups are in the second and last group of +each metablock group. This increases the 2^21 maximum block groups limit +to the hard limit 2^32, allowing support for a 512PiB filesystem. + +The change in the filesystem format replaces the current scheme where +the superblock is followed by a variable-length set of block group +descriptors. Instead, the superblock and a single block group descriptor +block is placed at the beginning of the first, second, and last block +groups in a meta-block group. A meta-block group is a collection of +block groups which can be described by a single block group descriptor +block. Since the size of the block group descriptor structure is 64 +bytes, a meta-block group contains 16 block groups for filesystems with +a 1KB block size, and 64 block groups for filesystems with a 4KB +blocksize. Filesystems can either be created using this new block group +descriptor layout, or existing filesystems can be resized on-line, and +the field s_first_meta_bg in the superblock will indicate the first +block group using this new layout. + +Please see an important note about ``BLOCK_UNINIT`` in the section about +block and inode bitmaps. + +Lazy Block Group Initialization +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +A new feature for ext4 are three block group descriptor flags that +enable mkfs to skip initializing other parts of the block group +metadata. Specifically, the INODE_UNINIT and BLOCK_UNINIT flags mean +that the inode and block bitmaps for that group can be calculated and +therefore the on-disk bitmap blocks are not initialized. This is +generally the case for an empty block group or a block group containing +only fixed-location block group metadata. The INODE_ZEROED flag means +that the inode table has been initialized; mkfs will unset this flag and +rely on the kernel to initialize the inode tables in the background. + +By not writing zeroes to the bitmaps and inode table, mkfs time is +reduced considerably. Note the feature flag is RO_COMPAT_GDT_CSUM, +but the dumpe2fs output prints this as “uninit_bg”. They are the same +thing. |
