@@ -20,8 +20,144 @@ Usage
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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. When mounting it, use the "-o dax"
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- option on the command line or add 'dax' to the options in /etc/fstab.
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+ size when creating the filesystem.
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+
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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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+
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+ Enabling DAX on ext4 and ext2
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+ -----------------------------
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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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+
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+
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+ Enabling DAX on xfs
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+ -------------------
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+
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+ Summary
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+ -------
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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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+
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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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+
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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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+
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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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+
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+ "-o dax=inode" means "follow FS_XFLAG_DAX" and is the default.
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+
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+ "-o dax=never" means "never set S_DAX, ignore FS_XFLAG_DAX."
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+
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+ "-o dax=always" means "always set S_DAX ignore FS_XFLAG_DAX."
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+
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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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+
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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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+
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+ 5. The S_DAX policy can be changed via:
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+
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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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+
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+ b) Setting the appropriate dax="foo" mount option
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+
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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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+
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+ 6. When changing the S_DAX policy via toggling the persistent FS_XFLAG_DAX flag,
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+ the change in behaviour for existing regular files may not occur
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+ immediately. If the change must take effect immediately, the administrator
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+ needs to:
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+
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+ a) stop the application so there are no active references to the data set
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+ the policy change will affect
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+
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+ b) evict the data set from kernel caches so it will be re-instantiated when
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+ the application is restarted. This can be achieved by:
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+
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+ i. drop-caches
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+ ii. a filesystem unmount and mount cycle
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+ iii. a system reboot
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+
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+
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+ Details
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+ -------
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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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+
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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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+
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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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+
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+ To clarify inheritance, here are 3 examples:
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+
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+ Example A:
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+
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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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+
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+ dax: a,e
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+ no dax: b,c,d
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+
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+ Example B:
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+
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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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+
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+ dax: a,b,c,d
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+ no dax:
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+
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+ Example C:
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+
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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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+
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+ dax: c,d
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+ no dax: a,b
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+
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+
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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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+
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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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+
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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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+
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Implementation Tips for Block Driver Writers
@@ -94,7 +230,7 @@ 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 file system blocks that were being used by the file,
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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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