Re: [PATCH 0/6] fuse: allocate req->pages[] dynamically

From: Maxim V. Patlasov
Date: Fri Sep 14 2012 - 09:18:05 EST


Hi Miklos,

09/12/2012 08:49 PM, Miklos Szeredi ÐÐÑÐÑ:
"Maxim V. Patlasov" <mpatlasov@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

Hi Miklos,

So far as no objections appeared, I'll go ahead and replace fuse req->page with
req->pagevec. It will point to an array of structs:

struct page_vec {
struct page *pv_page;
unsigned int pv_len;
unsigned int pv_offset;
};

instead of 'struct page *' as it used to be. It seems to be what you suggested
in one of your comments. Are you OK about it?
Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking.

I've encountered a problem while trying to follow this approach. fuse_get_user_pages() passes 'req->pages' to get_user_pages_fast(). get_user_pages_fast() and friends are not ready to get a pointer to array of page_vec-s from fuse. I can see five ways to solve the problem:

1. Re-work get_user_pages_fast() and friends adding ability to fill page_vec array. Too much work. Very ugly. I strongly dislike this way.

2. Allocate a temporary array of page pointers in fuse_get_user_pages() to use as argument to get_user_pages_fast(). Ugly and may have performance impact. I dislike this way too.

3. Call get_user_pages_fast() for each page (i.e. pass npages == 1 to it). Easy to implement but may have performance impact. I'd refrain from it.

4. Keep req->pages 'as is', but add req->page_descs pointing to an array of <offset, len> structures. Looks clumsy, straightforward, but quite doable.

5. Use a hack in fuse_get_user_pages(): temporarily cast req->pagevecs to 'struct page **pages', pass it get_user_pages_fast(), then transform the content of req->pagevecs[] to have page pointers stored in proper places (like 'for (i=...) pagevecs[i].pv_page = pages[i];').

What do you think?

Btw, thanks a lot for careful review of patch-set. I agree with your comments. Next version will have those findings fixed.

Thanks,
Maxim
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