Re: [RFC PATCH 0/8] fsdax: introduce FS query interface to support reflink

From: Matthew Wilcox
Date: Fri Aug 07 2020 - 09:39:05 EST


On Fri, Aug 07, 2020 at 09:13:28PM +0800, Shiyang Ruan wrote:
> This patchset is a try to resolve the problem of tracking shared page
> for fsdax.
>
> Instead of per-page tracking method, this patchset introduces a query
> interface: get_shared_files(), which is implemented by each FS, to
> obtain the owners of a shared page. It returns an owner list of this
> shared page. Then, the memory-failure() iterates the list to be able
> to notify each process using files that sharing this page.
>
> The design of the tracking method is as follow:
> 1. dax_assocaite_entry() associates the owner's info to this page

I think that's the first problem with this design. dax_associate_entry is
a horrendous idea which needs to be ripped out, not made more important.
It's all part of the general problem of trying to do something on a
per-page basis instead of per-extent basis.