Re: [PATCH 27/32] ext4: xattr inode deduplication

[Theodore Ts'o]

On Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 06:49:34PM -0700, Tahsin Erdogan wrote:
> Ext4 now supports xattr values that are up to 64k in size (vfs limit).
> Large xattr values are stored in external inodes each one holding a
> single value. Once written the data blocks of these inodes are immutable.
> 
> The real world use cases are expected to have a lot of value duplication
> such as inherited acls etc. To reduce data duplication on disk, this patch
> implements a deduplicator that allows sharing of xattr inodes.
> 
> The deduplication is based on an in-memory hash lookup that is a best
> effort sharing scheme. When a xattr inode is read from disk (i.e.
> getxattr() call), its crc32c hash is added to a hash table. Before
> creating a new xattr inode for a value being set, the hash table is
> checked to see if an existing inode holds an identical value. If such an
> inode is found, the ref count on that inode is incremented. On value
> removal the ref count is decremented and if it reaches zero the inode is
> deleted.
> 
> The quota charging for such inodes is manually managed. Every reference
> holder is charged the full size as if there was no sharing happening.
> This is consistent with how xattr blocks are also charged.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Tahsin Erdogan <tahsin@xxxxxxxxxx>

Applied, thanks

				- Ted