Re: [PATCH] afs: Fix waiting for writeback then skipping folio

From: Andrew Morton
Date: Thu Jun 08 2023 - 20:50:37 EST


On Wed, 7 Jun 2023 13:41:20 -0700 "Vishal Moola (Oracle)" <vishal.moola@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Commit acc8d8588cb7 converted afs_writepages_region() to write back a
> folio batch. The function waits for writeback to a folio, but then
> proceeds to the rest of the batch without trying to write that folio
> again. This patch fixes has it attempt to write the folio again.
>
> This has only been compile tested.

This seems fairly serious?

> --- a/fs/afs/write.c
> +++ b/fs/afs/write.c
> @@ -731,6 +731,7 @@ static int afs_writepages_region(struct address_space *mapping,
> * (changing page->mapping to NULL), or even swizzled
> * back from swapper_space to tmpfs file mapping
> */
> +try_again:
> if (wbc->sync_mode != WB_SYNC_NONE) {
> ret = folio_lock_killable(folio);
> if (ret < 0) {
> @@ -757,6 +758,7 @@ static int afs_writepages_region(struct address_space *mapping,
> #ifdef CONFIG_AFS_FSCACHE
> folio_wait_fscache(folio);
> #endif
> + goto try_again;
> } else {
> start += folio_size(folio);
> }

>From my reading, we'll fail to write out the dirty data. Presumably
not easily observable, as it will get written out again later on. But
we're also calling afs_write_back_from_locked_folio() with an unlocked
folio, which might cause mayhem.

So I'm suspecting that a cc:stable is needed. David, could you please
take a look and perhaps retest?

Thanks.