Re: [RFC PATCH v2 8/8] dax: Fix incorrect list of dcache aliasing architectures

From: Mathieu Desnoyers
Date: Wed Jan 31 2024 - 10:14:51 EST


On 2024-01-30 22:13, Dan Williams wrote:
Dave Chinner wrote:
On Tue, Jan 30, 2024 at 11:52:55AM -0500, Mathieu Desnoyers wrote:
commit d92576f1167c ("dax: does not work correctly with virtual aliasing caches")
prevents DAX from building on architectures with virtually aliased
dcache with:

depends on !(ARM || MIPS || SPARC)

This check is too broad (e.g. recent ARMv7 don't have virtually aliased
dcaches), and also misses many other architectures with virtually
aliased dcache.

This is a regression introduced in the v5.13 Linux kernel where the
dax mount option is removed for 32-bit ARMv7 boards which have no dcache
aliasing, and therefore should work fine with FS_DAX.

This was turned into the following implementation of dax_is_supported()
by a preparatory change:

return !IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_ARM) &&
!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MIPS) &&
!IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SPARC);

Use dcache_is_aliasing() instead to figure out whether the environment
has aliasing dcaches.

Fixes: d92576f1167c ("dax: does not work correctly with virtual aliasing caches")
Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <mathieu.desnoyers@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: linux-mm@xxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-arch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Vishal Verma <vishal.l.verma@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dave Jiang <dave.jiang@xxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Arnd Bergmann <arnd@xxxxxxxx>
Cc: Russell King <linux@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: nvdimm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-cxl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: linux-fsdevel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
---
include/linux/dax.h | 5 ++---
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/dax.h b/include/linux/dax.h
index cfc8cd4a3eae..f59e604662e4 100644
--- a/include/linux/dax.h
+++ b/include/linux/dax.h
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
#include <linux/fs.h>
#include <linux/mm.h>
#include <linux/radix-tree.h>
+#include <linux/cacheinfo.h>
typedef unsigned long dax_entry_t;
@@ -80,9 +81,7 @@ static inline bool daxdev_mapping_supported(struct vm_area_struct *vma,
}
static inline bool dax_is_supported(void)
{
- return !IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_ARM) &&
- !IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_MIPS) &&
- !IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_SPARC);
+ return !dcache_is_aliasing();

Yeah, if this is just a one liner should go into
fs_dax_get_by_bdev(), similar to the blk_queue_dax() check at the
start of the function.

I also noticed that device mapper uses fs_dax_get_by_bdev() to
determine if it can support DAX, but this patch set does not address
that case. Hence it really seems to me like fs_dax_get_by_bdev() is
the right place to put this check.

Oh, good catch. Yes, I agree this can definitely be pushed down, but
then I think it should be pushed down all the way to make alloc_dax()
fail. That will need some additional fixups like:

diff --git a/drivers/md/dm.c b/drivers/md/dm.c
index 8dcabf84d866..a35e60e62440 100644
--- a/drivers/md/dm.c
+++ b/drivers/md/dm.c
@@ -2126,12 +2126,12 @@ static struct mapped_device *alloc_dev(int minor)
md->dax_dev = alloc_dax(md, &dm_dax_ops);
if (IS_ERR(md->dax_dev)) {
md->dax_dev = NULL;
- goto bad;
+ } else {
+ set_dax_nocache(md->dax_dev);
+ set_dax_nomc(md->dax_dev);
+ if (dax_add_host(md->dax_dev, md->disk))
+ goto bad;
}
- set_dax_nocache(md->dax_dev);
- set_dax_nomc(md->dax_dev);
- if (dax_add_host(md->dax_dev, md->disk))
- goto bad;
}
format_dev_t(md->name, MKDEV(_major, minor));

...to make it not fatal to fail to register the dax_dev.

I've had a quick look at other users of alloc_dax() and
alloc_dax_region(), and so far I figure that all of those
really want to bail out on alloc_dax failure. Is dm.c the
only special-case we need to fix to make it non-fatal ?

Thanks,

Mathieu

--
Mathieu Desnoyers
EfficiOS Inc.
https://www.efficios.com