[PATCH] fadvise(): write commands

Add two new linux-specific fadvise extensions():

LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE: start async writeout of any dirty pages between file
offsets `offset' and `offset+len'.  Any pages which are currently under
writeout are skipped, whether or not they are dirty.

LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT: wait upon writeout of any dirty pages between file
offsets `offset' and `offset+len'.

By combining these two operations the application may do several things:

LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE: push some or all of the dirty pages at the disk.

LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT, LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE: push all of the currently dirty
pages at the disk.

LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT, LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE, LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT: push all
of the currently dirty pages at the disk, wait until they have been written.

It should be noted that none of these operations write out the file's
metadata.  So unless the application is strictly performing overwrites of
already-instantiated disk blocks, there are no guarantees here that the data
will be available after a crash.

To complete this suite of operations I guess we should have a "sync file
metadata only" operation.  This gives applications access to all the building
blocks needed for all sorts of sync operations.  But sync-metadata doesn't fit
well with the fadvise() interface.  Probably it should be a new syscall:
sys_fmetadatasync().

The patch also diddles with the meaning of `endbyte' in sys_fadvise64_64().
It is made to represent that last affected byte in the file (ie: it is
inclusive).  Generally, all these byterange and pagerange functions are
inclusive so we can easily represent EOF with -1.

As Ulrich notes, these two functions are somewhat abusive of the fadvise()
concept, which appears to be "set the future policy for this fd".

But these commands are a perfect fit with the fadvise() impementation, and
several of the existing fadvise() commands are synchronous and don't affect
future policy either.   I think we can live with the slight incongruity.

Cc: Michael Kerrisk <mtk-manpages@gmx.net>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@osdl.org>
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@osdl.org>

1 files changed, 41 insertions, 5 deletions

diff --git a/mm/fadvise.c b/mm/fadvise.c
index d257c89e7704..907c39257ca0 100644
--- a/mm/fadvise.c
+++ b/mm/fadvise.c
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #include <linux/backing-dev.h>
 #include <linux/pagevec.h>
 #include <linux/fadvise.h>
+#include <linux/writeback.h>
 #include <linux/syscalls.h>
 
 #include <asm/unistd.h>
@@ -22,13 +23,36 @@
 /*
  * POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED could set PG_Referenced, and POSIX_FADV_NOREUSE could
  * deactivate the pages and clear PG_Referenced.
+ *
+ * LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE: start async writeout of any dirty pages between file
+ * offsets `offset' and `offset+len' inclusive.  Any pages which are currently
+ * under writeout are skipped, whether or not they are dirty.
+ *
+ * LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT: wait upon writeout of any dirty pages between file
+ * offsets `offset' and `offset+len'.
+ *
+ * By combining these two operations the application may do several things:
+ *
+ * LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE: push some or all of the dirty pages at the disk.
+ *
+ * LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT, LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE: push all of the currently
+ * dirty pages at the disk.
+ *
+ * LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT, LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE, LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT: push
+ * all of the currently dirty pages at the disk, wait until they have been
+ * written.
+ *
+ * It should be noted that none of these operations write out the file's
+ * metadata.  So unless the application is strictly performing overwrites of
+ * already-instantiated disk blocks, there are no guarantees here that the data
+ * will be available after a crash.
  */
 asmlinkage long sys_fadvise64_64(int fd, loff_t offset, loff_t len, int advice)
 {
 	struct file *file = fget(fd);
 	struct address_space *mapping;
 	struct backing_dev_info *bdi;
-	loff_t endbyte;
+	loff_t endbyte;			/* inclusive */
 	pgoff_t start_index;
 	pgoff_t end_index;
 	unsigned long nrpages;
@@ -56,6 +80,8 @@ asmlinkage long sys_fadvise64_64(int fd, loff_t offset, loff_t len, int advice)
 	endbyte = offset + len;
 	if (!len || endbyte < len)
 		endbyte = -1;
+	else
+		endbyte--;		/* inclusive */
 
 	bdi = mapping->backing_dev_info;
 
@@ -78,7 +104,7 @@ asmlinkage long sys_fadvise64_64(int fd, loff_t offset, loff_t len, int advice)
 
 		/* First and last PARTIAL page! */
 		start_index = offset >> PAGE_CACHE_SHIFT;
-		end_index = (endbyte-1) >> PAGE_CACHE_SHIFT;
+		end_index = endbyte >> PAGE_CACHE_SHIFT;
 
 		/* Careful about overflow on the "+1" */
 		nrpages = end_index - start_index + 1;
@@ -96,11 +122,21 @@ asmlinkage long sys_fadvise64_64(int fd, loff_t offset, loff_t len, int advice)
 			filemap_flush(mapping);
 
 		/* First and last FULL page! */
-		start_index = (offset + (PAGE_CACHE_SIZE-1)) >> PAGE_CACHE_SHIFT;
+		start_index = (offset+(PAGE_CACHE_SIZE-1)) >> PAGE_CACHE_SHIFT;
 		end_index = (endbyte >> PAGE_CACHE_SHIFT);
 
-		if (end_index > start_index)
-			invalidate_mapping_pages(mapping, start_index, end_index-1);
+		if (end_index >= start_index)
+			invalidate_mapping_pages(mapping, start_index,
+						end_index);
+		break;
+	case LINUX_FADV_ASYNC_WRITE:
+		ret = __filemap_fdatawrite_range(mapping, offset, endbyte,
+						WB_SYNC_NONE);
+		break;
+	case LINUX_FADV_WRITE_WAIT:
+		ret = wait_on_page_writeback_range(mapping,
+					offset >> PAGE_CACHE_SHIFT,
+					endbyte >> PAGE_CACHE_SHIFT);
 		break;
 	default:
 		ret = -EINVAL;