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authorIngo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>2009-01-10 14:04:41 +0300
committerIngo Molnar <mingo@elte.hu>2009-01-10 14:04:41 +0300
commitb17304245f0db0ac69b795c411407808f3f2796d (patch)
tree63ed3915d9295bd08f640bf25c322064ba787fad /Documentation/filesystems
parent889c92d21db40be0b7d22a59395060237895bb85 (diff)
parent9a100a4464917b5ffff3a8ce1c2758088fd9bb32 (diff)
downloadlinux-b17304245f0db0ac69b795c411407808f3f2796d.tar.xz
Merge branch 'linus' into x86/setup-lzma
Conflicts: init/do_mounts_rd.c
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/filesystems')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/filesystems/Locking2
-rw-r--r--Documentation/filesystems/btrfs.txt91
-rw-r--r--Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt85
-rw-r--r--Documentation/filesystems/ocfs2.txt3
-rw-r--r--Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt27
-rw-r--r--Documentation/filesystems/squashfs.txt225
6 files changed, 412 insertions, 21 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/Locking b/Documentation/filesystems/Locking
index ccec55394380..cfbfa15a46ba 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/Locking
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/Locking
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ prototypes:
};
locking rules:
- All except ->poll() may block.
+ All may block.
BKL
llseek: no (see below)
read: no
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/btrfs.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/btrfs.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..64087c34327f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/btrfs.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,91 @@
+
+ BTRFS
+ =====
+
+Btrfs is a new copy on write filesystem for Linux aimed at
+implementing advanced features while focusing on fault tolerance,
+repair and easy administration. Initially developed by Oracle, Btrfs
+is licensed under the GPL and open for contribution from anyone.
+
+Linux has a wealth of filesystems to choose from, but we are facing a
+number of challenges with scaling to the large storage subsystems that
+are becoming common in today's data centers. Filesystems need to scale
+in their ability to address and manage large storage, and also in
+their ability to detect, repair and tolerate errors in the data stored
+on disk. Btrfs is under heavy development, and is not suitable for
+any uses other than benchmarking and review. The Btrfs disk format is
+not yet finalized.
+
+The main Btrfs features include:
+
+ * Extent based file storage (2^64 max file size)
+ * Space efficient packing of small files
+ * Space efficient indexed directories
+ * Dynamic inode allocation
+ * Writable snapshots
+ * Subvolumes (separate internal filesystem roots)
+ * Object level mirroring and striping
+ * Checksums on data and metadata (multiple algorithms available)
+ * Compression
+ * Integrated multiple device support, with several raid algorithms
+ * Online filesystem check (not yet implemented)
+ * Very fast offline filesystem check
+ * Efficient incremental backup and FS mirroring (not yet implemented)
+ * Online filesystem defragmentation
+
+
+
+ MAILING LIST
+ ============
+
+There is a Btrfs mailing list hosted on vger.kernel.org. You can
+find details on how to subscribe here:
+
+http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html#linux-btrfs
+
+Mailing list archives are available from gmane:
+
+http://dir.gmane.org/gmane.comp.file-systems.btrfs
+
+
+
+ IRC
+ ===
+
+Discussion of Btrfs also occurs on the #btrfs channel of the Freenode
+IRC network.
+
+
+
+ UTILITIES
+ =========
+
+Userspace tools for creating and manipulating Btrfs file systems are
+available from the git repository at the following location:
+
+ http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/mason/btrfs-progs-unstable.git
+ git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/mason/btrfs-progs-unstable.git
+
+These include the following tools:
+
+mkfs.btrfs: create a filesystem
+
+btrfsctl: control program to create snapshots and subvolumes:
+
+ mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
+ btrfsctl -s new_subvol_name /mnt
+ btrfsctl -s snapshot_of_default /mnt/default
+ btrfsctl -s snapshot_of_new_subvol /mnt/new_subvol_name
+ btrfsctl -s snapshot_of_a_snapshot /mnt/snapshot_of_new_subvol
+ ls /mnt
+ default snapshot_of_a_snapshot snapshot_of_new_subvol
+ new_subvol_name snapshot_of_default
+
+ Snapshots and subvolumes cannot be deleted right now, but you can
+ rm -rf all the files and directories inside them.
+
+btrfsck: do a limited check of the FS extent trees.
+
+btrfs-debug-tree: print all of the FS metadata in text form. Example:
+
+ btrfs-debug-tree /dev/sda2 >& big_output_file
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt
index 174eaff7ded9..cec829bc7291 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt
@@ -58,13 +58,22 @@ Note: More extensive information for getting started with ext4 can be
# mount -t ext4 /dev/hda1 /wherever
- - When comparing performance with other filesystems, remember that
- ext3/4 by default offers higher data integrity guarantees than most.
- So when comparing with a metadata-only journalling filesystem, such
- as ext3, use `mount -o data=writeback'. And you might as well use
- `mount -o nobh' too along with it. Making the journal larger than
- the mke2fs default often helps performance with metadata-intensive
- workloads.
+ - When comparing performance with other filesystems, it's always
+ important to try multiple workloads; very often a subtle change in a
+ workload parameter can completely change the ranking of which
+ filesystems do well compared to others. When comparing versus ext3,
+ note that ext4 enables write barriers by default, while ext3 does
+ not enable write barriers by default. So it is useful to use
+ explicitly specify whether barriers are enabled or not when via the
+ '-o barriers=[0|1]' mount option for both ext3 and ext4 filesystems
+ for a fair comparison. When tuning ext3 for best benchmark numbers,
+ it is often worthwhile to try changing the data journaling mode; '-o
+ data=writeback,nobh' can be faster for some workloads. (Note
+ however that running mounted with data=writeback can potentially
+ leave stale data exposed in recently written files in case of an
+ unclean shutdown, which could be a security exposure in some
+ situations.) Configuring the filesystem with a large journal can
+ also be helpful for metadata-intensive workloads.
2. Features
===========
@@ -74,7 +83,7 @@ Note: More extensive information for getting started with ext4 can be
* ability to use filesystems > 16TB (e2fsprogs support not available yet)
* extent format reduces metadata overhead (RAM, IO for access, transactions)
* extent format more robust in face of on-disk corruption due to magics,
-* internal redunancy in tree
+* internal redundancy in tree
* improved file allocation (multi-block alloc)
* fix 32000 subdirectory limit
* nsec timestamps for mtime, atime, ctime, create time
@@ -116,10 +125,11 @@ grouping of bitmaps and inode tables. Some test results available here:
When mounting an ext4 filesystem, the following option are accepted:
(*) == default
-extents (*) ext4 will use extents to address file data. The
- file system will no longer be mountable by ext3.
-
-noextents ext4 will not use extents for newly created files
+ro Mount filesystem read only. Note that ext4 will
+ replay the journal (and thus write to the
+ partition) even when mounted "read only". The
+ mount options "ro,noload" can be used to prevent
+ writes to the filesystem.
journal_checksum Enable checksumming of the journal transactions.
This will allow the recovery code in e2fsck and the
@@ -134,17 +144,17 @@ journal_async_commit Commit block can be written to disk without waiting
journal=update Update the ext4 file system's journal to the current
format.
-journal=inum When a journal already exists, this option is ignored.
- Otherwise, it specifies the number of the inode which
- will represent the ext4 file system's journal file.
-
journal_dev=devnum When the external journal device's major/minor numbers
have changed, this option allows the user to specify
the new journal location. The journal device is
identified through its new major/minor numbers encoded
in devnum.
-noload Don't load the journal on mounting.
+noload Don't load the journal on mounting. Note that
+ if the filesystem was not unmounted cleanly,
+ skipping the journal replay will lead to the
+ filesystem containing inconsistencies that can
+ lead to any number of problems.
data=journal All data are committed into the journal prior to being
written into the main file system.
@@ -219,9 +229,12 @@ minixdf Make 'df' act like Minix.
debug Extra debugging information is sent to syslog.
-errors=remount-ro(*) Remount the filesystem read-only on an error.
+errors=remount-ro Remount the filesystem read-only on an error.
errors=continue Keep going on a filesystem error.
errors=panic Panic and halt the machine if an error occurs.
+ (These mount options override the errors behavior
+ specified in the superblock, which can be configured
+ using tune2fs)
data_err=ignore(*) Just print an error message if an error occurs
in a file data buffer in ordered mode.
@@ -261,6 +274,42 @@ delalloc (*) Deferring block allocation until write-out time.
nodelalloc Disable delayed allocation. Blocks are allocation
when data is copied from user to page cache.
+max_batch_time=usec Maximum amount of time ext4 should wait for
+ additional filesystem operations to be batch
+ together with a synchronous write operation.
+ Since a synchronous write operation is going to
+ force a commit and then a wait for the I/O
+ complete, it doesn't cost much, and can be a
+ huge throughput win, we wait for a small amount
+ of time to see if any other transactions can
+ piggyback on the synchronous write. The
+ algorithm used is designed to automatically tune
+ for the speed of the disk, by measuring the
+ amount of time (on average) that it takes to
+ finish committing a transaction. Call this time
+ the "commit time". If the time that the
+ transactoin has been running is less than the
+ commit time, ext4 will try sleeping for the
+ commit time to see if other operations will join
+ the transaction. The commit time is capped by
+ the max_batch_time, which defaults to 15000us
+ (15ms). This optimization can be turned off
+ entirely by setting max_batch_time to 0.
+
+min_batch_time=usec This parameter sets the commit time (as
+ described above) to be at least min_batch_time.
+ It defaults to zero microseconds. Increasing
+ this parameter may improve the throughput of
+ multi-threaded, synchronous workloads on very
+ fast disks, at the cost of increasing latency.
+
+journal_ioprio=prio The I/O priority (from 0 to 7, where 0 is the
+ highest priorty) which should be used for I/O
+ operations submitted by kjournald2 during a
+ commit operation. This defaults to 3, which is
+ a slightly higher priority than the default I/O
+ priority.
+
Data Mode
=========
There are 3 different data modes:
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/ocfs2.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/ocfs2.txt
index 67310fbbb7df..c2a0871280a0 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/ocfs2.txt
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/ocfs2.txt
@@ -31,7 +31,6 @@ Features which OCFS2 does not support yet:
- quotas
- Directory change notification (F_NOTIFY)
- Distributed Caching (F_SETLEASE/F_GETLEASE/break_lease)
- - POSIX ACLs
Mount options
=============
@@ -79,3 +78,5 @@ inode64 Indicates that Ocfs2 is allowed to create inodes at
bits of significance.
user_xattr (*) Enables Extended User Attributes.
nouser_xattr Disables Extended User Attributes.
+acl Enables POSIX Access Control Lists support.
+noacl (*) Disables POSIX Access Control Lists support.
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
index 71df353e367c..d105eb45282a 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
@@ -140,6 +140,7 @@ Table 1-1: Process specific entries in /proc
statm Process memory status information
status Process status in human readable form
wchan If CONFIG_KALLSYMS is set, a pre-decoded wchan
+ stack Report full stack trace, enable via CONFIG_STACKTRACE
smaps Extension based on maps, the rss size for each mapped file
..............................................................................
@@ -1385,6 +1386,15 @@ swapcache reclaim. Decreasing vfs_cache_pressure causes the kernel to prefer
to retain dentry and inode caches. Increasing vfs_cache_pressure beyond 100
causes the kernel to prefer to reclaim dentries and inodes.
+dirty_background_bytes
+----------------------
+
+Contains the amount of dirty memory at which the pdflush background writeback
+daemon will start writeback.
+
+If dirty_background_bytes is written, dirty_background_ratio becomes a function
+of its value (dirty_background_bytes / the amount of dirtyable system memory).
+
dirty_background_ratio
----------------------
@@ -1393,14 +1403,29 @@ pages + file cache, not including locked pages and HugePages), the number of
pages at which the pdflush background writeback daemon will start writing out
dirty data.
+If dirty_background_ratio is written, dirty_background_bytes becomes a function
+of its value (dirty_background_ratio * the amount of dirtyable system memory).
+
+dirty_bytes
+-----------
+
+Contains the amount of dirty memory at which a process generating disk writes
+will itself start writeback.
+
+If dirty_bytes is written, dirty_ratio becomes a function of its value
+(dirty_bytes / the amount of dirtyable system memory).
+
dirty_ratio
------------------
+-----------
Contains, as a percentage of the dirtyable system memory (free pages + mapped
pages + file cache, not including locked pages and HugePages), the number of
pages at which a process which is generating disk writes will itself start
writing out dirty data.
+If dirty_ratio is written, dirty_bytes becomes a function of its value
+(dirty_ratio * the amount of dirtyable system memory).
+
dirty_writeback_centisecs
-------------------------
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/squashfs.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/squashfs.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..3e79e4a7a392
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/squashfs.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,225 @@
+SQUASHFS 4.0 FILESYSTEM
+=======================
+
+Squashfs is a compressed read-only filesystem for Linux.
+It uses zlib compression to compress files, inodes and directories.
+Inodes in the system are very small and all blocks are packed to minimise
+data overhead. Block sizes greater than 4K are supported up to a maximum
+of 1Mbytes (default block size 128K).
+
+Squashfs is intended for general read-only filesystem use, for archival
+use (i.e. in cases where a .tar.gz file may be used), and in constrained
+block device/memory systems (e.g. embedded systems) where low overhead is
+needed.
+
+Mailing list: squashfs-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
+Web site: www.squashfs.org
+
+1. FILESYSTEM FEATURES
+----------------------
+
+Squashfs filesystem features versus Cramfs:
+
+ Squashfs Cramfs
+
+Max filesystem size: 2^64 16 MiB
+Max file size: ~ 2 TiB 16 MiB
+Max files: unlimited unlimited
+Max directories: unlimited unlimited
+Max entries per directory: unlimited unlimited
+Max block size: 1 MiB 4 KiB
+Metadata compression: yes no
+Directory indexes: yes no
+Sparse file support: yes no
+Tail-end packing (fragments): yes no
+Exportable (NFS etc.): yes no
+Hard link support: yes no
+"." and ".." in readdir: yes no
+Real inode numbers: yes no
+32-bit uids/gids: yes no
+File creation time: yes no
+Xattr and ACL support: no no
+
+Squashfs compresses data, inodes and directories. In addition, inode and
+directory data are highly compacted, and packed on byte boundaries. Each
+compressed inode is on average 8 bytes in length (the exact length varies on
+file type, i.e. regular file, directory, symbolic link, and block/char device
+inodes have different sizes).
+
+2. USING SQUASHFS
+-----------------
+
+As squashfs is a read-only filesystem, the mksquashfs program must be used to
+create populated squashfs filesystems. This and other squashfs utilities
+can be obtained from http://www.squashfs.org. Usage instructions can be
+obtained from this site also.
+
+
+3. SQUASHFS FILESYSTEM DESIGN
+-----------------------------
+
+A squashfs filesystem consists of seven parts, packed together on a byte
+alignment:
+
+ ---------------
+ | superblock |
+ |---------------|
+ | datablocks |
+ | & fragments |
+ |---------------|
+ | inode table |
+ |---------------|
+ | directory |
+ | table |
+ |---------------|
+ | fragment |
+ | table |
+ |---------------|
+ | export |
+ | table |
+ |---------------|
+ | uid/gid |
+ | lookup table |
+ ---------------
+
+Compressed data blocks are written to the filesystem as files are read from
+the source directory, and checked for duplicates. Once all file data has been
+written the completed inode, directory, fragment, export and uid/gid lookup
+tables are written.
+
+3.1 Inodes
+----------
+
+Metadata (inodes and directories) are compressed in 8Kbyte blocks. Each
+compressed block is prefixed by a two byte length, the top bit is set if the
+block is uncompressed. A block will be uncompressed if the -noI option is set,
+or if the compressed block was larger than the uncompressed block.
+
+Inodes are packed into the metadata blocks, and are not aligned to block
+boundaries, therefore inodes overlap compressed blocks. Inodes are identified
+by a 48-bit number which encodes the location of the compressed metadata block
+containing the inode, and the byte offset into that block where the inode is
+placed (<block, offset>).
+
+To maximise compression there are different inodes for each file type
+(regular file, directory, device, etc.), the inode contents and length
+varying with the type.
+
+To further maximise compression, two types of regular file inode and
+directory inode are defined: inodes optimised for frequently occurring
+regular files and directories, and extended types where extra
+information has to be stored.
+
+3.2 Directories
+---------------
+
+Like inodes, directories are packed into compressed metadata blocks, stored
+in a directory table. Directories are accessed using the start address of
+the metablock containing the directory and the offset into the
+decompressed block (<block, offset>).
+
+Directories are organised in a slightly complex way, and are not simply
+a list of file names. The organisation takes advantage of the
+fact that (in most cases) the inodes of the files will be in the same
+compressed metadata block, and therefore, can share the start block.
+Directories are therefore organised in a two level list, a directory
+header containing the shared start block value, and a sequence of directory
+entries, each of which share the shared start block. A new directory header
+is written once/if the inode start block changes. The directory
+header/directory entry list is repeated as many times as necessary.
+
+Directories are sorted, and can contain a directory index to speed up
+file lookup. Directory indexes store one entry per metablock, each entry
+storing the index/filename mapping to the first directory header
+in each metadata block. Directories are sorted in alphabetical order,
+and at lookup the index is scanned linearly looking for the first filename
+alphabetically larger than the filename being looked up. At this point the
+location of the metadata block the filename is in has been found.
+The general idea of the index is ensure only one metadata block needs to be
+decompressed to do a lookup irrespective of the length of the directory.
+This scheme has the advantage that it doesn't require extra memory overhead
+and doesn't require much extra storage on disk.
+
+3.3 File data
+-------------
+
+Regular files consist of a sequence of contiguous compressed blocks, and/or a
+compressed fragment block (tail-end packed block). The compressed size
+of each datablock is stored in a block list contained within the
+file inode.
+
+To speed up access to datablocks when reading 'large' files (256 Mbytes or
+larger), the code implements an index cache that caches the mapping from
+block index to datablock location on disk.
+
+The index cache allows Squashfs to handle large files (up to 1.75 TiB) while
+retaining a simple and space-efficient block list on disk. The cache
+is split into slots, caching up to eight 224 GiB files (128 KiB blocks).
+Larger files use multiple slots, with 1.75 TiB files using all 8 slots.
+The index cache is designed to be memory efficient, and by default uses
+16 KiB.
+
+3.4 Fragment lookup table
+-------------------------
+
+Regular files can contain a fragment index which is mapped to a fragment
+location on disk and compressed size using a fragment lookup table. This
+fragment lookup table is itself stored compressed into metadata blocks.
+A second index table is used to locate these. This second index table for
+speed of access (and because it is small) is read at mount time and cached
+in memory.
+
+3.5 Uid/gid lookup table
+------------------------
+
+For space efficiency regular files store uid and gid indexes, which are
+converted to 32-bit uids/gids using an id look up table. This table is
+stored compressed into metadata blocks. A second index table is used to
+locate these. This second index table for speed of access (and because it
+is small) is read at mount time and cached in memory.
+
+3.6 Export table
+----------------
+
+To enable Squashfs filesystems to be exportable (via NFS etc.) filesystems
+can optionally (disabled with the -no-exports Mksquashfs option) contain
+an inode number to inode disk location lookup table. This is required to
+enable Squashfs to map inode numbers passed in filehandles to the inode
+location on disk, which is necessary when the export code reinstantiates
+expired/flushed inodes.
+
+This table is stored compressed into metadata blocks. A second index table is
+used to locate these. This second index table for speed of access (and because
+it is small) is read at mount time and cached in memory.
+
+
+4. TODOS AND OUTSTANDING ISSUES
+-------------------------------
+
+4.1 Todo list
+-------------
+
+Implement Xattr and ACL support. The Squashfs 4.0 filesystem layout has hooks
+for these but the code has not been written. Once the code has been written
+the existing layout should not require modification.
+
+4.2 Squashfs internal cache
+---------------------------
+
+Blocks in Squashfs are compressed. To avoid repeatedly decompressing
+recently accessed data Squashfs uses two small metadata and fragment caches.
+
+The cache is not used for file datablocks, these are decompressed and cached in
+the page-cache in the normal way. The cache is used to temporarily cache
+fragment and metadata blocks which have been read as a result of a metadata
+(i.e. inode or directory) or fragment access. Because metadata and fragments
+are packed together into blocks (to gain greater compression) the read of a
+particular piece of metadata or fragment will retrieve other metadata/fragments
+which have been packed with it, these because of locality-of-reference may be
+read in the near future. Temporarily caching them ensures they are available
+for near future access without requiring an additional read and decompress.
+
+In the future this internal cache may be replaced with an implementation which
+uses the kernel page cache. Because the page cache operates on page sized
+units this may introduce additional complexity in terms of locking and
+associated race conditions.