From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-5.6 required=3.0 tests=DKIM_INVALID,DKIM_SIGNED, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,MENTIONS_GIT_HOSTING, SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS,URIBL_BLOCKED autolearn=unavailable autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5ACDFC3566F for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:31:10 +0000 (UTC) Received: from ml01.01.org (ml01.01.org [198.145.21.10]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 30DDC206EF for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:31:10 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: mail.kernel.org; dkim=fail reason="signature verification failed" (2048-bit key) header.d=intel-com.20150623.gappssmtp.com header.i=@intel-com.20150623.gappssmtp.com header.b="p2wH0VlZ" DMARC-Filter: OpenDMARC Filter v1.3.2 mail.kernel.org 30DDC206EF Authentication-Results: mail.kernel.org; dmarc=fail (p=none dis=none) header.from=intel.com Authentication-Results: mail.kernel.org; spf=none smtp.mailfrom=linux-nvdimm-bounces@lists.01.org Received: from ml01.vlan13.01.org (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by ml01.01.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 26D8410FC3414; Fri, 21 Feb 2020 13:32:02 -0800 (PST) Received-SPF: Pass (mailfrom) identity=mailfrom; client-ip=2607:f8b0:4864:20::243; helo=mail-oi1-x243.google.com; envelope-from=dan.j.williams@intel.com; receiver= Received: from mail-oi1-x243.google.com (mail-oi1-x243.google.com [IPv6:2607:f8b0:4864:20::243]) (using TLSv1.3 with cipher TLS_AES_128_GCM_SHA256 (128/128 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by ml01.01.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 9034810FC3362 for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2020 13:32:00 -0800 (PST) Received: by mail-oi1-x243.google.com with SMTP id q81so3074303oig.0 for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2020 13:31:08 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=intel-com.20150623.gappssmtp.com; s=20150623; h=mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc; bh=CGRGyvmgrURrZb8JP76tjcYyGmXD/dSyGlZGFapcV9E=; b=p2wH0VlZHb0hY0YAMV5ZCw9oPkdufeKtNrAUgvtZjG6mv7jwORM2aOQx2CWJrMQayQ DAjUCeTnywJdnDCRYWwle2FWJxkeoSil8ebNwEfDXXJbLRcs0Cg4u3TVLDt/TeGjpUJV QhgNG8JRD3BM4aw2KYmP41ZNJv7I0qi6NeMqfRb1+DP7kdCpbVIm/UcjB+aJEzaBbHMe kd05SmT9mWcWBF9jIZkQOg3uP/TwGT9XyvwY6VA5xf7xno/eRdIgi74zWSKHJLWqyQMB TpRN9l6yjk98TP9neoPEE4Qxtim/srSV3p6FG/wfWKbDJLytuNHRVQL+S5K3xbydsXUd Doww== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=CGRGyvmgrURrZb8JP76tjcYyGmXD/dSyGlZGFapcV9E=; b=pWNmEA1eMJR5eTuPIBOpOkoxGOJ3tpGAZLnEmL+DKLvh/+IJXlwtC6D7aICB/HIxSK OL/WC+lrPOhH3rhY4h10gPu8pJp9GEOGYb6mh+hRD21GRIg8stL8akLdvgC3nRIxYsOO GcEdKMR8DTnB3O4GhdBqdmsCb4Ts2iIVgntvsqfmDcYTiO1T1kiCgyFs3pW4hVrAoW56 gXRO8XMnZr2yP6PAHPiENRd4eagNaeHsbLdVKcTKUjVfOuFNIK7XYTVwLsEYLePAt0Y8 cVvJK9DprXiICMubkul/17LgyVcvTsaOvxdJqeLr48653VbfZpb4azl67CoMXyzcziHi jGHw== X-Gm-Message-State: APjAAAV7pumLvAmHun9/WU7eNtpj02sUyELwKALQMAJ+pq8Is/iTIkj2 O0enYSfrkdL59Y96or7t+k6OV4CMTjgBsAySsNymNQ== X-Google-Smtp-Source: APXvYqzwgROo2U/pxVS1cKTSLnTsAFtRvHb1ZffYyzADG/jhKo8J5sdfjvLjWmiXOTRlHzvw+Yt2nVnFYHzxgBiVEkI= X-Received: by 2002:a54:4791:: with SMTP id o17mr3613643oic.70.1582320667197; Fri, 21 Feb 2020 13:31:07 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <20200218214841.10076-1-vgoyal@redhat.com> <20200218214841.10076-3-vgoyal@redhat.com> <20200220215707.GC10816@redhat.com> <20200221201759.GF25974@redhat.com> <20200221212449.GG25974@redhat.com> In-Reply-To: <20200221212449.GG25974@redhat.com> From: Dan Williams Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 13:30:56 -0800 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [PATCH v5 2/8] drivers/pmem: Allow pmem_clear_poison() to accept arbitrary offset and len To: Vivek Goyal Message-ID-Hash: FOHK5YQ4QHYX2552ZLZXBUH27KDOV6FP X-Message-ID-Hash: FOHK5YQ4QHYX2552ZLZXBUH27KDOV6FP X-MailFrom: dan.j.williams@intel.com X-Mailman-Rule-Misses: dmarc-mitigation; no-senders; approved; emergency; loop; banned-address; member-moderation; nonmember-moderation; administrivia; implicit-dest; max-recipients; max-size; news-moderation; no-subject; suspicious-header CC: linux-fsdevel , linux-nvdimm , Christoph Hellwig , device-mapper development X-Mailman-Version: 3.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: "Linux-nvdimm developer list." Archived-At: List-Archive: List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 1:25 PM Vivek Goyal wrote: > > On Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 01:00:29PM -0800, Dan Williams wrote: > > On Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 12:18 PM Vivek Goyal wrote: > > > > > > On Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 01:32:48PM -0500, Jeff Moyer wrote: > > > > Vivek Goyal writes: > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 20, 2020 at 04:35:17PM -0500, Jeff Moyer wrote: > > > > >> Vivek Goyal writes: > > > > >> > > > > >> > Currently pmem_clear_poison() expects offset and len to be sector aligned. > > > > >> > Atleast that seems to be the assumption with which code has been written. > > > > >> > It is called only from pmem_do_bvec() which is called only from pmem_rw_page() > > > > >> > and pmem_make_request() which will only passe sector aligned offset and len. > > > > >> > > > > > >> > Soon we want use this function from dax_zero_page_range() code path which > > > > >> > can try to zero arbitrary range of memory with-in a page. So update this > > > > >> > function to assume that offset and length can be arbitrary and do the > > > > >> > necessary alignments as needed. > > > > >> > > > > >> What caller will try to zero a range that is smaller than a sector? > > > > > > > > > > Hi Jeff, > > > > > > > > > > New dax zeroing interface (dax_zero_page_range()) can technically pass > > > > > a range which is less than a sector. Or which is bigger than a sector > > > > > but start and end are not aligned on sector boundaries. > > > > > > > > Sure, but who will call it with misaligned ranges? > > > > > > create a file foo.txt of size 4K and then truncate it. > > > > > > "truncate -s 23 foo.txt". Filesystems try to zero the bytes from 24 to > > > 4095. > > > > > > I have also written a test for this. > > > > > > https://github.com/rhvgoyal/misc/blob/master/pmem-tests/iomap-range-test.sh#L102 > > > > > > > > > > > > At this point of time, all I care about is that case of an arbitrary > > > > > range is handeled well. So if a caller passes a range in, we figure > > > > > out subrange which is sector aligned in terms of start and end, and > > > > > clear poison on those sectors and ignore rest of the range. And > > > > > this itself will be an improvement over current behavior where > > > > > nothing is cleared if I/O is not sector aligned. > > > > > > > > I don't think this makes sense. The caller needs to know about the > > > > blast radius of errors. This is why I asked for a concrete example. > > > > It might make more sense, for example, to return an error if not all of > > > > the errors could be cleared. > > > > > > > > >> > nvdimm_clear_poison() seems to assume offset and len to be aligned to > > > > >> > clear_err_unit boundary. But this is currently internal detail and is > > > > >> > not exported for others to use. So for now, continue to align offset and > > > > >> > length to SECTOR_SIZE boundary. Improving it further and to align it > > > > >> > to clear_err_unit boundary is a TODO item for future. > > > > >> > > > > >> When there is a poisoned range of persistent memory, it is recorded by > > > > >> the badblocks infrastructure, which currently operates on sectors. So, > > > > >> no matter what the error unit is for the hardware, we currently can't > > > > >> record/report to userspace anything smaller than a sector, and so that > > > > >> is what we expect when clearing errors. > > > > >> > > > > >> Continuing on for completeness, we will currently not map a page with > > > > >> badblocks into a process' address space. So, let's say you have 256 > > > > >> bytes of bad pmem, we will tell you we've lost 512 bytes, and even if > > > > >> you access a valid mmap()d address in the same page as the poisoned > > > > >> memory, you will get a segfault. > > > > >> > > > > >> Userspace can fix up the error by calling write(2) and friends to > > > > >> provide new data, or by punching a hole and writing new data to the hole > > > > >> (which may result in getting a new block, or reallocating the old block > > > > >> and zeroing it, which will clear the error). > > > > > > > > > > Fair enough. I do not need poison clearing at finer granularity. It might > > > > > be needed once dev_dax path wants to clear poison. Not sure how exactly > > > > > that works. > > > > > > > > It doesn't. :) > > > > > > > > >> > + /* > > > > >> > + * Callers can pass arbitrary offset and len. But nvdimm_clear_poison() > > > > >> > + * expects memory offset and length to meet certain alignment > > > > >> > + * restrction (clear_err_unit). Currently nvdimm does not export > > > > >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > > > >> > + * required alignment. So align offset and length to sector boundary > > > > >> > > > > >> What is "nvdimm" in that sentence? Because the nvdimm most certainly > > > > >> does export the required alignment. Perhaps you meant libnvdimm? > > > > > > > > > > I meant nvdimm_clear_poison() function in drivers/nvdimm/bus.c. Whatever > > > > > it is called. It first queries alignement required (clear_err_unit) and > > > > > then makes sure range passed in meets that alignment requirement. > > > > > > > > My point was your comment is misleading. > > > > > > > > >> We could potentially support clearing less than a sector, but I'd have > > > > >> to understand the use cases better before offerring implementation > > > > >> suggestions. > > > > > > > > > > I don't need clearing less than a secotr. Once somebody needs it they > > > > > can implement it. All I am doing is making sure current logic is not > > > > > broken when dax_zero_page_range() starts using this logic and passes > > > > > an arbitrary range. We need to make sure we internally align I/O > > > > > > > > An arbitrary range is the same thing as less than a sector. :) Do you > > > > know of an instance where the range will not be sector-aligned and sized? > > > > > > > > > and carve out an aligned sub-range and pass that subrange to > > > > > nvdimm_clear_poison(). > > > > > > > > And what happens to the rest? The caller is left to trip over the > > > > errors? That sounds pretty terrible. I really think there needs to be > > > > an explicit contract here. > > > > > > Ok, I think is is the contentious bit. Current interface > > > (__dax_zero_page_range()) either clears the poison (if I/O is aligned to > > > sector) or expects page to be free of poison. > > > > > > So in above example, of "truncate -s 23 foo.txt", currently I get an error > > > because range being zeroed is not sector aligned. So > > > __dax_zero_page_range() falls back to calling direct_access(). Which > > > fails because there are poisoned sectors in the page. > > > > > > With my patches, dax_zero_page_range(), clears the poison from sector 1 to > > > 7 but leaves sector 0 untouched and just writes zeroes from byte 0 to 511 > > > and returns success. > > > > > > So question is, is this better behavior or worse behavior. If sector 0 > > > was poisoned, it will continue to remain poisoned and caller will come > > > to know about it on next read and then it should try to truncate file > > > to length 0 or unlink file or restore that file to get rid of poison. > > > > > > IOW, if a partial block is being zeroed and if it is poisoned, caller > > > will not be return an error and poison will not be cleared and memory > > > will be zeroed. What do we expect in such cases. > > > > > > Do we expect an interface where if there are any bad blocks in the range > > > being zeroed, then they all should be cleared (and hence all I/O should > > > be aligned) otherwise error is returned. If yes, I could make that > > > change. > > > > This does not strike me as a good idea because it's a false security > > compared to the latent poison case. If the writes to an unknown > > poisoned location would otherwise succeed via a different I/O path > > (dax), it's an unsymmetric surprise to start returning errors just > > because you wrote zeroes as a side effect of truncate. > > > > > Downside of current interface is that it will clear as many blocks as > > > possible in the given range and leave starting and end blocks poisoned > > > (if it is unaligned) and not return error. That means a reader will > > > get error on these blocks again and they will have to try to clear it > > > again. > > > > I think what you have described in your truncate example is an > > improvement on what we have currently because x86 does not communicate > > write errors. Specifically, writing zeros via dax from userspace over > > unknown poison behaves the same as writing unaligned zeros over known > > poison. In both cases it's a best effort that always succeeds (no cpu > > exception), and may inadvertently clear poison as a side-effect. > > Otherwise, an error-block-aligned hole punch is the only way to > > trigger the kernel to try to clear known poison when the full block is > > reallocated. > > Hi Dan, > > Agreed. This new interface works uniformly for both known poison and latent > poison cases. Existing interface is asymmetric and that means if poison is > latent, unaligned zero range will succeed but if poison is known, unaligned > zero range will fail. > > > > > On movdir64b capable cpus the error clearing unit becomes 64-bytes > > rather than 256-bytes because that allows a cacheline to be written > > without triggering a line fill read. So the error clearing granularity > > gets better over time, but unfortunately not synchronous detection in > > the I/O path. > > > > I think a better way to improve poison handling is the long standing > > idea to integrate the badblock tracking into the filesystem directly. > > That way driver notifications of poison can be ingested into the > > filesystem and notifications sent on filenames rather than the current > > TOCTOU mess of trying to do a reverse lookup of badblock numbers to > > files. If the application can efficiently list and be notified of > > poison it can mitigate it immediately rather than trying to rely on > > write side effects. > > Moving badblocks infrastructure in filesystem sounds like a major > rework which should be taken up in a seprate patch series in future. > > For now, can we please take these patches which are an improvement > over existing interface. Oh you misunderstood my comment, the "move badblocks to filesystem" proposal is long term / down the road thing to consider. In the near term this unaligned block zeroing facility is an improvement. _______________________________________________ Linux-nvdimm mailing list -- linux-nvdimm@lists.01.org To unsubscribe send an email to linux-nvdimm-leave@lists.01.org From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.0 (2014-02-07) on aws-us-west-2-korg-lkml-1.web.codeaurora.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-5.8 required=3.0 tests=DKIM_SIGNED,DKIM_VALID, HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS,MAILING_LIST_MULTI,MENTIONS_GIT_HOSTING, SPF_HELO_NONE,SPF_PASS autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.0 Received: from mail.kernel.org (mail.kernel.org [198.145.29.99]) by smtp.lore.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 55A9FC35666 for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:31:09 +0000 (UTC) Received: from vger.kernel.org (vger.kernel.org [209.132.180.67]) by mail.kernel.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 18EA2206EF for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2020 21:31:09 +0000 (UTC) Authentication-Results: mail.kernel.org; dkim=pass (2048-bit key) header.d=intel-com.20150623.gappssmtp.com header.i=@intel-com.20150623.gappssmtp.com header.b="p2wH0VlZ" Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1727578AbgBUVbI (ORCPT ); Fri, 21 Feb 2020 16:31:08 -0500 Received: from mail-oi1-f194.google.com ([209.85.167.194]:43657 "EHLO mail-oi1-f194.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1726725AbgBUVbI (ORCPT ); Fri, 21 Feb 2020 16:31:08 -0500 Received: by mail-oi1-f194.google.com with SMTP id p125so3023216oif.10 for ; Fri, 21 Feb 2020 13:31:07 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=intel-com.20150623.gappssmtp.com; s=20150623; h=mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date:message-id:subject:to :cc; bh=CGRGyvmgrURrZb8JP76tjcYyGmXD/dSyGlZGFapcV9E=; b=p2wH0VlZHb0hY0YAMV5ZCw9oPkdufeKtNrAUgvtZjG6mv7jwORM2aOQx2CWJrMQayQ DAjUCeTnywJdnDCRYWwle2FWJxkeoSil8ebNwEfDXXJbLRcs0Cg4u3TVLDt/TeGjpUJV QhgNG8JRD3BM4aw2KYmP41ZNJv7I0qi6NeMqfRb1+DP7kdCpbVIm/UcjB+aJEzaBbHMe kd05SmT9mWcWBF9jIZkQOg3uP/TwGT9XyvwY6VA5xf7xno/eRdIgi74zWSKHJLWqyQMB TpRN9l6yjk98TP9neoPEE4Qxtim/srSV3p6FG/wfWKbDJLytuNHRVQL+S5K3xbydsXUd Doww== X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20161025; h=x-gm-message-state:mime-version:references:in-reply-to:from:date :message-id:subject:to:cc; bh=CGRGyvmgrURrZb8JP76tjcYyGmXD/dSyGlZGFapcV9E=; b=gV5sKJnrlHwbTwfDJVnYE144JG+TIGY6LTmJYkMps0O3l0U8/3JNXTeOsFNF3KyC23 RibVWBQigCu1Uy7c+7SaoVMdg09smULuIsyflLjGMhopsorBmMaQCBny7eDoTDHxEiNp A4tozH2Ym+VeV/YN17QfukVsKwbIdefB7hNCRtr5nqYSBCORWEh/3I//nmMEzmAlsRAL 4V9nrtkOwTIc4ooFDoEZvKxqhu016uTc1K9pHyaXvz6FKcfde+iCCiiHHTrZnLWoGdnD Imy/LfZroBeV75ny+MIMA+2i4jEU9ApWwUrMXSe04YCacL4hJXcpyF8If5T6Rnp81ShH hVqQ== X-Gm-Message-State: APjAAAX/MV0JC29GqAgg0937sZdzxiuhX7Ciqs4M9XSKtNCrCM9wAHsx fiGdaz9NVl25Kj7owMrKyBG7OSQPtrO93xJqXAcZJg== X-Google-Smtp-Source: APXvYqzwgROo2U/pxVS1cKTSLnTsAFtRvHb1ZffYyzADG/jhKo8J5sdfjvLjWmiXOTRlHzvw+Yt2nVnFYHzxgBiVEkI= X-Received: by 2002:a54:4791:: with SMTP id o17mr3613643oic.70.1582320667197; Fri, 21 Feb 2020 13:31:07 -0800 (PST) MIME-Version: 1.0 References: <20200218214841.10076-1-vgoyal@redhat.com> <20200218214841.10076-3-vgoyal@redhat.com> <20200220215707.GC10816@redhat.com> <20200221201759.GF25974@redhat.com> <20200221212449.GG25974@redhat.com> In-Reply-To: <20200221212449.GG25974@redhat.com> From: Dan Williams Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 13:30:56 -0800 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [PATCH v5 2/8] drivers/pmem: Allow pmem_clear_poison() to accept arbitrary offset and len To: Vivek Goyal Cc: Jeff Moyer , linux-fsdevel , linux-nvdimm , Christoph Hellwig , device-mapper development Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Sender: linux-fsdevel-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 1:25 PM Vivek Goyal wrote: > > On Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 01:00:29PM -0800, Dan Williams wrote: > > On Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 12:18 PM Vivek Goyal wrote: > > > > > > On Fri, Feb 21, 2020 at 01:32:48PM -0500, Jeff Moyer wrote: > > > > Vivek Goyal writes: > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Feb 20, 2020 at 04:35:17PM -0500, Jeff Moyer wrote: > > > > >> Vivek Goyal writes: > > > > >> > > > > >> > Currently pmem_clear_poison() expects offset and len to be sector aligned. > > > > >> > Atleast that seems to be the assumption with which code has been written. > > > > >> > It is called only from pmem_do_bvec() which is called only from pmem_rw_page() > > > > >> > and pmem_make_request() which will only passe sector aligned offset and len. > > > > >> > > > > > >> > Soon we want use this function from dax_zero_page_range() code path which > > > > >> > can try to zero arbitrary range of memory with-in a page. So update this > > > > >> > function to assume that offset and length can be arbitrary and do the > > > > >> > necessary alignments as needed. > > > > >> > > > > >> What caller will try to zero a range that is smaller than a sector? > > > > > > > > > > Hi Jeff, > > > > > > > > > > New dax zeroing interface (dax_zero_page_range()) can technically pass > > > > > a range which is less than a sector. Or which is bigger than a sector > > > > > but start and end are not aligned on sector boundaries. > > > > > > > > Sure, but who will call it with misaligned ranges? > > > > > > create a file foo.txt of size 4K and then truncate it. > > > > > > "truncate -s 23 foo.txt". Filesystems try to zero the bytes from 24 to > > > 4095. > > > > > > I have also written a test for this. > > > > > > https://github.com/rhvgoyal/misc/blob/master/pmem-tests/iomap-range-test.sh#L102 > > > > > > > > > > > > At this point of time, all I care about is that case of an arbitrary > > > > > range is handeled well. So if a caller passes a range in, we figure > > > > > out subrange which is sector aligned in terms of start and end, and > > > > > clear poison on those sectors and ignore rest of the range. And > > > > > this itself will be an improvement over current behavior where > > > > > nothing is cleared if I/O is not sector aligned. > > > > > > > > I don't think this makes sense. The caller needs to know about the > > > > blast radius of errors. This is why I asked for a concrete example. > > > > It might make more sense, for example, to return an error if not all of > > > > the errors could be cleared. > > > > > > > > >> > nvdimm_clear_poison() seems to assume offset and len to be aligned to > > > > >> > clear_err_unit boundary. But this is currently internal detail and is > > > > >> > not exported for others to use. So for now, continue to align offset and > > > > >> > length to SECTOR_SIZE boundary. Improving it further and to align it > > > > >> > to clear_err_unit boundary is a TODO item for future. > > > > >> > > > > >> When there is a poisoned range of persistent memory, it is recorded by > > > > >> the badblocks infrastructure, which currently operates on sectors. So, > > > > >> no matter what the error unit is for the hardware, we currently can't > > > > >> record/report to userspace anything smaller than a sector, and so that > > > > >> is what we expect when clearing errors. > > > > >> > > > > >> Continuing on for completeness, we will currently not map a page with > > > > >> badblocks into a process' address space. So, let's say you have 256 > > > > >> bytes of bad pmem, we will tell you we've lost 512 bytes, and even if > > > > >> you access a valid mmap()d address in the same page as the poisoned > > > > >> memory, you will get a segfault. > > > > >> > > > > >> Userspace can fix up the error by calling write(2) and friends to > > > > >> provide new data, or by punching a hole and writing new data to the hole > > > > >> (which may result in getting a new block, or reallocating the old block > > > > >> and zeroing it, which will clear the error). > > > > > > > > > > Fair enough. I do not need poison clearing at finer granularity. It might > > > > > be needed once dev_dax path wants to clear poison. Not sure how exactly > > > > > that works. > > > > > > > > It doesn't. :) > > > > > > > > >> > + /* > > > > >> > + * Callers can pass arbitrary offset and len. But nvdimm_clear_poison() > > > > >> > + * expects memory offset and length to meet certain alignment > > > > >> > + * restrction (clear_err_unit). Currently nvdimm does not export > > > > >> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > > > >> > + * required alignment. So align offset and length to sector boundary > > > > >> > > > > >> What is "nvdimm" in that sentence? Because the nvdimm most certainly > > > > >> does export the required alignment. Perhaps you meant libnvdimm? > > > > > > > > > > I meant nvdimm_clear_poison() function in drivers/nvdimm/bus.c. Whatever > > > > > it is called. It first queries alignement required (clear_err_unit) and > > > > > then makes sure range passed in meets that alignment requirement. > > > > > > > > My point was your comment is misleading. > > > > > > > > >> We could potentially support clearing less than a sector, but I'd have > > > > >> to understand the use cases better before offerring implementation > > > > >> suggestions. > > > > > > > > > > I don't need clearing less than a secotr. Once somebody needs it they > > > > > can implement it. All I am doing is making sure current logic is not > > > > > broken when dax_zero_page_range() starts using this logic and passes > > > > > an arbitrary range. We need to make sure we internally align I/O > > > > > > > > An arbitrary range is the same thing as less than a sector. :) Do you > > > > know of an instance where the range will not be sector-aligned and sized? > > > > > > > > > and carve out an aligned sub-range and pass that subrange to > > > > > nvdimm_clear_poison(). > > > > > > > > And what happens to the rest? The caller is left to trip over the > > > > errors? That sounds pretty terrible. I really think there needs to be > > > > an explicit contract here. > > > > > > Ok, I think is is the contentious bit. Current interface > > > (__dax_zero_page_range()) either clears the poison (if I/O is aligned to > > > sector) or expects page to be free of poison. > > > > > > So in above example, of "truncate -s 23 foo.txt", currently I get an error > > > because range being zeroed is not sector aligned. So > > > __dax_zero_page_range() falls back to calling direct_access(). Which > > > fails because there are poisoned sectors in the page. > > > > > > With my patches, dax_zero_page_range(), clears the poison from sector 1 to > > > 7 but leaves sector 0 untouched and just writes zeroes from byte 0 to 511 > > > and returns success. > > > > > > So question is, is this better behavior or worse behavior. If sector 0 > > > was poisoned, it will continue to remain poisoned and caller will come > > > to know about it on next read and then it should try to truncate file > > > to length 0 or unlink file or restore that file to get rid of poison. > > > > > > IOW, if a partial block is being zeroed and if it is poisoned, caller > > > will not be return an error and poison will not be cleared and memory > > > will be zeroed. What do we expect in such cases. > > > > > > Do we expect an interface where if there are any bad blocks in the range > > > being zeroed, then they all should be cleared (and hence all I/O should > > > be aligned) otherwise error is returned. If yes, I could make that > > > change. > > > > This does not strike me as a good idea because it's a false security > > compared to the latent poison case. If the writes to an unknown > > poisoned location would otherwise succeed via a different I/O path > > (dax), it's an unsymmetric surprise to start returning errors just > > because you wrote zeroes as a side effect of truncate. > > > > > Downside of current interface is that it will clear as many blocks as > > > possible in the given range and leave starting and end blocks poisoned > > > (if it is unaligned) and not return error. That means a reader will > > > get error on these blocks again and they will have to try to clear it > > > again. > > > > I think what you have described in your truncate example is an > > improvement on what we have currently because x86 does not communicate > > write errors. Specifically, writing zeros via dax from userspace over > > unknown poison behaves the same as writing unaligned zeros over known > > poison. In both cases it's a best effort that always succeeds (no cpu > > exception), and may inadvertently clear poison as a side-effect. > > Otherwise, an error-block-aligned hole punch is the only way to > > trigger the kernel to try to clear known poison when the full block is > > reallocated. > > Hi Dan, > > Agreed. This new interface works uniformly for both known poison and latent > poison cases. Existing interface is asymmetric and that means if poison is > latent, unaligned zero range will succeed but if poison is known, unaligned > zero range will fail. > > > > > On movdir64b capable cpus the error clearing unit becomes 64-bytes > > rather than 256-bytes because that allows a cacheline to be written > > without triggering a line fill read. So the error clearing granularity > > gets better over time, but unfortunately not synchronous detection in > > the I/O path. > > > > I think a better way to improve poison handling is the long standing > > idea to integrate the badblock tracking into the filesystem directly. > > That way driver notifications of poison can be ingested into the > > filesystem and notifications sent on filenames rather than the current > > TOCTOU mess of trying to do a reverse lookup of badblock numbers to > > files. If the application can efficiently list and be notified of > > poison it can mitigate it immediately rather than trying to rely on > > write side effects. > > Moving badblocks infrastructure in filesystem sounds like a major > rework which should be taken up in a seprate patch series in future. > > For now, can we please take these patches which are an improvement > over existing interface. Oh you misunderstood my comment, the "move badblocks to filesystem" proposal is long term / down the road thing to consider. In the near term this unaligned block zeroing facility is an improvement.