Re: [PATCH v3] mkfs: Break block discard into chunks of 2 GB

[Eric Sandeen <sandeen@sandeen.net>]

On 11/30/19 4:01 PM, Chaitanya Kulkarni wrote:
> Not an XFS expert, but patch to handle ^C is been discussed on the
> block layer mailing list which includes discard operations. [1]
> 
> This solution seems specific to one file system, which will lead to
> code repetition for all the file systems which are in question.
> 
> How about we come up with the generic solution in the block-layer so
> it can be reused for all the file systems ?
> 
> (fyi, I'm not aware of any drawbacks of handling ^C it in the block
> layer and would like to learn if any).
> 
> [1] https://patchwork.kernel.org/patch/11234607/
> 
> -Chaitanya

It'd be great to fix this universally in the kernel but it seems like
that patch is in discussion for now, and TBH I don't see any real
drawbacks to looping in mkfs - it would also solve the problem on any
old kernel w/o the block layer change.

I'd propose that we go ahead w/ the mkfs change, and if/when the kernel
handles this better, and it's reasonable to expect that we're running
on a kernel where it can be interrupted, we could remove the mkfs loop
at a later date if we wanted to.

-Eric