[PATCH] man/statx: Add STATX_ATTR_DAX

From: ira.weiny@intel.com
To: mtk.manpages@gmail.com
Cc: Ira Weiny <ira.weiny@intel.com>,
	linux-man@vger.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-api@vger.kernel.org, linux-xfs@vger.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org
Subject: [PATCH] man/statx: Add STATX_ATTR_DAX
Date: Mon,  4 May 2020 17:20:16 -0700	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <20200505002016.1085071-1-ira.weiny@intel.com> (raw)

From: Ira Weiny <ira.weiny@intel.com>

Linux 5.8 is slated to have STATX_ATTR_DAX support.

https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20200428002142.404144-4-ira.weiny@intel.com/
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20200504161352.GA13783@magnolia/

Add the text to the statx man page.

Signed-off-by: Ira Weiny <ira.weiny@intel.com>
---
 man2/statx.2 | 24 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 24 insertions(+)

diff --git a/man2/statx.2 b/man2/statx.2
index 2e90f07dbdbc..14c4ab78e7bd 100644
--- a/man2/statx.2
+++ b/man2/statx.2
@@ -468,6 +468,30 @@ The file has fs-verity enabled.
 It cannot be written to, and all reads from it will be verified
 against a cryptographic hash that covers the
 entire file (e.g., via a Merkle tree).
+.TP
+.BR STATX_ATTR_DAX (since Linux 5.8)
+The file is in the DAX (cpu direct access) state.  DAX state attempts to
+minimize software cache effects for both I/O and memory mappings of this file.
+It requires a file system which has been configured to support DAX.
+.PP
+DAX generally assumes all accesses are via cpu load / store instructions which
+can minimize overhead for small accesses, but may adversely affect cpu
+utilization for large transfers.
+.PP
+File I/O is done directly to/from user-space buffers and memory mapped I/O may
+be performed with direct memory mappings that bypass kernel page cache.
+.PP
+While the DAX property tends to result in data being transferred synchronously,
+it does not give the same guarantees of O_SYNC where data and the necessary
+metadata are transferred together.
+.PP
+A DAX file may support being mapped with the MAP_SYNC flag, which enables a
+program to use CPU cache flush instructions to persist CPU store operations
+without an explicit
+.BR fsync(2).
+See
+.BR mmap(2)
+for more information.
 .SH RETURN VALUE
 On success, zero is returned.
 On error, \-1 is returned, and
-- 
2.25.1

