linux/Documentation/filesystems
Lukas Czerner bfff68738f ext4: add support for lazy inode table initialization
When the lazy_itable_init extended option is passed to mke2fs, it
considerably speeds up filesystem creation because inode tables are
not zeroed out.  The fact that parts of the inode table are
uninitialized is not a problem so long as the block group descriptors,
which contain information regarding how much of the inode table has
been initialized, has not been corrupted However, if the block group
checksums are not valid, e2fsck must scan the entire inode table, and
the the old, uninitialized data could potentially cause e2fsck to
report false problems.

Hence, it is important for the inode tables to be initialized as soon
as possble.  This commit adds this feature so that mke2fs can safely
use the lazy inode table initialization feature to speed up formatting
file systems.

This is done via a new new kernel thread called ext4lazyinit, which is
created on demand and destroyed, when it is no longer needed.  There
is only one thread for all ext4 filesystems in the system. When the
first filesystem with inititable mount option is mounted, ext4lazyinit
thread is created, then the filesystem can register its request in the
request list.

This thread then walks through the list of requests picking up
scheduled requests and invoking ext4_init_inode_table(). Next schedule
time for the request is computed by multiplying the time it took to
zero out last inode table with wait multiplier, which can be set with
the (init_itable=n) mount option (default is 10).  We are doing
this so we do not take the whole I/O bandwidth. When the thread is no
longer necessary (request list is empty) it frees the appropriate
structures and exits (and can be created later later by another
filesystem).

We do not disturb regular inode allocations in any way, it just do not
care whether the inode table is, or is not zeroed. But when zeroing, we
have to skip used inodes, obviously. Also we should prevent new inode
allocations from the group, while zeroing is on the way. For that we
take write alloc_sem lock in ext4_init_inode_table() and read alloc_sem
in the ext4_claim_inode, so when we are unlucky and allocator hits the
group which is currently being zeroed, it just has to wait.

This can be suppresed using the mount option no_init_itable.

Signed-off-by: Lukas Czerner <lczerner@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>
2010-10-27 21:30:05 -04:00
..
caching fscache: convert object to use workqueue instead of slow-work 2010-07-22 22:58:34 +02:00
configfs
nfs ipconfig: document DHCP hostname and DNS record 2010-06-03 03:18:18 -07:00
pohmelfs
9p.txt Documentation: update broken web addresses. 2010-08-04 15:21:40 +02:00
00-INDEX ceph: some documentations fixes 2010-03-29 09:52:11 -07:00
adfs.txt
affs.txt Documentation: update broken web addresses. 2010-08-04 15:21:40 +02:00
afs.txt
autofs4-mount-control.txt Documentation/: it's -> its where appropriate 2010-04-23 02:09:52 +02:00
automount-support.txt
befs.txt Documentation: update broken web addresses. 2010-08-04 15:21:40 +02:00
bfs.txt
btrfs.txt
ceph.txt Documentation/: it's -> its where appropriate 2010-04-23 02:09:52 +02:00
cifs.txt
coda.txt
cramfs.txt
debugfs.txt
dentry-locking.txt rcu: 1Q2010 update for RCU documentation 2010-01-16 10:25:22 +01:00
devpts.txt
directory-locking
dlmfs.txt Documentation/: it's -> its where appropriate 2010-04-23 02:09:52 +02:00
dnotify_test.c Documentation/fs/: split txt and source files 2010-03-12 15:52:35 -08:00
dnotify.txt Documentation/fs/: split txt and source files 2010-03-12 15:52:35 -08:00
ecryptfs.txt
exofs.txt trivial: some small fixes in exofs documentation 2009-12-10 09:59:16 +02:00
ext2.txt
ext3.txt ext3: make barrier options consistent with ext4 2010-05-21 19:30:41 +02:00
ext4.txt ext4: add support for lazy inode table initialization 2010-10-27 21:30:05 -04:00
fiemap.txt Documentation/: it's -> its where appropriate 2010-04-23 02:09:52 +02:00
files.txt
fuse.txt Documentation/: it's -> its where appropriate 2010-04-23 02:09:52 +02:00
gfs2-glocks.txt
gfs2-uevents.txt
gfs2.txt GFS2: docs update 2010-03-29 14:28:52 +01:00
hfs.txt
hfsplus.txt
hpfs.txt Documentation/: it's -> its where appropriate 2010-04-23 02:09:52 +02:00
inotify.txt
isofs.txt Documentation: update broken web addresses. 2010-08-04 15:21:40 +02:00
jfs.txt
Locking bkl: Remove locked .ioctl file operation 2010-08-14 00:24:24 +02:00
locks.txt
logfs.txt fix "seperate" typos in comments 2010-05-10 11:56:30 +02:00
Makefile Documentation/fs/: split txt and source files 2010-03-12 15:52:35 -08:00
mandatory-locking.txt
ncpfs.txt
nilfs2.txt nilfs2: add nodiscard mount option 2010-07-23 10:02:12 +09:00
ntfs.txt
ocfs2.txt ocfs2: Add dir_resv_level mount option 2010-05-05 18:18:07 -07:00
omfs.txt
porting update VFS documentation for method changes. 2010-08-09 16:48:40 -04:00
proc.txt oom: deprecate oom_adj tunable 2010-08-09 20:45:02 -07:00
quota.txt
ramfs-rootfs-initramfs.txt
relay.txt
romfs.txt
seq_file.txt seq_file: use proc_create() in documentation 2009-12-16 07:20:07 -08:00
sharedsubtree.txt add several pieces to shared subtree documentation 2010-03-03 13:00:23 -05:00
smbfs.txt Documentation/: it's -> its where appropriate 2010-04-23 02:09:52 +02:00
spufs.txt
squashfs.txt Squashfs: update Kconfig and documentation for LZO 2010-08-05 23:42:54 +01:00
sysfs-pci.txt PCI: Allow read/write access to sysfs I/O port resources 2010-07-30 09:32:08 -07:00
sysfs-tagging.txt sysfs-namespaces: add a high-level Documentation file 2010-05-21 09:37:31 -07:00
sysfs.txt sysfs: Fix one more signature discrepancy between sysfs implementation and docs. 2010-08-05 13:53:34 -07:00
sysv-fs.txt
tmpfs.txt mempolicy: document cpuset interaction with tmpfs mpol mount option 2010-05-25 08:06:57 -07:00
ubifs.txt
udf.txt
ufs.txt
vfat.txt Documentation: update broken web addresses. 2010-08-04 15:21:40 +02:00
vfs.txt bkl: Remove locked .ioctl file operation 2010-08-14 00:24:24 +02:00
xfs-delayed-logging-design.txt xfs: remove done roadmap item from xfs-delayed-logging-design.txt 2010-06-03 16:22:29 +10:00
xfs.txt xfs: remove obsolete osyncisosync mount option 2010-07-26 13:16:51 -05:00
xip.txt