Re: [PATCH v2] ocfs2: retire ocfs2_drop_inode() and I_WILL_FREE usage

From: Joel Becker

Date: Fri Oct 03 2025 - 16:22:56 EST



Since this is in `iput_final()`, it's outside of OCFS2 cluster locking.
The only work `ocfs_drop_inode()` does is to juggle the spinlock and
state while writing the inode. `evict()` does this just a little later
in `iput_final()`, and there's no real way the flow gets interrupted, so
it is not even moving the writeout that far.

Reviewed-by: Joel Becker <jlbec@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

On Fri, Oct 03, 2025 at 04:36:52AM +0200, Mateusz Guzik wrote:
> This postpones the writeout to ocfs2_evict_inode(), which I'm told is
> fine (tm).
>
> The intent is to retire the I_WILL_FREE flag.
>
> Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>
> v2:
> - rebase -- generic_delete_inode -> inode_just_drop
>
> The original posting got derailed and then this got lost in the shuffle,
> see: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fsdevel/20250904154245.644875-1-mjguzik@xxxxxxxxx/
>
> This is the only filesystem using the flag. The only other spot is in
> iput_final().
>
> I have a wip patch to sort out the writeback vs iput situation a little
> bit and need this out of the way.
>
> Even if said patch does not go in, this clearly pushes things forward by
> removing flag usage.
>
> fs/ocfs2/inode.c | 23 ++---------------------
> fs/ocfs2/inode.h | 1 -
> fs/ocfs2/ocfs2_trace.h | 2 --
> fs/ocfs2/super.c | 2 +-
> 4 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 25 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/inode.c b/fs/ocfs2/inode.c
> index fcc89856ab95..84115bf8b464 100644
> --- a/fs/ocfs2/inode.c
> +++ b/fs/ocfs2/inode.c
> @@ -1290,6 +1290,8 @@ static void ocfs2_clear_inode(struct inode *inode)
>
> void ocfs2_evict_inode(struct inode *inode)
> {
> + write_inode_now(inode, 1);
> +
> if (!inode->i_nlink ||
> (OCFS2_I(inode)->ip_flags & OCFS2_INODE_MAYBE_ORPHANED)) {
> ocfs2_delete_inode(inode);
> @@ -1299,27 +1301,6 @@ void ocfs2_evict_inode(struct inode *inode)
> ocfs2_clear_inode(inode);
> }
>
> -/* Called under inode_lock, with no more references on the
> - * struct inode, so it's safe here to check the flags field
> - * and to manipulate i_nlink without any other locks. */
> -int ocfs2_drop_inode(struct inode *inode)
> -{
> - struct ocfs2_inode_info *oi = OCFS2_I(inode);
> -
> - trace_ocfs2_drop_inode((unsigned long long)oi->ip_blkno,
> - inode->i_nlink, oi->ip_flags);
> -
> - assert_spin_locked(&inode->i_lock);
> - inode->i_state |= I_WILL_FREE;
> - spin_unlock(&inode->i_lock);
> - write_inode_now(inode, 1);
> - spin_lock(&inode->i_lock);
> - WARN_ON(inode->i_state & I_NEW);
> - inode->i_state &= ~I_WILL_FREE;
> -
> - return 1;
> -}
> -
> /*
> * This is called from our getattr.
> */
> diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/inode.h b/fs/ocfs2/inode.h
> index accf03d4765e..07bd838e7843 100644
> --- a/fs/ocfs2/inode.h
> +++ b/fs/ocfs2/inode.h
> @@ -116,7 +116,6 @@ static inline struct ocfs2_caching_info *INODE_CACHE(struct inode *inode)
> }
>
> void ocfs2_evict_inode(struct inode *inode);
> -int ocfs2_drop_inode(struct inode *inode);
>
> /* Flags for ocfs2_iget() */
> #define OCFS2_FI_FLAG_SYSFILE 0x1
> diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2_trace.h b/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2_trace.h
> index 54ed1495de9a..4b32fb5658ad 100644
> --- a/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2_trace.h
> +++ b/fs/ocfs2/ocfs2_trace.h
> @@ -1569,8 +1569,6 @@ DEFINE_OCFS2_ULL_ULL_UINT_EVENT(ocfs2_delete_inode);
>
> DEFINE_OCFS2_ULL_UINT_EVENT(ocfs2_clear_inode);
>
> -DEFINE_OCFS2_ULL_UINT_UINT_EVENT(ocfs2_drop_inode);
> -
> TRACE_EVENT(ocfs2_inode_revalidate,
> TP_PROTO(void *inode, unsigned long long ino,
> unsigned int flags),
> diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/super.c b/fs/ocfs2/super.c
> index 53daa4482406..2c7ba1480f7a 100644
> --- a/fs/ocfs2/super.c
> +++ b/fs/ocfs2/super.c
> @@ -129,7 +129,7 @@ static const struct super_operations ocfs2_sops = {
> .statfs = ocfs2_statfs,
> .alloc_inode = ocfs2_alloc_inode,
> .free_inode = ocfs2_free_inode,
> - .drop_inode = ocfs2_drop_inode,
> + .drop_inode = inode_just_drop,
> .evict_inode = ocfs2_evict_inode,
> .sync_fs = ocfs2_sync_fs,
> .put_super = ocfs2_put_super,
> --
> 2.43.0
>
>

--

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- T. S. Eliot

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