[PATCH v2 03/21] jbd2: point the shadow buffer at the frozen data directly

From: Chao Shi

Date: Thu Aug 06 2026 - 13:01:39 EST


When a metadata buffer has to be copied out before it can be journalled,
jbd2_journal_write_metadata_buffer() writes jh->b_frozen_data rather than
the page cache copy. b_frozen_data is kmalloc()ed, so folio_set_bh() makes
the shadow buffer point at a slab folio.

That is not something the buffer_head layer can reason about. A slab folio
overloads ->mapping, so a shadow buffer looks like it belongs to an
address_space when it does not. buffer_set_crypto_ctx() already has to
work around this, and it is the reason mark_buffer_write_io_error() cannot
be called on a shadow buffer today.

Point the shadow buffer at the frozen data itself instead: leave b_folio
NULL, which it already is out of alloc_buffer_head(), and set b_data. The
previous patch taught fs/buffer.c to submit such a buffer. folio_set_bh()
is now needed on only one path - the one that journals the page cache copy
directly - so it moves there, and new_folio, new_offset and the flag that
used to pick between them all go away.

The two commit-path checksum helpers reach the shadow buffer's contents
through a new kmap_local_bh()/kunmap_local_bh() pair, which handle a buffer
with or without a folio. Memory outside the page cache is always mapped,
so for those there is nothing to map or unmap. Mapping it anyway would be
worse than pointless: with CONFIG_DEBUG_KMAP_LOCAL_FORCE_MAP,
kmap_local_page() hands back a one page mapping even for such memory, which
is not enough for a buffer bigger than a page.

Tested with ext4 mounted data=journal,journal_checksum on a metadata_csum
filesystem, writing files whose every block begins with the JBD2 magic so
that escaping forces the copy-out, then crashing with sysrq-b without
unmounting and replaying the journal on the next mount. Recovery
completed, the file contents matched, e2fsck -fn was clean, and an
instrumented build confirmed the b_folio == NULL path was taken.

Suggested-by: Matthew Wilcox (Oracle) <willy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Acked-by: Weidong Zhu <weizhu@xxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Chao Shi <coshi036@xxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/jbd2/commit.c | 8 ++++----
fs/jbd2/journal.c | 29 +++++++++++++++++------------
include/linux/buffer_head.h | 29 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
3 files changed, 50 insertions(+), 16 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/jbd2/commit.c b/fs/jbd2/commit.c
index 3029cb6f6d64..0c85af91f9b2 100644
--- a/fs/jbd2/commit.c
+++ b/fs/jbd2/commit.c
@@ -330,9 +330,9 @@ static __u32 jbd2_checksum_data(__u32 crc32_sum, struct buffer_head *bh)
char *addr;
__u32 checksum;

- addr = kmap_local_folio(bh->b_folio, bh_offset(bh));
+ addr = kmap_local_bh(bh);
checksum = crc32_be(crc32_sum, addr, bh->b_size);
- kunmap_local(addr);
+ kunmap_local_bh(bh, addr);

return checksum;
}
@@ -357,10 +357,10 @@ static void jbd2_block_tag_csum_set(journal_t *j, journal_block_tag_t *tag,
return;

seq = cpu_to_be32(sequence);
- addr = kmap_local_folio(bh->b_folio, bh_offset(bh));
+ addr = kmap_local_bh(bh);
csum32 = jbd2_chksum(j->j_csum_seed, (__u8 *)&seq, sizeof(seq));
csum32 = jbd2_chksum(csum32, addr, bh->b_size);
- kunmap_local(addr);
+ kunmap_local_bh(bh, addr);

if (jbd2_has_feature_csum3(j))
tag3->t_checksum = cpu_to_be32(csum32);
diff --git a/fs/jbd2/journal.c b/fs/jbd2/journal.c
index 09efa337649e..6e05dc47e20a 100644
--- a/fs/jbd2/journal.c
+++ b/fs/jbd2/journal.c
@@ -327,8 +327,6 @@ int jbd2_journal_write_metadata_buffer(transaction_t *transaction,
{
int do_escape = 0;
struct buffer_head *new_bh;
- struct folio *new_folio;
- unsigned int new_offset;
struct buffer_head *bh_in = jh2bh(jh_in);
journal_t *journal = transaction->t_journal;

@@ -348,24 +346,31 @@ int jbd2_journal_write_metadata_buffer(transaction_t *transaction,
/* keep subsequent assertions sane */
atomic_set(&new_bh->b_count, 1);

+ /*
+ * b_frozen_data is slab memory, not page cache, so when we use it the
+ * shadow buffer gets no folio at all: b_folio stays NULL from the
+ * allocation and b_data points straight at the copy. Pointing it at
+ * the slab folio instead would hand its overloaded ->mapping to
+ * anything that goes looking for an address_space.
+ */
+
spin_lock(&jh_in->b_state_lock);
/*
* If a new transaction has already done a buffer copy-out, then
* we use that version of the data for the commit.
*/
if (jh_in->b_frozen_data) {
- new_folio = virt_to_folio(jh_in->b_frozen_data);
- new_offset = offset_in_folio(new_folio, jh_in->b_frozen_data);
do_escape = jbd2_data_needs_escaping(jh_in->b_frozen_data);
if (do_escape)
jbd2_data_do_escape(jh_in->b_frozen_data);
+ new_bh->b_data = jh_in->b_frozen_data;
} else {
+ struct folio *folio = bh_in->b_folio;
+ unsigned int offset = offset_in_folio(folio, bh_in->b_data);
char *tmp;
char *mapped_data;

- new_folio = bh_in->b_folio;
- new_offset = offset_in_folio(new_folio, bh_in->b_data);
- mapped_data = kmap_local_folio(new_folio, new_offset);
+ mapped_data = kmap_local_folio(folio, offset);
/*
* Fire data frozen trigger if data already wasn't frozen. Do
* this before checking for escaping, as the trigger may modify
@@ -379,8 +384,10 @@ int jbd2_journal_write_metadata_buffer(transaction_t *transaction,
/*
* Do we need to do a data copy?
*/
- if (!do_escape)
+ if (!do_escape) {
+ folio_set_bh(new_bh, folio, offset);
goto escape_done;
+ }

spin_unlock(&jh_in->b_state_lock);
tmp = kmalloc(bh_in->b_size, GFP_NOFS | __GFP_NOFAIL);
@@ -391,7 +398,7 @@ int jbd2_journal_write_metadata_buffer(transaction_t *transaction,
}

jh_in->b_frozen_data = tmp;
- memcpy_from_folio(tmp, new_folio, new_offset, bh_in->b_size);
+ memcpy_from_folio(tmp, folio, offset, bh_in->b_size);
/*
* This isn't strictly necessary, as we're using frozen
* data for the escaping, but it keeps consistency with
@@ -400,13 +407,11 @@ int jbd2_journal_write_metadata_buffer(transaction_t *transaction,
jh_in->b_frozen_triggers = jh_in->b_triggers;

copy_done:
- new_folio = virt_to_folio(jh_in->b_frozen_data);
- new_offset = offset_in_folio(new_folio, jh_in->b_frozen_data);
jbd2_data_do_escape(jh_in->b_frozen_data);
+ new_bh->b_data = jh_in->b_frozen_data;
}

escape_done:
- folio_set_bh(new_bh, new_folio, new_offset);
new_bh->b_size = bh_in->b_size;
new_bh->b_bdev = journal->j_dev;
new_bh->b_blocknr = blocknr;
diff --git a/include/linux/buffer_head.h b/include/linux/buffer_head.h
index 699970b4bbf2..20b8fca1abfa 100644
--- a/include/linux/buffer_head.h
+++ b/include/linux/buffer_head.h
@@ -172,6 +172,35 @@ static inline unsigned long bh_offset(const struct buffer_head *bh)
return (unsigned long)(bh)->b_data & (folio_size(bh->b_folio) - 1);
}

+/**
+ * kmap_local_bh - Map the data of a buffer.
+ * @bh: The buffer.
+ *
+ * Buffers usually live in the page cache, but a few are built over memory
+ * which is not. Those carry no folio and b_data is already a kernel address
+ * which is always mapped, so there is nothing to do for them. Pair with
+ * kunmap_local_bh().
+ *
+ * Return: A pointer to the buffer's data.
+ */
+static inline void *kmap_local_bh(const struct buffer_head *bh)
+{
+ if (!bh->b_folio)
+ return bh->b_data;
+ return kmap_local_folio(bh->b_folio, bh_offset(bh));
+}
+
+/**
+ * kunmap_local_bh - Unmap the data of a buffer.
+ * @bh: The buffer.
+ * @addr: The address returned by kmap_local_bh().
+ */
+static inline void kunmap_local_bh(const struct buffer_head *bh, void *addr)
+{
+ if (bh->b_folio)
+ kunmap_local(addr);
+}
+
/* If we *know* page->private refers to buffer_heads */
#define page_buffers(page) \
({ \
--
2.43.0