Re: [PATCH] xfs: avoid double deferrals for RWF_DONTCACHE writes

From: Darrick J. Wong

Date: Mon Aug 10 2026 - 14:33:54 EST


On Mon, Aug 10, 2026 at 12:39:19PM -0400, Tal Zussman wrote:
> XFS already defers some writes to a workqueue when transactions are
> needed to process the I/O completion. Disable the block layer bio task
> completion in this case to avoid a major performance drop.
>
> Fixes: efbde6f9f449 ("iomap: use BIO_COMPLETE_IN_TASK for dropbehind writeback")

What commit is this?

(If we're fixing something that's not in Linus' tree then I think the
fixes tags aren't required)

> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/8124341f-3af2-4a16-897d-38db5ab5a9d4@xxxxxxxxxxxx/
> Signed-off-by: Tal Zussman <tz2294@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> Follow-up fix for the RWF_DONTCACHE task-completion series. This is
> targeting the block tree. [1]
>
> [1]: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-block/annkDbhXBEeMoNVT@xxxxxxxxxxxxx/
> ---
> fs/xfs/xfs_aops.c | 15 +++++++++++++--
> 1 file changed, 13 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/fs/xfs/xfs_aops.c b/fs/xfs/xfs_aops.c
> index cd8de8c82d78..74a6089abadf 100644
> --- a/fs/xfs/xfs_aops.c
> +++ b/fs/xfs/xfs_aops.c
> @@ -549,10 +549,14 @@ xfs_writeback_submit(
> }
>
> /*
> - * Send ioends that might require a transaction to the completion wq.
> + * Send ioends that might require a transaction to the completion wq,
> + * and disable the block layer task completion for them as there is no
> + * need to defer twice.
> */
> - if (xfs_ioend_needs_wq_completion(ioend))
> + if (xfs_ioend_needs_wq_completion(ioend)) {
> ioend->io_bio.bi_end_io = xfs_end_bio;
> + bio_clear_flag(&ioend->io_bio, BIO_COMPLETE_IN_TASK);
> + }
>
> return iomap_ioend_writeback_submit(wpc, error);
> }
> @@ -663,7 +667,14 @@ xfs_zoned_writeback_submit(
> {
> struct iomap_ioend *ioend = wpc->wb_ctx;
>
> + /*
> + * Defer all completions to our workqueue as all zoned writes require a
> + * transaction to be persisted. This also means we never need the block
> + * layer in-task completion for a task context.
> + */
> ioend->io_bio.bi_end_io = xfs_end_bio;
> + bio_clear_flag(&ioend->io_bio, BIO_COMPLETE_IN_TASK);

This makes sense to me;
Reviewed-by: "Darrick J. Wong" <djwong@xxxxxxxxxx>

--D

> +
> if (error) {
> ioend->io_bio.bi_status = errno_to_blk_status(error);
> bio_endio(&ioend->io_bio);
>
> ---
> base-commit: 30df3ab3c92d0e7854c54df6ae66f4aa6eb5b3d2
> change-id: 20260810-xfs-dontcache-double-defer-ae3fa50ba02c
>
> Best regards,
> --
> Tal Zussman <tz2294@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
>