[PATCH] exfat: speed up file creation in large directories
From: Yang Wen
Date: Fri Aug 28 2026 - 10:59:08 EST
Negative name lookups scan a directory from the beginning. Repeating
this scan before creating each file makes bulk file creation approach
O(N^2).
Add a 64 KiB per-directory Bloom filter and retain the next empty entry
found during directory scans. A definite Bloom filter miss skips the
directory scan, while a possible match falls back to the normal lookup
path, preserving correctness in the presence of hash collisions.
To avoid overhead for small directories, build the filter lazily when a
directory reaches 1024 on-disk directory entries. A filter reclaimed
under memory pressure is rebuilt on demand.
Manage the filters using a per-superblock LRU and shrinker so that filters
for inactive directories can be reclaimed under memory pressure.
Test environment:
QEMU TCG multi-thread, 4 vCPUs, 6 GiB RAM
4 GiB exFAT image, 32 KiB clusters
Test script:
mount -t exfat /dev/vda /mnt/test
time sh -c '
i=0
while [ "$i" -lt 20000 ]; do
: > "/mnt/test/f.$i" || exit 1
i=$((i + 1))
done
'
The measured results were:
Before After
real 589.48 s 5.33 s
user 4.72 s 2.28 s
sys 584.63 s 3.03 s
The elapsed time was reduced by 99.10%, from 589.48 seconds to
5.33 seconds, corresponding to a 110.6-fold speedup.
Signed-off-by: Yang Wen <anmuxixixi@xxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/exfat/dir.c | 280 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
fs/exfat/exfat_fs.h | 22 ++++
fs/exfat/namei.c | 44 ++++++-
fs/exfat/super.c | 10 ++
4 files changed, 355 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/fs/exfat/dir.c b/fs/exfat/dir.c
index fe73b1380c5d..6df74bcab4b5 100644
--- a/fs/exfat/dir.c
+++ b/fs/exfat/dir.c
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@
#include <linux/bio.h>
#include <linux/buffer_head.h>
#include <linux/filelock.h>
+#include <linux/hash.h>
+#include <linux/shrinker.h>
+#include <linux/stringhash.h>
#include "exfat_raw.h"
#include "exfat_fs.h"
@@ -65,6 +68,279 @@ static int exfat_get_uniname_from_ext_entry(struct super_block *sb,
return 0;
}
+static u32 exfat_name_filter_hash(struct super_block *sb,
+ const struct exfat_uni_name *name)
+{
+ unsigned long hash = init_name_hash(NULL);
+ int i;
+
+ for (i = 0; i < name->name_len; i++)
+ hash = partial_name_hash(exfat_toupper(sb, name->name[i]), hash);
+
+ return end_name_hash(hash);
+}
+
+static void exfat_name_filter_indexes(struct super_block *sb,
+ const struct exfat_uni_name *name,
+ unsigned int indexes[3])
+{
+ u32 hash = exfat_name_filter_hash(sb, name);
+
+ indexes[0] = hash_32(hash, EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_ORDER);
+ indexes[1] = hash_32(hash ^ 0x9e3779b9U, EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_ORDER);
+ indexes[2] = hash_32(rol32(hash, 16) ^ 0x85ebca6bU,
+ EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_ORDER);
+}
+
+static unsigned long *exfat_name_filter_detach_locked(
+ struct exfat_sb_info *sbi,
+ struct exfat_inode_info *ei)
+{
+ unsigned long *filter = ei->name_filter;
+
+ if (!filter)
+ return NULL;
+
+ ei->name_filter = NULL;
+ list_del_init(&ei->name_filter_lru);
+ sbi->name_filter_count--;
+ return filter;
+}
+
+static void exfat_name_filter_touch(struct exfat_inode_info *ei)
+{
+ struct exfat_sb_info *sbi = EXFAT_SB(ei->vfs_inode.i_sb);
+
+ spin_lock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ if (ei->name_filter)
+ list_move_tail(&ei->name_filter_lru, &sbi->name_filter_lru);
+ spin_unlock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+}
+
+void exfat_name_filter_free(struct inode *inode)
+{
+ struct exfat_inode_info *ei = EXFAT_I(inode);
+ struct exfat_sb_info *sbi;
+ unsigned long *filter;
+
+ if (!READ_ONCE(ei->name_filter))
+ return;
+
+ sbi = EXFAT_SB(inode->i_sb);
+ spin_lock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ filter = exfat_name_filter_detach_locked(sbi, ei);
+ spin_unlock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ kvfree(filter);
+}
+
+static unsigned long exfat_name_filter_count_objects(
+ struct shrinker *shrinker,
+ struct shrink_control *sc)
+{
+ struct exfat_sb_info *sbi = shrinker->private_data;
+ unsigned long count;
+
+ spin_lock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ count = sbi->name_filter_count;
+ spin_unlock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+
+ return count ? count : SHRINK_EMPTY;
+}
+
+static unsigned long exfat_name_filter_scan_objects(
+ struct shrinker *shrinker,
+ struct shrink_control *sc)
+{
+ struct exfat_sb_info *sbi = shrinker->private_data;
+ unsigned long freed = 0;
+
+ /* Avoid reclaim recursion from a GFP_NOFS allocation under s_lock. */
+ if (!mutex_trylock(&sbi->s_lock)) {
+ sc->nr_scanned = 0;
+ return SHRINK_STOP;
+ }
+
+ while (freed < sc->nr_to_scan) {
+ struct exfat_inode_info *ei;
+ unsigned long *filter;
+
+ spin_lock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ if (list_empty(&sbi->name_filter_lru)) {
+ spin_unlock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ break;
+ }
+
+ ei = list_first_entry(&sbi->name_filter_lru,
+ struct exfat_inode_info,
+ name_filter_lru);
+ filter = exfat_name_filter_detach_locked(sbi, ei);
+ spin_unlock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+
+ kvfree(filter);
+ freed++;
+ cond_resched();
+ }
+
+ mutex_unlock(&sbi->s_lock);
+ sc->nr_scanned = freed;
+ return freed;
+}
+
+void exfat_name_filter_shrinker_register(struct super_block *sb)
+{
+ struct exfat_sb_info *sbi = EXFAT_SB(sb);
+ struct shrinker *shrinker;
+
+ shrinker = shrinker_alloc(SHRINKER_NONSLAB,
+ "exfat-name-filter:%s", sb->s_id);
+ if (!shrinker) {
+ exfat_warn(sb, "failed to allocate name filter shrinker");
+ return;
+ }
+
+ shrinker->count_objects = exfat_name_filter_count_objects;
+ shrinker->scan_objects = exfat_name_filter_scan_objects;
+ shrinker->private_data = sbi;
+ shrinker_register(shrinker);
+ sbi->name_filter_shrinker = shrinker;
+}
+
+void exfat_name_filter_shrinker_unregister(struct super_block *sb)
+{
+ struct exfat_sb_info *sbi = EXFAT_SB(sb);
+ struct shrinker *shrinker = sbi->name_filter_shrinker;
+
+ sbi->name_filter_shrinker = NULL;
+ shrinker_free(shrinker);
+
+ for (;;) {
+ struct exfat_inode_info *ei;
+ unsigned long *filter;
+
+ spin_lock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ if (list_empty(&sbi->name_filter_lru)) {
+ spin_unlock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ break;
+ }
+
+ ei = list_first_entry(&sbi->name_filter_lru,
+ struct exfat_inode_info,
+ name_filter_lru);
+ filter = exfat_name_filter_detach_locked(sbi, ei);
+ spin_unlock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ kvfree(filter);
+ }
+}
+
+bool exfat_name_filter_maybe_contains(struct inode *inode,
+ const struct exfat_uni_name *name)
+{
+ struct exfat_inode_info *ei = EXFAT_I(inode);
+ unsigned int indexes[3];
+
+ if (!ei->name_filter)
+ return true;
+
+ exfat_name_filter_touch(ei);
+ exfat_name_filter_indexes(inode->i_sb, name, indexes);
+ return test_bit(indexes[0], ei->name_filter) &&
+ test_bit(indexes[1], ei->name_filter) &&
+ test_bit(indexes[2], ei->name_filter);
+}
+
+void exfat_name_filter_add(struct inode *inode,
+ const struct exfat_uni_name *name)
+{
+ struct exfat_inode_info *ei = EXFAT_I(inode);
+ unsigned int indexes[3];
+
+ if (!ei->name_filter)
+ return;
+
+ exfat_name_filter_touch(ei);
+ exfat_name_filter_indexes(inode->i_sb, name, indexes);
+ __set_bit(indexes[0], ei->name_filter);
+ __set_bit(indexes[1], ei->name_filter);
+ __set_bit(indexes[2], ei->name_filter);
+}
+
+/*
+ * Build a complete filter only after a directory becomes large enough for
+ * repeated negative linear lookups to matter. A filter hit is never trusted:
+ * it only allows definite misses to skip the on-disk scan.
+ */
+static void exfat_build_name_filter(struct super_block *sb,
+ struct exfat_inode_info *ei,
+ struct exfat_chain *p_dir)
+{
+ unsigned long *filter;
+ struct exfat_chain clu;
+ unsigned int clu_count = 0;
+ struct inode *inode = &ei->vfs_inode;
+ struct exfat_sb_info *sbi = EXFAT_SB(sb);
+ int i;
+
+ if (!sbi->name_filter_shrinker || ei->name_filter ||
+ exfat_bytes_to_dentries(i_size_read(inode)) <
+ EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_MIN_DENTRIES)
+ return;
+
+ filter = kvzalloc(EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_BYTES, GFP_NOFS);
+ if (!filter)
+ return;
+
+ exfat_chain_dup(&clu, p_dir);
+ while (clu.dir != EXFAT_EOF_CLUSTER) {
+ for (i = 0; i < sbi->dentries_per_clu; i++) {
+ struct exfat_uni_name name = { };
+ struct exfat_dentry *ep;
+ struct buffer_head *bh;
+ unsigned int type;
+ unsigned int indexes[3];
+ int len;
+
+ ep = exfat_get_dentry(sb, &clu, i, &bh);
+ if (!ep)
+ goto abort;
+
+ type = exfat_get_entry_type(ep);
+ brelse(bh);
+ if (type == TYPE_UNUSED)
+ goto complete;
+ if (type != TYPE_FILE && type != TYPE_DIR)
+ continue;
+
+ if (exfat_get_uniname_from_ext_entry(sb, &clu, i,
+ name.name))
+ goto abort;
+ for (len = 0; len < MAX_NAME_LENGTH && name.name[len]; len++)
+ ;
+ if (!len || len == MAX_NAME_LENGTH)
+ goto abort;
+ name.name_len = len;
+ exfat_name_filter_indexes(sb, &name, indexes);
+ __set_bit(indexes[0], filter);
+ __set_bit(indexes[1], filter);
+ __set_bit(indexes[2], filter);
+ }
+
+ if (exfat_chain_advance(sb, &clu, 1))
+ goto abort;
+ if (unlikely(++clu_count > EXFAT_DATA_CLUSTER_COUNT(sbi)))
+ goto abort;
+ }
+
+complete:
+ spin_lock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ ei->name_filter = filter;
+ list_add_tail(&ei->name_filter_lru, &sbi->name_filter_lru);
+ sbi->name_filter_count++;
+ spin_unlock(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ return;
+abort:
+ kvfree(filter);
+}
+
/* read a directory entry from the opened directory */
static int exfat_readdir(struct inode *inode, loff_t *cpos, struct exfat_dir_entry *dir_entry)
{
@@ -992,6 +1268,8 @@ int exfat_find_dir_entry(struct super_block *sb, struct exfat_inode_info *ei,
if (num_entries < 0)
return num_entries;
+ if (!exfat_name_filter_maybe_contains(&ei->vfs_inode, p_uniname))
+ return -ENOENT;
dentries_per_clu = sbi->dentries_per_clu;
@@ -1153,6 +1431,8 @@ int exfat_find_dir_entry(struct super_block *sb, struct exfat_inode_info *ei,
ei->hint_femp.count = 0;
}
+ exfat_build_name_filter(sb, ei, p_dir);
+
/* initialized hint_stat */
hint_stat->clu = p_dir->dir;
hint_stat->eidx = 0;
diff --git a/fs/exfat/exfat_fs.h b/fs/exfat/exfat_fs.h
index a9131fe03302..bc4e2213c4a7 100644
--- a/fs/exfat/exfat_fs.h
+++ b/fs/exfat/exfat_fs.h
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@
#include <uapi/linux/exfat.h>
#include <linux/buffer_head.h>
+struct shrinker;
+
#define EXFAT_ROOT_INO 1
/*
@@ -120,6 +122,11 @@ enum {
#define DIR_CACHE_SIZE \
(DIV_ROUND_UP(ES_MAX_ENTRY_NUM << DENTRY_SIZE_BITS, SECTOR_SIZE) + 1)
+#define EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_ORDER 19
+#define EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_BITS BIT(EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_ORDER)
+#define EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_BYTES (EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_BITS >> 3)
+#define EXFAT_NAME_FILTER_MIN_DENTRIES 1024
+
/* Superblock flags */
#define EXFAT_FLAGS_SHUTDOWN 1
@@ -255,6 +262,10 @@ struct exfat_sb_info {
spinlock_t inode_hash_lock;
struct hlist_head inode_hashtable[EXFAT_HASH_SIZE];
+ spinlock_t name_filter_lock;
+ struct list_head name_filter_lru;
+ unsigned long name_filter_count;
+ struct shrinker *name_filter_shrinker;
struct rcu_head rcu;
};
@@ -284,6 +295,9 @@ struct exfat_inode_info {
struct exfat_hint hint_stat;
/* hint for first empty entry */
struct exfat_hint_femp hint_femp;
+ /* Complete, in-memory Bloom filter of directory names */
+ unsigned long *name_filter;
+ struct list_head name_filter_lru;
spinlock_t cache_lru_lock;
struct list_head cache_lru;
@@ -619,6 +633,14 @@ int exfat_read_volume_label(struct super_block *sb,
int exfat_write_volume_label(struct super_block *sb,
struct exfat_uni_name *label);
+bool exfat_name_filter_maybe_contains(struct inode *inode,
+ const struct exfat_uni_name *name);
+void exfat_name_filter_add(struct inode *inode,
+ const struct exfat_uni_name *name);
+void exfat_name_filter_free(struct inode *inode);
+void exfat_name_filter_shrinker_register(struct super_block *sb);
+void exfat_name_filter_shrinker_unregister(struct super_block *sb);
+
static inline int exfat_chain_advance(struct super_block *sb,
struct exfat_chain *chain, unsigned int step)
{
diff --git a/fs/exfat/namei.c b/fs/exfat/namei.c
index a4dc83b5949c..80a72d24d394 100644
--- a/fs/exfat/namei.c
+++ b/fs/exfat/namei.c
@@ -199,6 +199,42 @@ const struct dentry_operations exfat_utf8_dentry_ops = {
.d_compare = exfat_utf8_d_cmp,
};
+static void exfat_set_next_empty_hint(struct inode *inode,
+ struct exfat_chain *p_dir, int dentry,
+ int num_entries,
+ struct exfat_entry_set_cache *es)
+{
+ struct exfat_inode_info *ei = EXFAT_I(inode);
+ struct exfat_sb_info *sbi = EXFAT_SB(inode->i_sb);
+ unsigned int next = dentry + num_entries;
+ unsigned int total = exfat_cluster_to_dentries(sbi, p_dir->size);
+ struct exfat_chain cur;
+
+ if (next >= total) {
+ exfat_chain_set(&ei->hint_femp.cur, EXFAT_EOF_CLUSTER, 0,
+ p_dir->flags);
+ ei->hint_femp.eidx = total;
+ ei->hint_femp.count = 0;
+ return;
+ }
+
+ cur.dir = exfat_sector_to_cluster(sbi,
+ es->bh[es->num_bh - 1]->b_blocknr);
+ cur.flags = p_dir->flags;
+ cur.size = p_dir->size - exfat_dentries_to_cluster(sbi, next);
+ if (!(next & (sbi->dentries_per_clu - 1))) {
+ cur.size++;
+ if (exfat_chain_advance(inode->i_sb, &cur, 1)) {
+ ei->hint_femp.eidx = EXFAT_HINT_NONE;
+ return;
+ }
+ }
+
+ ei->hint_femp.cur = cur;
+ ei->hint_femp.eidx = next;
+ ei->hint_femp.count = 0;
+}
+
/* search EMPTY CONTINUOUS "num_entries" entries */
static int exfat_search_empty_slot(struct super_block *sb,
struct exfat_hint_femp *hint_femp, struct exfat_chain *p_dir,
@@ -385,6 +421,8 @@ int exfat_find_empty_entry(struct inode *inode,
inode->i_blocks += sbi->cluster_size >> 9;
}
+ exfat_set_next_empty_hint(inode, p_dir, dentry, num_entries, es);
+
p_dir->dir = exfat_sector_to_cluster(sbi, es->bh[0]->b_blocknr);
p_dir->size -= dentry / sbi->dentries_per_clu;
@@ -526,6 +564,7 @@ static int exfat_add_entry(struct inode *inode, const char *path,
}
info->entry = dentry;
+ exfat_name_filter_add(inode, &uniname);
info->flags = ALLOC_NO_FAT_CHAIN;
info->type = type;
@@ -627,7 +666,8 @@ static int exfat_find(struct inode *dir, const struct qstr *qname,
ei->hint_stat.clu = cdir.dir;
ei->hint_stat.eidx = 0;
ei->version = (inode_peek_iversion_raw(dir) & 0xffffffff);
- ei->hint_femp.eidx = EXFAT_HINT_NONE;
+ if (!ei->name_filter)
+ ei->hint_femp.eidx = EXFAT_HINT_NONE;
}
/* search the file name for directories */
@@ -1215,6 +1255,8 @@ static int __exfat_rename(struct inode *old_parent_inode,
ret = exfat_rename_file(new_parent_inode, &uni_name, ei);
else
ret = exfat_move_file(new_parent_inode, &uni_name, ei);
+ if (!ret)
+ exfat_name_filter_add(new_parent_inode, &uni_name);
if (!ret && new_inode) {
struct exfat_entry_set_cache es;
diff --git a/fs/exfat/super.c b/fs/exfat/super.c
index a9ea36ba2693..28b55618c6f5 100644
--- a/fs/exfat/super.c
+++ b/fs/exfat/super.c
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ static void exfat_put_super(struct super_block *sb)
{
struct exfat_sb_info *sbi = EXFAT_SB(sb);
+ exfat_name_filter_shrinker_unregister(sb);
mutex_lock(&sbi->s_lock);
exfat_clear_volume_dirty(sb);
exfat_free_bitmap(sbi);
@@ -195,11 +196,14 @@ static struct inode *exfat_alloc_inode(struct super_block *sb)
if (!ei)
return NULL;
+ ei->name_filter = NULL;
+ INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ei->name_filter_lru);
return &ei->vfs_inode;
}
static void exfat_free_inode(struct inode *inode)
{
+ exfat_name_filter_free(inode);
kmem_cache_free(exfat_inode_cachep, EXFAT_I(inode));
}
@@ -731,6 +735,8 @@ static int exfat_fill_super(struct super_block *sb, struct fs_context *fc)
goto free_table;
}
+ exfat_name_filter_shrinker_register(sb);
+
return 0;
put_inode:
@@ -826,6 +832,10 @@ static int exfat_init_fs_context(struct fs_context *fc)
mutex_init(&sbi->s_lock);
mutex_init(&sbi->bitmap_lock);
+ spin_lock_init(&sbi->name_filter_lock);
+ INIT_LIST_HEAD(&sbi->name_filter_lru);
+ sbi->name_filter_count = 0;
+ sbi->name_filter_shrinker = NULL;
ratelimit_state_init(&sbi->ratelimit, DEFAULT_RATELIMIT_INTERVAL,
DEFAULT_RATELIMIT_BURST);
--
2.34.1