[PATCH v8 0/5] Update LZ4 compressor module

From: Sven Schmidt
Date: Wed Feb 15 2017 - 13:17:34 EST



This patchset is for updating the LZ4 compression module to a version based
on LZ4 v1.7.3 allowing to use the fast compression algorithm aka LZ4 fast
which provides an "acceleration" parameter as a tradeoff between
high compression ratio and high compression speed.

We want to use LZ4 fast in order to support compression in lustre
and (mostly, based on that) investigate data reduction techniques in behalf of
storage systems.

Also, it will be useful for other users of LZ4 compression, as with LZ4 fast
it is possible to enable applications to use fast and/or high compression
depending on the usecase.
For instance, ZRAM is offering a LZ4 backend and could benefit from an updated
LZ4 in the kernel.

LZ4 homepage: http://www.lz4.org/
LZ4 source repository: https://github.com/lz4/lz4
Source version: 1.7.3

Benchmark (taken from [1], Core i5-4300U @1.9GHz):
----------------|--------------|----------------|----------
Compressor | Compression | Decompression | Ratio
----------------|--------------|----------------|----------
memcpy | 4200 MB/s | 4200 MB/s | 1.000
LZ4 fast 50 | 1080 MB/s | 2650 MB/s | 1.375
LZ4 fast 17 | 680 MB/s | 2220 MB/s | 1.607
LZ4 fast 5 | 475 MB/s | 1920 MB/s | 1.886
LZ4 default | 385 MB/s | 1850 MB/s | 2.101

[1] http://fastcompression.blogspot.de/2015/04/sampling-or-faster-lz4.html

[PATCH 1/5] lib: Update LZ4 compressor module
[PATCH 2/5] lib/decompress_unlz4: Change module to work with new LZ4 module version
[PATCH 3/5] crypto: Change LZ4 modules to work with new LZ4 module version
[PATCH 4/5] fs/pstore: fs/squashfs: Change usage of LZ4 to work with new LZ4 version
[PATCH 5/5] lib/lz4: Remove back-compat wrappers

Changes:
v8:
- Rewrote the architecture-dependent definitions in lz4defs.h, such as LZ4_read*,
LZ4_write* and LZ4_NbCommonBytes as proposed by Eric Biggers
- Added -O3 compiler flag to Makefile, also suggested by Eric
- Defined FORCE_INLINE, as used in upstream LZ4, as __always_inline and
force-inlined most of the small functions in lz4defs.h
- lz4_decompress: Wrapped the EXPORT_SYMBOL and MODULE_* macros in a
#ifdef STATIC the way suggested by Andrew Morton, fixing the breakage
of CONFIG_KERNEL_LZ4 in x86 as reported by Arnd Bergman

v7:
- Fixed errors reported by the Smatch tool
- Changed function documentation comments in lz4.h to match kernel-doc style
- Fixed a misbehaviour of LZ4HC caused by the wrong level of indentation
concerning two for loops introduced after I refactored the code style using
checkpatch.pl (upstream LZ4 put dozens of stuff in just one line, gnah)
- Updated the crypto tests for LZ4 since they did fail for the new code
and hence zram did fail to allocate memory for LZ4

v6:
- Fixed LZ4_NBCOMMONBYTES() for 64-bit little endian
- Reset LZ4_MEMORY_USAGE to 14 (which is the value used in
upstream LZ4 as well as the previous kernel module)
- Fixed that weird double-indentation in lz4defs.h and lz4.h
- Adjusted general styling issues in lz4defs.h
(e.g. lines consisting of more than one instruction)
- Removed the architecture-dependent typedef to reg_t
since upstream LZ4 is just using size_t and that works fine
- Changed error messages in pstore/platform.c:
* LZ4_compress_default always returns 0 in case of an error
(no need to print the return value)
* LZ4_decompress_safe returns a negative error message
(return value _does_ matter)

v5:
- Added a fifth patch to remove the back-compat wrappers introduced
to ensure bisectibility between the patches (the functions are no longer
needed since there's no callers left)

v4:
- Fixed kbuild errors
- Re-added lz4_compressbound as alias for LZ4_compressBound
to ensure backwards compatibility
- Wrapped LZ4_hash5 with check for LZ4_ARCH64 since it is only used there
and triggers an unused function warning when false

v3:
- Adjusted the code to satisfy kernel coding style (checkpatch.pl)
- Made sure the changes to LZ4 in Kernel (overflow checks etc.)
are included in the new module (they are)
- Removed the second LZ4_compressBound function with related name but
different return type
- Corrected version number (was LZ4 1.7.3)
- Added missing LZ4 streaming functions

v2:
- Changed order of the patches since in the initial patchset the lz4.h was in the
last patch but was referenced by the other ones
- Split lib/decompress_unlz4.c in an own patch
- Fixed errors reported by the buildbot
- Further refactorings
- Added more appropriate copyright note to include/linux/lz4.h