Re: [PATCH 08/18] MM: Add AS_CAN_DIO mapping flag

[NeilBrown]

On Tue, 21 Dec 2021, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 17, 2021 at 10:48:23AM +1100, NeilBrown wrote:
> > Currently various places test if direct IO is possible on a file by
> > checking for the existence of the direct_IO address space operation.
> > This is a poor choice, as the direct_IO operation may not be used - it is
> > only used if the generic_file_*_iter functions are called for direct IO
> > and some filesystems - particularly NFS - don't do this.
> > 
> > Instead, introduce a new mapping flag: AS_CAN_DIO and change the various
> > places to check this (avoiding a pointer dereference).
> > unlock_new_inode() will set this flag if ->direct_IO is present, so
> > filesystems do not need to be changed.
> > 
> > NFS *is* changed, to set the flag explicitly and discard the direct_IO
> > entry in the address_space_operations for files.
> 
> For other can flags related to file operations we usuall stash them into
> file->f_mode.  Any reason to treat this different?

f_mode is a much better place to put the flag!  Thanks for that
suggestion and all the other feedback.  I'll post a new series early
next week.

Thanks,
NeilBrown