Re: [man-pages RFC PATCH] statx.2, open.2: document STATX_DIOALIGN

[Darrick J. Wong]

On Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 01:21:41PM -0700, Eric Biggers wrote:
> From: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> Document the proposed STATX_DIOALIGN support for statx()
> (https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fsdevel/20220616201506.124209-1-ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx).
> 
> Signed-off-by: Eric Biggers <ebiggers@xxxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  man2/open.2  | 43 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
>  man2/statx.2 | 32 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
>  2 files changed, 63 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-)
> 
> diff --git a/man2/open.2 b/man2/open.2
> index d1485999f..ef29847c3 100644
> --- a/man2/open.2
> +++ b/man2/open.2
> @@ -1732,21 +1732,42 @@ of user-space buffers and the file offset of I/Os.
>  In Linux alignment
>  restrictions vary by filesystem and kernel version and might be
>  absent entirely.
> -However there is currently no filesystem\-independent
> -interface for an application to discover these restrictions for a given
> -file or filesystem.
> -Some filesystems provide their own interfaces
> -for doing so, for example the
> +The handling of misaligned
> +.B O_DIRECT
> +I/Os also varies; they can either fail with
> +.B EINVAL
> +or fall back to buffered I/O.
> +.PP
> +Since Linux 5.20,
> +.B O_DIRECT
> +support and alignment restrictions for a file can be queried using
> +.BR statx (2),
> +using the
> +.B STATX_DIOALIGN
> +flag.
> +Support for
> +.B STATX_DIOALIGN
> +varies by filesystem; see
> +.BR statx (2).
> +.PP
> +Some filesystems provide their own interfaces for querying
> +.B O_DIRECT
> +alignment restrictions, for example the
>  .B XFS_IOC_DIOINFO
>  operation in
>  .BR xfsctl (3).
> +.B STATX_DIOALIGN
> +should be used instead when it is available.
>  .PP
> -Under Linux 2.4, transfer sizes, the alignment of the user buffer,
> -and the file offset must all be multiples of the logical block size
> -of the filesystem.
> -Since Linux 2.6.0, alignment to the logical block size of the
> -underlying storage (typically 512 bytes) suffices.
> -The logical block size can be determined using the
> +If none of the above is available, then direct I/O support and alignment
> +restrictions can only be assumed from known characteristics of the filesystem,
> +the individual file, the underlying storage device(s), and the kernel version.
> +In Linux 2.4, most block device based filesystems require that the file offset
> +and the length and memory address of all I/O segments be multiples of the
> +filesystem block size (typically 4096 bytes).
> +In Linux 2.6.0, this was relaxed to the logical block size of the block device
> +(typically 512 bytes).
> +A block device's logical block size can be determined using the
>  .BR ioctl (2)
>  .B BLKSSZGET
>  operation or from the shell using the command:
> diff --git a/man2/statx.2 b/man2/statx.2
> index a8620be6f..fff0a63ec 100644
> --- a/man2/statx.2
> +++ b/man2/statx.2
> @@ -61,7 +61,12 @@ struct statx {
>         containing the filesystem where the file resides */
>      __u32 stx_dev_major;   /* Major ID */
>      __u32 stx_dev_minor;   /* Minor ID */
> +
>      __u64 stx_mnt_id;      /* Mount ID */
> +
> +    /* Direct I/O alignment restrictions */
> +    __u32 stx_dio_mem_align;
> +    __u32 stx_dio_offset_align;
>  };
>  .EE
>  .in
> @@ -244,8 +249,11 @@ STATX_SIZE	Want stx_size
>  STATX_BLOCKS	Want stx_blocks
>  STATX_BASIC_STATS	[All of the above]
>  STATX_BTIME	Want stx_btime
> +STATX_ALL	The same as STATX_BASIC_STATS | STATX_BTIME.
> +         	This is deprecated and should not be used.

STATX_ALL is deprecated??  I was under the impression that _ALL meant
all the known bits for that kernel release, but...

>  STATX_MNT_ID	Want stx_mnt_id (since Linux 5.8)

...I guess that is not correct.

> -STATX_ALL	[All currently available fields]
> +STATX_DIOALIGN	Want stx_dio_mem_align and stx_dio_offset_align
> +              	(since Linux 5.20; support varies by filesystem)
>  .TE
>  .in
>  .PP
> @@ -406,6 +414,28 @@ This is the same number reported by
>  .BR name_to_handle_at (2)
>  and corresponds to the number in the first field in one of the records in
>  .IR /proc/self/mountinfo .
> +.TP
> +.I stx_dio_mem_align
> +The alignment (in bytes) required for user memory buffers for direct I/O
> +.BR "" ( O_DIRECT )
> +on this file. or 0 if direct I/O is not supported on this file.

"...on this file, or 0 if..."

> +.IP
> +.B STATX_DIOALIGN
> +.IR "" ( stx_dio_mem_align
> +and
> +.IR stx_dio_offset_align )
> +is supported on block devices since Linux 5.20.
> +The support on regular files varies by filesystem; it is supported by ext4 and
> +f2fs since Linux 5.20.

If the VFS changes don't provoke further bikeshedding, I'll contribute
an XFS patch to go with your series.

--D

> +.TP
> +.I stx_dio_offset_align
> +The alignment (in bytes) required for file offsets and I/O segment lengths for
> +direct I/O
> +.BR "" ( O_DIRECT )
> +on this file, or 0 if direct I/O is not supported on this file.
> +This will only be nonzero if
> +.I stx_dio_mem_align
> +is nonzero, and vice versa.
>  .PP
>  For further information on the above fields, see
>  .BR inode (7).
> -- 
> 2.36.1
>