[PATCH v7 2/3] cachestat: implement cachestat syscall

From: Nhat Pham
Date: Mon Jan 23 2023 - 21:11:33 EST


There is currently no good way to query the page cache state of large
file sets and directory trees. There is mincore(), but it scales poorly:
the kernel writes out a lot of bitmap data that userspace has to
aggregate, when the user really doesn not care about per-page
information in that case. The user also needs to mmap and unmap each
file as it goes along, which can be quite slow as well.

This patch implements a new syscall that queries cache state of a file
and summarizes the number of cached pages, number of dirty pages, number
of pages marked for writeback, number of (recently) evicted pages, etc.
in a given range.

NAME
cachestat - query the page cache statistics of a file.

SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/mman.h>

struct cachestat {
__u64 nr_cache;
__u64 nr_dirty;
__u64 nr_writeback;
__u64 nr_evicted;
__u64 nr_recently_evicted;
};

int cachestat(unsigned int fd, off_t off, size_t len,
unsigned int cstat_version, struct cachestat *cstat,
unsigned int flags);

DESCRIPTION
cachestat() queries the number of cached pages, number of dirty
pages, number of pages marked for writeback, number of evicted
pages, number of recently evicted pages, in the bytes range given by
`off` and `len`.

An evicted page is a page that is previously in the page cache but
has been evicted since. A page is recently evicted if its last
eviction was recent enough that its reentry to the cache would
indicate that it is actively being used by the system, and that
there is memory pressure on the system.

These values are returned in a cachestat struct, whose address is
given by the `cstat` argument.

The `off` and `len` arguments must be non-negative integers. If
`len` > 0, the queried range is [`off`, `off` + `len`]. If `len` ==
0, we will query in the range from `off` to the end of the file.

`cstat_version` is an unsigned integer indicating the specific
version of the cachestat struct. It must be at least 1, and does
not exceed the latest version number (which is currently 1). For
now, user should just pass 1.

The `flags` argument is unused for now, but is included for future
extensibility. User should pass 0 (i.e no flag specified).

RETURN VALUE
On success, cachestat returns 0. On error, -1 is returned, and errno
is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
EFAULT cstat points to an invalid address.

EINVAL invalid `cstat_version` or `flags`

EBADF invalid file descriptor.

Signed-off-by: Nhat Pham <nphamcs@xxxxxxxxx>
---
arch/alpha/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 1 +
arch/arm/tools/syscall.tbl | 1 +
arch/ia64/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 1 +
arch/m68k/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 1 +
arch/microblaze/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 1 +
arch/parisc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 1 +
arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 1 +
arch/s390/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 1 +
arch/sh/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 1 +
arch/sparc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 1 +
arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl | 1 +
arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl | 1 +
arch/xtensa/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl | 1 +
include/linux/fs.h | 3 +
include/linux/syscalls.h | 4 +
include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h | 5 +-
include/uapi/linux/mman.h | 9 ++
init/Kconfig | 10 ++
kernel/sys_ni.c | 1 +
mm/filemap.c | 154 ++++++++++++++++++++
20 files changed, 198 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/arch/alpha/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/alpha/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 8ebacf37a8cf..1f13995d00d7 100644
--- a/arch/alpha/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/alpha/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -490,3 +490,4 @@
558 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
559 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
560 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_ni_syscall
+561 common cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/arm/tools/syscall.tbl b/arch/arm/tools/syscall.tbl
index ac964612d8b0..8ebed8a13874 100644
--- a/arch/arm/tools/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/arm/tools/syscall.tbl
@@ -464,3 +464,4 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/ia64/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/ia64/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 72c929d9902b..f8c74ffeeefb 100644
--- a/arch/ia64/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/ia64/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -371,3 +371,4 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/m68k/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/m68k/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index b1f3940bc298..4f504783371f 100644
--- a/arch/m68k/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/m68k/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -450,3 +450,4 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/microblaze/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/microblaze/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 820145e47350..858d22bf275c 100644
--- a/arch/microblaze/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/microblaze/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -456,3 +456,4 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/parisc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/parisc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 8a99c998da9b..7c84a72306d1 100644
--- a/arch/parisc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/parisc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -448,3 +448,4 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 2bca64f96164..937460f0a8ec 100644
--- a/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/powerpc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -530,3 +530,4 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 nospu set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/s390/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/s390/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 799147658dee..7df0329d46cb 100644
--- a/arch/s390/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/s390/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -453,3 +453,4 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/sh/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/sh/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 2de85c977f54..97377e8c5025 100644
--- a/arch/sh/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/sh/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -453,3 +453,4 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/sparc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/sparc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 4398cc6fb68d..faa835f3c54a 100644
--- a/arch/sparc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/sparc/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -496,3 +496,4 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl b/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl
index 320480a8db4f..bc0a3c941b35 100644
--- a/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl
+++ b/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_32.tbl
@@ -455,3 +455,4 @@
448 i386 process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 i386 futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 i386 set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 i386 cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl b/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl
index c84d12608cd2..227538b0ce80 100644
--- a/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl
+++ b/arch/x86/entry/syscalls/syscall_64.tbl
@@ -372,6 +372,7 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat

#
# Due to a historical design error, certain syscalls are numbered differently
diff --git a/arch/xtensa/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl b/arch/xtensa/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
index 52c94ab5c205..2b69c3c035b6 100644
--- a/arch/xtensa/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
+++ b/arch/xtensa/kernel/syscalls/syscall.tbl
@@ -421,3 +421,4 @@
448 common process_mrelease sys_process_mrelease
449 common futex_waitv sys_futex_waitv
450 common set_mempolicy_home_node sys_set_mempolicy_home_node
+451 common cachestat sys_cachestat
diff --git a/include/linux/fs.h b/include/linux/fs.h
index e654435f1651..83300f1491e7 100644
--- a/include/linux/fs.h
+++ b/include/linux/fs.h
@@ -75,6 +75,7 @@ struct fs_context;
struct fs_parameter_spec;
struct fileattr;
struct iomap_ops;
+struct cachestat;

extern void __init inode_init(void);
extern void __init inode_init_early(void);
@@ -830,6 +831,8 @@ void filemap_invalidate_lock_two(struct address_space *mapping1,
struct address_space *mapping2);
void filemap_invalidate_unlock_two(struct address_space *mapping1,
struct address_space *mapping2);
+void filemap_cachestat(struct address_space *mapping, pgoff_t first_index,
+ pgoff_t last_index, struct cachestat *cs);


/*
diff --git a/include/linux/syscalls.h b/include/linux/syscalls.h
index a34b0f9a9972..d3fe6ba8eb38 100644
--- a/include/linux/syscalls.h
+++ b/include/linux/syscalls.h
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ struct open_how;
struct mount_attr;
struct landlock_ruleset_attr;
enum landlock_rule_type;
+struct cachestat;

#include <linux/types.h>
#include <linux/aio_abi.h>
@@ -1056,6 +1057,9 @@ asmlinkage long sys_memfd_secret(unsigned int flags);
asmlinkage long sys_set_mempolicy_home_node(unsigned long start, unsigned long len,
unsigned long home_node,
unsigned long flags);
+asmlinkage long sys_cachestat(unsigned int fd, off_t off, size_t len,
+ unsigned int cstat_version, struct cachestat __user *cstat,
+ unsigned int flags);

/*
* Architecture-specific system calls
diff --git a/include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h b/include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h
index 45fa180cc56a..cd639fae9086 100644
--- a/include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h
+++ b/include/uapi/asm-generic/unistd.h
@@ -886,8 +886,11 @@ __SYSCALL(__NR_futex_waitv, sys_futex_waitv)
#define __NR_set_mempolicy_home_node 450
__SYSCALL(__NR_set_mempolicy_home_node, sys_set_mempolicy_home_node)

+#define __NR_cachestat 451
+__SYSCALL(__NR_cachestat, sys_cachestat)
+
#undef __NR_syscalls
-#define __NR_syscalls 451
+#define __NR_syscalls 452

/*
* 32 bit systems traditionally used different
diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/mman.h b/include/uapi/linux/mman.h
index f55bc680b5b0..fe03ed0b7587 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/mman.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/mman.h
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@

#include <asm/mman.h>
#include <asm-generic/hugetlb_encode.h>
+#include <linux/types.h>

#define MREMAP_MAYMOVE 1
#define MREMAP_FIXED 2
@@ -41,4 +42,12 @@
#define MAP_HUGE_2GB HUGETLB_FLAG_ENCODE_2GB
#define MAP_HUGE_16GB HUGETLB_FLAG_ENCODE_16GB

+struct cachestat {
+ __u64 nr_cache;
+ __u64 nr_dirty;
+ __u64 nr_writeback;
+ __u64 nr_evicted;
+ __u64 nr_recently_evicted;
+};
+
#endif /* _UAPI_LINUX_MMAN_H */
diff --git a/init/Kconfig b/init/Kconfig
index 694f7c160c9c..da96ac29af1d 100644
--- a/init/Kconfig
+++ b/init/Kconfig
@@ -1798,6 +1798,16 @@ config RSEQ

If unsure, say Y.

+config CACHESTAT_SYSCALL
+ bool "Enable cachestat() system call" if EXPERT
+ default y
+ help
+ Enable the cachestat system call, which queries the page cache
+ statistics of a file (number of cached pages, dirty pages,
+ pages marked for writeback, (recently) evicted pages).
+
+ If unsure say Y here.
+
config DEBUG_RSEQ
default n
bool "Enabled debugging of rseq() system call" if EXPERT
diff --git a/kernel/sys_ni.c b/kernel/sys_ni.c
index 860b2dcf3ac4..04bfb1e4d377 100644
--- a/kernel/sys_ni.c
+++ b/kernel/sys_ni.c
@@ -299,6 +299,7 @@ COND_SYSCALL(set_mempolicy);
COND_SYSCALL(migrate_pages);
COND_SYSCALL(move_pages);
COND_SYSCALL(set_mempolicy_home_node);
+COND_SYSCALL(cachestat);

COND_SYSCALL(perf_event_open);
COND_SYSCALL(accept4);
diff --git a/mm/filemap.c b/mm/filemap.c
index 08341616ae7a..0305eaf5b3f5 100644
--- a/mm/filemap.c
+++ b/mm/filemap.c
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
#include <linux/mm.h>
#include <linux/swap.h>
#include <linux/swapops.h>
+#include <linux/syscalls.h>
#include <linux/mman.h>
#include <linux/pagemap.h>
#include <linux/file.h>
@@ -55,6 +56,13 @@
#include <linux/buffer_head.h> /* for try_to_free_buffers */

#include <asm/mman.h>
+#include <uapi/linux/mman.h>
+
+#include "swap.h"
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_CACHESTAT_SYSCALL
+#define LATEST_CACHESTAT_VERSION 1
+#endif

/*
* Shared mappings implemented 30.11.1994. It's not fully working yet,
@@ -3949,3 +3957,149 @@ bool filemap_release_folio(struct folio *folio, gfp_t gfp)
return try_to_free_buffers(folio);
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL(filemap_release_folio);
+
+/**
+ * filemap_cachestat() - compute the page cache statistics of a mapping
+ * @mapping: The mapping to compute the statistics for.
+ * @first_index: The starting page cache index.
+ * @last_index: The final page index (inclusive).
+ * @cs: the cachestat struct to write the result to.
+ *
+ * This will query the page cache statistics of a mapping in the
+ * page range of [first_index, last_index] (inclusive). The statistics
+ * queried include: number of dirty pages, number of pages marked for
+ * writeback, and the number of (recently) evicted pages.
+ */
+void filemap_cachestat(struct address_space *mapping, pgoff_t first_index,
+ pgoff_t last_index, struct cachestat *cs)
+{
+ XA_STATE(xas, &mapping->i_pages, first_index);
+ struct folio *folio;
+
+ rcu_read_lock();
+ xas_for_each(&xas, folio, last_index) {
+ unsigned long nr_pages;
+ pgoff_t folio_first_index, folio_last_index;
+
+ if (xas_retry(&xas, folio))
+ continue;
+
+ nr_pages = folio_nr_pages(folio);
+ folio_first_index = folio_pgoff(folio);
+ folio_last_index = folio_first_index + nr_pages - 1;
+
+ /* Folios might straddle the range boundaries, only count covered subpages */
+ if (folio_first_index < first_index)
+ nr_pages -= first_index - folio_first_index;
+
+ if (folio_last_index > last_index)
+ nr_pages -= folio_last_index - last_index;
+
+ if (xa_is_value(folio)) {
+ /* page is evicted */
+ void *shadow = (void *)folio;
+ bool workingset; /* not used */
+
+ cs->nr_evicted += nr_pages;
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_SWAP /* implies CONFIG_MMU */
+ if (shmem_mapping(mapping)) {
+ /* shmem file - in swap cache */
+ swp_entry_t swp = radix_to_swp_entry(folio);
+
+ shadow = get_shadow_from_swap_cache(swp);
+ }
+#endif
+ if (workingset_test_recent(shadow, true, &workingset))
+ cs->nr_recently_evicted += nr_pages;
+
+ goto resched;
+ }
+
+ /* page is in cache */
+ cs->nr_cache += nr_pages;
+
+ if (folio_test_dirty(folio))
+ cs->nr_dirty += nr_pages;
+
+ if (folio_test_writeback(folio))
+ cs->nr_writeback += nr_pages;
+
+resched:
+ if (need_resched()) {
+ xas_pause(&xas);
+ cond_resched_rcu();
+ }
+ }
+ rcu_read_unlock();
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(filemap_cachestat);
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_CACHESTAT_SYSCALL
+/*
+ * The cachestat(5) system call.
+ *
+ * cachestat() returns the page cache statistics of a file in the
+ * bytes range specified by `off` and `len`: number of cached pages,
+ * number of dirty pages, number of pages marked for writeback,
+ * number of evicted pages, and number of recently evicted pages.
+ *
+ * An evicted page is a page that is previously in the page cache
+ * but has been evicted since. A page is recently evicted if its last
+ * eviction was recent enough that its reentry to the cache would
+ * indicate that it is actively being used by the system, and that
+ * there is memory pressure on the system.
+ *
+ * `off` and `len` must be non-negative integers. If `len` > 0,
+ * the queried range is [`off`, `off` + `len`]. If `len` == 0,
+ * we will query in the range from `off` to the end of the file.
+ *
+ * `cstat_version` is an unsigned integer indicating the specific version
+ * of the cachestat struct. It must be at least 1, and does not exceed the
+ * latest version number (which is currently 1). For now, user should
+ * just pass 1.
+ *
+ * The `flags` argument is unused for now, but is included for future
+ * extensibility. User should pass 0 (i.e no flag specified).
+ *
+ * Because the status of a page can change after cachestat() checks it
+ * but before it returns to the application, the returned values may
+ * contain stale information.
+ *
+ * return values:
+ * zero - success
+ * -EFAULT - cstat points to an illegal address
+ * -EINVAL - invalid arguments
+ * -EBADF - invalid file descriptor
+ */
+SYSCALL_DEFINE6(cachestat, unsigned int, fd, off_t, off, size_t, len,
+ unsigned int, cstat_version, struct cachestat __user *, cstat,
+ unsigned int, flags)
+{
+ struct fd f = fdget(fd);
+ struct address_space *mapping;
+ struct cachestat cs;
+ pgoff_t first_index = off >> PAGE_SHIFT;
+ pgoff_t last_index =
+ len == 0 ? ULONG_MAX : (off + len - 1) >> PAGE_SHIFT;
+
+ if (!f.file)
+ return -EBADF;
+
+ if (off < 0 || flags != 0 || cstat_version < 1 ||
+ cstat_version > LATEST_CACHESTAT_VERSION) {
+ fdput(f);
+ return -EINVAL;
+ }
+
+ memset(&cs, 0, sizeof(struct cachestat));
+ mapping = f.file->f_mapping;
+ filemap_cachestat(mapping, first_index, last_index, &cs);
+ fdput(f);
+
+ if (copy_to_user(cstat, &cs, sizeof(struct cachestat)))
+ return -EFAULT;
+
+ return 0;
+}
+#endif /* CONFIG_CACHESTAT_SYSCALL */
--
2.30.2