Re: [PATCH 2/2] blk-flush: don't need to end rq twice for non post-flush requests

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Mon, Jul 10, 2023 at 02:47:05PM +0800, chengming.zhou@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> From: Chengming Zhou <zhouchengming@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> 
> Now we unconditionally blk_rq_init_flush() to replace rq->end_io to
> make rq return twice back to the flush state machine for post-flush.
> 
> Obviously, non post-flush requests don't need it, they don't need to
> end request twice, so they don't need to replace rq->end_io callback.
> And the same for requests with the FUA bit on hardware with FUA support.
> 
> So we move blk_rq_init_flush() to REQ_FSEQ_DATA stage and only replace
> rq->end_io if it needs post-flush. Otherwise, it can end like normal
> request and doesn't need to return back to the flush state machine.

I really like the idea behind this optimization, but I kinda hate
adding more magic to the already way too magic flush sequence.

I wonder if a better idea would be to kill the flush sequence entirely,
and just split the flush_queue into a preflush and a postflush queue.
This would remove a field from struct request and lead to more readable
code as well.