[PATCH v2 1/4] file: add fput and file_ref_put routines optimized for use when closing a fd

From: Mateusz Guzik
Date: Tue Mar 04 2025 - 13:45:01 EST


Vast majority of the time closing a file descriptor also operates on the
last reference, where a regular fput usage will result in 2 atomics.
This can be changed to only suffer 1.

See commentary above file_ref_put_close() for more information.

Signed-off-by: Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@xxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/file.c | 75 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------
fs/file_table.c | 72 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------
include/linux/file.h | 2 ++
include/linux/file_ref.h | 1 +
4 files changed, 111 insertions(+), 39 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/file.c b/fs/file.c
index 44efdc8c1e27..ea753f9c8e08 100644
--- a/fs/file.c
+++ b/fs/file.c
@@ -26,6 +26,28 @@

#include "internal.h"

+static bool __file_ref_put_badval(file_ref_t *ref, unsigned long cnt)
+{
+ /*
+ * If the reference count was already in the dead zone, then this
+ * put() operation is imbalanced. Warn, put the reference count back to
+ * DEAD and tell the caller to not deconstruct the object.
+ */
+ if (WARN_ONCE(cnt >= FILE_REF_RELEASED, "imbalanced put on file reference count")) {
+ atomic_long_set(&ref->refcnt, FILE_REF_DEAD);
+ return false;
+ }
+
+ /*
+ * This is a put() operation on a saturated refcount. Restore the
+ * mean saturation value and tell the caller to not deconstruct the
+ * object.
+ */
+ if (cnt > FILE_REF_MAXREF)
+ atomic_long_set(&ref->refcnt, FILE_REF_SATURATED);
+ return false;
+}
+
/**
* __file_ref_put - Slowpath of file_ref_put()
* @ref: Pointer to the reference count
@@ -67,27 +89,44 @@ bool __file_ref_put(file_ref_t *ref, unsigned long cnt)
return true;
}

- /*
- * If the reference count was already in the dead zone, then this
- * put() operation is imbalanced. Warn, put the reference count back to
- * DEAD and tell the caller to not deconstruct the object.
- */
- if (WARN_ONCE(cnt >= FILE_REF_RELEASED, "imbalanced put on file reference count")) {
- atomic_long_set(&ref->refcnt, FILE_REF_DEAD);
- return false;
- }
-
- /*
- * This is a put() operation on a saturated refcount. Restore the
- * mean saturation value and tell the caller to not deconstruct the
- * object.
- */
- if (cnt > FILE_REF_MAXREF)
- atomic_long_set(&ref->refcnt, FILE_REF_SATURATED);
- return false;
+ return __file_ref_put_badval(ref, cnt);
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(__file_ref_put);

+/**
+ * file_ref_put_close - drop a reference expecting it would transition to FILE_REF_NOREF
+ * @ref: Pointer to the reference count
+ *
+ * Semantically it is equivalent to calling file_ref_put(), but it trades lower
+ * performance in face of other CPUs also modifying the refcount for higher
+ * performance when this happens to be the last reference.
+ *
+ * For the last reference file_ref_put() issues 2 atomics. One to drop the
+ * reference and another to transition it to FILE_REF_DEAD. This routine does
+ * the work in one step, but in order to do it has to pre-read the variable which
+ * decreases scalability.
+ *
+ * Use with close() et al, stick to file_ref_put() by default.
+ */
+bool file_ref_put_close(file_ref_t *ref)
+{
+ long old, new;
+
+ old = atomic_long_read(&ref->refcnt);
+ do {
+ if (unlikely(old < 0))
+ return __file_ref_put_badval(ref, old);
+
+ if (old == FILE_REF_ONEREF)
+ new = FILE_REF_DEAD;
+ else
+ new = old - 1;
+ } while (!atomic_long_try_cmpxchg(&ref->refcnt, &old, new));
+
+ return new == FILE_REF_DEAD;
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(file_ref_put_close);
+
unsigned int sysctl_nr_open __read_mostly = 1024*1024;
unsigned int sysctl_nr_open_min = BITS_PER_LONG;
/* our min() is unusable in constant expressions ;-/ */
diff --git a/fs/file_table.c b/fs/file_table.c
index 5c00dc38558d..4189c682eb06 100644
--- a/fs/file_table.c
+++ b/fs/file_table.c
@@ -511,31 +511,37 @@ void flush_delayed_fput(void)
}
EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL(flush_delayed_fput);

-void fput(struct file *file)
+static void __fput_defer_free(struct file *file)
{
- if (file_ref_put(&file->f_ref)) {
- struct task_struct *task = current;
+ struct task_struct *task = current;

- if (unlikely(!(file->f_mode & (FMODE_BACKING | FMODE_OPENED)))) {
- file_free(file);
+ if (unlikely(!(file->f_mode & (FMODE_BACKING | FMODE_OPENED)))) {
+ file_free(file);
+ return;
+ }
+ if (likely(!in_interrupt() && !(task->flags & PF_KTHREAD))) {
+ init_task_work(&file->f_task_work, ____fput);
+ if (!task_work_add(task, &file->f_task_work, TWA_RESUME))
return;
- }
- if (likely(!in_interrupt() && !(task->flags & PF_KTHREAD))) {
- init_task_work(&file->f_task_work, ____fput);
- if (!task_work_add(task, &file->f_task_work, TWA_RESUME))
- return;
- /*
- * After this task has run exit_task_work(),
- * task_work_add() will fail. Fall through to delayed
- * fput to avoid leaking *file.
- */
- }
-
- if (llist_add(&file->f_llist, &delayed_fput_list))
- schedule_delayed_work(&delayed_fput_work, 1);
+ /*
+ * After this task has run exit_task_work(),
+ * task_work_add() will fail. Fall through to delayed
+ * fput to avoid leaking *file.
+ */
}
+
+ if (llist_add(&file->f_llist, &delayed_fput_list))
+ schedule_delayed_work(&delayed_fput_work, 1);
}

+void fput(struct file *file)
+{
+ if (unlikely(file_ref_put(&file->f_ref))) {
+ __fput_defer_free(file);
+ }
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(fput);
+
/*
* synchronous analog of fput(); for kernel threads that might be needed
* in some umount() (and thus can't use flush_delayed_fput() without
@@ -549,10 +555,34 @@ void __fput_sync(struct file *file)
if (file_ref_put(&file->f_ref))
__fput(file);
}
-
-EXPORT_SYMBOL(fput);
EXPORT_SYMBOL(__fput_sync);

+/*
+ * Equivalent to __fput_sync(), but optimized for being called with the last
+ * reference.
+ *
+ * See file_ref_put_close() for details.
+ */
+void fput_close_sync(struct file *file)
+{
+ if (unlikely(file_ref_put_close(&file->f_ref)))
+ __fput(file);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(fput_close_sync);
+
+/*
+ * Equivalent to fput(), but optimized for being called with the last
+ * reference.
+ *
+ * See file_ref_put_close() for details.
+ */
+void fput_close(struct file *file)
+{
+ if (file_ref_put_close(&file->f_ref))
+ __fput_defer_free(file);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(fput_close);
+
void __init files_init(void)
{
struct kmem_cache_args args = {
diff --git a/include/linux/file.h b/include/linux/file.h
index 302f11355b10..7b04e87cbde6 100644
--- a/include/linux/file.h
+++ b/include/linux/file.h
@@ -124,6 +124,8 @@ int receive_fd_replace(int new_fd, struct file *file, unsigned int o_flags);

extern void flush_delayed_fput(void);
extern void __fput_sync(struct file *);
+void fput_close_sync(struct file *);
+void fput_close(struct file *);

extern unsigned int sysctl_nr_open_min, sysctl_nr_open_max;

diff --git a/include/linux/file_ref.h b/include/linux/file_ref.h
index 9b3a8d9b17ab..f269299941aa 100644
--- a/include/linux/file_ref.h
+++ b/include/linux/file_ref.h
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ static inline void file_ref_init(file_ref_t *ref, unsigned long cnt)
}

bool __file_ref_put(file_ref_t *ref, unsigned long cnt);
+bool file_ref_put_close(file_ref_t *ref);

/**
* file_ref_get - Acquire one reference on a file
--
2.43.0