[PATCH v2 07/13] ext4: drop extent cache before splitting extent

From: Zhang Yi

Date: Fri Nov 21 2025 - 01:10:33 EST


From: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@xxxxxxxxxx>

When splitting an unwritten extent in the middle and converting it to
initialized in ext4_split_extent() with the EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT and
EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2 flags set, it could leave a stale unwritten extent.

Assume we have an unwritten file and buffered write in the middle of it
without dioread_nolock enabled, it will allocate blocks as written
extent.

0 A B N
[UUUUUUUUUUUU] on-disk extent U: unwritten extent
[UUUUUUUUUUUU] extent status tree
[--DDDDDDDD--] D: valid data
|<- ->| ----> this range needs to be initialized

ext4_split_extent() first try to split this extent at B with
EXT4_EXT_DATA_PARTIAL_VALID1 and EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT flag set, but
ext4_split_extent_at() failed to split this extent due to temporary lack
of space. It zeroout B to N and leave the entire extent as unwritten.

0 A B N
[UUUUUUUUUUUU] on-disk extent
[UUUUUUUUUUUU] extent status tree
[--DDDDDDDDZZ] Z: zeroed data

ext4_split_extent() then try to split this extent at A with
EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2 flag set. This time, it split successfully and
leave
an written extent from A to N.

0 A B N
[UU|WWWWWWWWWW] on-disk extent W: written extent
[UU|UUUUUUUUUU] extent status tree
[--|DDDDDDDDZZ]

Finally ext4_map_create_blocks() only insert extent A to B to the extent
status tree, and leave an stale unwritten extent in the status tree.

0 A B N
[UU|WWWWWWWWWW] on-disk extent W: written extent
[UU|WWWWWWWWUU] extent status tree
[--|DDDDDDDDZZ]

Fix this issue by always remove cached extent status entry before
splitting extent.

Signed-off-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/ext4/extents.c | 6 ++++++
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)

diff --git a/fs/ext4/extents.c b/fs/ext4/extents.c
index 2b5aec3f8882..9bb80af4b5cf 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/extents.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/extents.c
@@ -3367,6 +3367,12 @@ static struct ext4_ext_path *ext4_split_extent(handle_t *handle,
ee_len = ext4_ext_get_actual_len(ex);
unwritten = ext4_ext_is_unwritten(ex);

+ /*
+ * Drop extent cache to prevent stale unwritten extents remaining
+ * after zeroing out.
+ */
+ ext4_es_remove_extent(inode, ee_block, ee_len);
+
/* Do not cache extents that are in the process of being modified. */
flags |= EXT4_EX_NOCACHE;

--
2.46.1