Re: [PATCH] ext4: fast commit: avoid fs_reclaim inversion in perform_commit

From: Li Chen

Date: Tue Jan 06 2026 - 07:14:45 EST


Hi Jan,

---- On Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:17:31 +0800 Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx> wrote ---
> On Tue 23-12-25 21:13:42, Li Chen wrote:
> > lockdep reports a possible deadlock due to lock order inversion:
> >
> > CPU0 CPU1
> > ---- ----
> > lock(fs_reclaim);
> > lock(&sbi->s_fc_lock);
> > lock(fs_reclaim);
> > lock(&sbi->s_fc_lock);
> >
> > ext4_fc_perform_commit() holds s_fc_lock while writing the fast commit
> > log. Allocations here can enter reclaim and take fs_reclaim, inverting
> > with ext4_fc_del() which runs under fs_reclaim during inode eviction.
> > Wrap Step 6 in memalloc_nofs_save()/restore() so reclaim is skipped
> > while s_fc_lock is held.
> >
> > Fixes: 6593714d67ba ("ext4: hold s_fc_lock while during fast commit")
> > Signed-off-by: Li Chen <me@linux.beauty>
>
> Thanks for the analysis and the patch! Your solution is in principle
> correct but it's a bit fragile because there can be other instances (or we
> can grow them in the future) where sbi->s_fc_lock is held when doing
> allocation. The situation is that sbi->s_fc_lock can be acquired from inode
> eviction path (ext4_clear_inode()) and thus this lock is inherently reclaim
> unsafe. What we do in such cases is that we create helper functions for
> acquiring / releasing the lock while also setting proper context and using
> these helpers - like in commit 00d873c17e29 ("ext4: avoid deadlock in fs
> reclaim with page writeback"). Can you perhaps modify your patch to follow
> that behavior as well?

Thanks a lot for your suggestion, I have added helpers here: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-ext4/20260106120621.440126-1-me@linux.beauty/T/#u
Please take a look, thanks.
(But I didn't add v2 reroll count there, because I mistakenly remembered that this was an RFC, sorry for this)

Regards,
Li​