[PATCH v4 23/23] ext4: introduce a mount option for iomap buffered I/O path

From: Zhang Yi

Date: Mon May 11 2026 - 03:31:58 EST


From: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@xxxxxxxxxx>

Since the iomap buffered I/O path does not yet support all existing ext4
features, it cannot be enabled by default. Introduce the
'buffered_iomap' and 'nobuffered_iomap' mount options to explicitly
enable or disable the iomap buffered I/O path for regular files.

Toggling this option via remount is allowed. The change of I/O path will
not take effect immediately. It will be deferred. The new setting will
only take effect after the inode is re-initialized (i.e., after the last
reference is dropped and the inode is re-read from disk).

Signed-off-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/ext4/ext4.h | 1 +
fs/ext4/inode.c | 6 ++++++
fs/ext4/super.c | 7 +++++++
3 files changed, 14 insertions(+)

diff --git a/fs/ext4/ext4.h b/fs/ext4/ext4.h
index afba952abd28..33da8c1915a7 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/ext4.h
+++ b/fs/ext4/ext4.h
@@ -1290,6 +1290,7 @@ struct ext4_inode_info {
* scanning in mballoc
*/
#define EXT4_MOUNT2_ABORT 0x00000100 /* Abort filesystem */
+#define EXT4_MOUNT2_BUFFERED_IOMAP 0x00000200 /* Use iomap for buffered I/O */

#define clear_opt(sb, opt) EXT4_SB(sb)->s_mount_opt &= \
~EXT4_MOUNT_##opt
diff --git a/fs/ext4/inode.c b/fs/ext4/inode.c
index 0407e7b54dcd..1432ef29748b 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
@@ -5907,11 +5907,17 @@ static int check_igot_inode(struct inode *inode, ext4_iget_flags flags,
* For extent-to-indirect block migration (via EXT4_IOC_SETFLAGS
* clearing EXT4_EXTENTS_FL), this operation is directly rejected for
* inodes using the iomap path.
+ *
+ * When remounting to toggle the buffered_iomap mount option, the change
+ * of I/O path is deferred as well, it will be available after the inode
+ * is re-initialized.
*/
void ext4_enable_buffered_iomap(struct inode *inode)
{
struct super_block *sb = inode->i_sb;

+ if (!test_opt2(sb, BUFFERED_IOMAP))
+ return;
if (!S_ISREG(inode->i_mode))
return;
if (ext4_test_inode_flag(inode, EXT4_INODE_EA_INODE))
diff --git a/fs/ext4/super.c b/fs/ext4/super.c
index 9c0a00e716f3..2fc07739c9e8 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/super.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/super.c
@@ -1733,6 +1733,7 @@ enum {
Opt_discard, Opt_nodiscard, Opt_init_itable, Opt_noinit_itable,
Opt_max_dir_size_kb, Opt_nojournal_checksum, Opt_nombcache,
Opt_no_prefetch_block_bitmaps, Opt_mb_optimize_scan,
+ Opt_buffered_iomap, Opt_nobuffered_iomap,
Opt_errors, Opt_data, Opt_data_err, Opt_jqfmt, Opt_dax_type,
#ifdef CONFIG_EXT4_DEBUG
Opt_fc_debug_max_replay, Opt_fc_debug_force
@@ -1871,6 +1872,8 @@ static const struct fs_parameter_spec ext4_param_specs[] = {
fsparam_flag ("no_prefetch_block_bitmaps",
Opt_no_prefetch_block_bitmaps),
fsparam_s32 ("mb_optimize_scan", Opt_mb_optimize_scan),
+ fsparam_flag ("buffered_iomap", Opt_buffered_iomap),
+ fsparam_flag ("nobuffered_iomap", Opt_nobuffered_iomap),
fsparam_string ("check", Opt_removed), /* mount option from ext2/3 */
fsparam_flag ("nocheck", Opt_removed), /* mount option from ext2/3 */
fsparam_flag ("reservation", Opt_removed), /* mount option from ext2/3 */
@@ -1964,6 +1967,10 @@ static const struct mount_opts {
{Opt_nombcache, EXT4_MOUNT_NO_MBCACHE, MOPT_SET},
{Opt_no_prefetch_block_bitmaps, EXT4_MOUNT_NO_PREFETCH_BLOCK_BITMAPS,
MOPT_SET},
+ {Opt_buffered_iomap, EXT4_MOUNT2_BUFFERED_IOMAP,
+ MOPT_SET | MOPT_2 | MOPT_EXT4_ONLY},
+ {Opt_nobuffered_iomap, EXT4_MOUNT2_BUFFERED_IOMAP,
+ MOPT_CLEAR | MOPT_2 | MOPT_EXT4_ONLY},
#ifdef CONFIG_EXT4_DEBUG
{Opt_fc_debug_force, EXT4_MOUNT2_JOURNAL_FAST_COMMIT,
MOPT_SET | MOPT_2 | MOPT_EXT4_ONLY},
--
2.52.0