[PATCH v4] btrfs: retry verity reads for not-uptodate Merkle folios

From: Yichong Chen

Date: Tue Jul 21 2026 - 22:56:07 EST


btrfs_read_merkle_tree_page() can find a folio in the mapping that is not
uptodate. After taking the folio lock, the current code treats that state
as a read error and returns -EIO.

That can make a previous transient read failure sticky. If the failed read
left a not-uptodate folio in the mapping, later callers find that folio and
fail instead of retrying the read.

Keep the existing page-cache insertion and locking order, but retry the
Merkle item read when a not-uptodate folio is found in the mapping. Also
unlock the folio when read_key_bytes() fails so that a later caller can
lock it and retry the read.

Fixes: 06ed09351b67 ("btrfs: convert btrfs_read_merkle_tree_page() to use a folio")
Reviewed-by: Boris Burkov <boris@xxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Yichong Chen <chenyichong@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
v4:
- Add a comment explaining the locked uptodate recheck.
- Add Boris' Reviewed-by.

v3:
- Keep the existing filemap_add_folio() and read ordering.
- Retry the Merkle item read when a not-uptodate folio is found, as
suggested by Boris.
- Unlock the folio on read_key_bytes() failure so later callers can retry.

v2:
- Avoid calling filemap_remove_folio(), which is not exported.
- Add the folio to the page cache only after read_key_bytes() succeeds.
---
fs/btrfs/verity.c | 16 +++++++++++-----
1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/btrfs/verity.c b/fs/btrfs/verity.c
index 983365a73541..1133a56c0568 100644
--- a/fs/btrfs/verity.c
+++ b/fs/btrfs/verity.c
@@ -720,14 +720,18 @@ static struct page *btrfs_read_merkle_tree_page(struct inode *inode,
goto out;

folio_lock(folio);
- /* If it's not uptodate after we have the lock, we got a read error. */
- if (!folio_test_uptodate(folio)) {
+ /* Folio was truncated from mapping. */
+ if (!folio->mapping) {
folio_unlock(folio);
folio_put(folio);
- return ERR_PTR(-EIO);
+ goto again;
}
- folio_unlock(folio);
- goto out;
+ /* Another reader may have filled the folio while we waited. */
+ if (folio_test_uptodate(folio)) {
+ folio_unlock(folio);
+ goto out;
+ }
+ goto read_folio;
}

folio = filemap_alloc_folio(mapping_gfp_constraint(inode->i_mapping, ~__GFP_FS),
@@ -744,6 +748,7 @@ static struct page *btrfs_read_merkle_tree_page(struct inode *inode,
return ERR_PTR(ret);
}

+read_folio:
/*
* Merkle item keys are indexed from byte 0 in the merkle tree.
* They have the form:
@@ -753,6 +758,7 @@ static struct page *btrfs_read_merkle_tree_page(struct inode *inode,
ret = read_key_bytes(BTRFS_I(inode), BTRFS_VERITY_MERKLE_ITEM_KEY, off,
folio_address(folio), PAGE_SIZE, folio);
if (ret < 0) {
+ folio_unlock(folio);
folio_put(folio);
return ERR_PTR(ret);
}
--
2.51.0