Re: [PATCH v3 06/14] f2fs: stop using PG_private

[Tal Zussman]

On 9/9/26 3:48 PM, David Hildenbrand (Arm) wrote:
> On 9/8/26 20:20, Tal Zussman wrote:
>> On 2026-09-08 17:47 +0200, David Hildenbrand (Arm) wrote:
>>> On 9/8/26 04:56, Zi Yan wrote:
>>>> f2fs sets its PAGE_PRIVATE_* flags in page->private and checking
>>>> page->private != NULL is equivalent to checking PG_private. Change
>>>> PagePrivate() to page_private(). Meanwhile, in set_page_private_##name(),
>>>> page->private is first set to 0/NULL before an PAGE_PRIVATE_* flag is set,
>>>> but it can cause confusion when PG_private is removed and
>>>> page->private != NULL is used instead. Change it to initialize
>>>> page->private to PAGE_PRIVATE_NOT_POINTER instead and retain the original
>>>> semantics.
>>>>
>>>> It prepares for a future commit that removes PG_private.
>>>>
>>>> No functional change intended.
>>>>
>>>> Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8
>>>> Assisted-by: Codex:gpt-5
>>>> To: Jaegeuk Kim <jaegeuk@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>>> To: Chao Yu <chao@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>>> Cc: linux-f2fs-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> Cc: linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> Acked-by: Usama Arif <usama.arif@xxxxxxxxx>
>>>> Acked-by: Chao Yu <chao@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Zi Yan <ziy@xxxxxxxxxx>
>>>> ---
>>>>  fs/f2fs/f2fs.h | 8 ++++----
>>>>  1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)
>>>>
>>>> diff --git a/fs/f2fs/f2fs.h b/fs/f2fs/f2fs.h
>>>> index 9940a6cecf1a2..2f7ab5888b078 100644
>>>> --- a/fs/f2fs/f2fs.h
>>>> +++ b/fs/f2fs/f2fs.h
>>>> @@ -2691,7 +2691,7 @@ static inline bool folio_test_f2fs_##name(const struct folio *folio)	\
>>>>  }									\
>>>>  static inline bool page_private_##name(struct page *page) \
>>>>  { \
>>>> -	return PagePrivate(page) && \
>>>> +	return page_private(page) && \
>>>>  		test_bit(PAGE_PRIVATE_NOT_POINTER, &page_private(page)) && \
>>>>  		test_bit(PAGE_PRIVATE_##flagname, &page_private(page)); \
>>>>  }
>>>> @@ -2710,9 +2710,9 @@ static inline void folio_set_f2fs_##name(struct folio *folio)		\
>>>>  }									\
>>>>  static inline void set_page_private_##name(struct page *page) \
>>>>  { \
>>>> -	if (!PagePrivate(page)) \
>>>> -		attach_page_private(page, (void *)0); \
>>>> -	set_bit(PAGE_PRIVATE_NOT_POINTER, &page_private(page)); \
>>>> +	if (!page_private(page)) \
>>>> +		attach_page_private(page, \
>>>> +				(void *)BIT(PAGE_PRIVATE_NOT_POINTER)); \
>>>>  	set_bit(PAGE_PRIVATE_##flagname, &page_private(page)); \
>>>>  }
>>>
>>> Very weird interface. Why do we even need the page-based interface still?
>>>
>>> $ git grep -E "(set|clear)_page_private"
>>> compress.c:             clear_page_private_gcing(cc->rpages[i]);
>>> compress.c:                     set_page_private_gcing(cc->rpages[i]);
>>> compress.c:             clear_page_private_gcing(cic->rpages[i]);
>>> f2fs.h:static inline void set_page_private_##name(struct page *page) \
>>> f2fs.h:static inline void clear_page_private_##name(struct page *page) \
>>>
>>> Seeing code like:
>>>
>>> clear_page_private_gcing(cc->rpages[i]);
>>> if (folio_test_writeback(page_folio(cc->rpages[i])))
>>> 	end_page_writeback(cc->rpages[i]);
>>>
>>> Makes me wonder whether we can just use the folio helper instead?
>>>
>>> In f2fs_iget(), we enable large folios only when !f2fs_compressed_file(inode).
>>>
>>> So naive me would assume that we can just get rid of the
>>> set_page_private_/clear_page_private_ stuff entirely.
>>>
>> 
>> I have a WIP series of ~30 patches converting much of the remaining page
>> users in f2fs (including the below) to folios. Still have to do some
>> testing and clean it up, but hoping to send it out in the next couple of
>> weeks (in the hopes of eliminating some more folio_compat.c functions by
>> next cycle...)
> 
> Indeed best to wait a bit before flooding -mm even more, it's rather a lot at
> this point.
> 
> In the context of this series, it would be great if you could review whether the
> diff I proposed would get the job done, thanks!
> 

What it changes looks good, but I would go a little further.

There are only two more users of page_private_gcing(), which pass fio->page.
Those could easily be converted to folio_test_f2fs_gcing() by passing fio->folio,
which is in a union with fio->page. That would let you delete the
page_private_##name() implementation in PAGE_PRIVATE_GET_FUNC() as well and just
remove the entire family. At that point PAGE_PRIVATE_{GET,SET,CLEAR}_FUNC()
could be renamed to something like F2FS_FOLIO_PRIVATE_{GET,SET,CLEAR}_FUNC() and
all of this cruft is gone and folio-based, with no more f2fs use of page_private()
either.

The renaming could be done as a later step, but I would get rid of the accessors
as well in one swoop.

> -- 
> Cheers,
> 
> David
>