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David Howells 952efe7b78 FS-Cache: Add and document asynchronous operation handling
Add and document asynchronous operation handling for use by FS-Cache's data
storage and retrieval routines.

The following documentation is added to:

	Documentation/filesystems/caching/operations.txt

		       ================================
		       ASYNCHRONOUS OPERATIONS HANDLING
		       ================================

========
OVERVIEW
========

FS-Cache has an asynchronous operations handling facility that it uses for its
data storage and retrieval routines.  Its operations are represented by
fscache_operation structs, though these are usually embedded into some other
structure.

This facility is available to and expected to be be used by the cache backends,
and FS-Cache will create operations and pass them off to the appropriate cache
backend for completion.

To make use of this facility, <linux/fscache-cache.h> should be #included.

===============================
OPERATION RECORD INITIALISATION
===============================

An operation is recorded in an fscache_operation struct:

	struct fscache_operation {
		union {
			struct work_struct fast_work;
			struct slow_work slow_work;
		};
		unsigned long		flags;
		fscache_operation_processor_t processor;
		...
	};

Someone wanting to issue an operation should allocate something with this
struct embedded in it.  They should initialise it by calling:

	void fscache_operation_init(struct fscache_operation *op,
				    fscache_operation_release_t release);

with the operation to be initialised and the release function to use.

The op->flags parameter should be set to indicate the CPU time provision and
the exclusivity (see the Parameters section).

The op->fast_work, op->slow_work and op->processor flags should be set as
appropriate for the CPU time provision (see the Parameters section).

FSCACHE_OP_WAITING may be set in op->flags prior to each submission of the
operation and waited for afterwards.

==========
PARAMETERS
==========

There are a number of parameters that can be set in the operation record's flag
parameter.  There are three options for the provision of CPU time in these
operations:

 (1) The operation may be done synchronously (FSCACHE_OP_MYTHREAD).  A thread
     may decide it wants to handle an operation itself without deferring it to
     another thread.

     This is, for example, used in read operations for calling readpages() on
     the backing filesystem in CacheFiles.  Although readpages() does an
     asynchronous data fetch, the determination of whether pages exist is done
     synchronously - and the netfs does not proceed until this has been
     determined.

     If this option is to be used, FSCACHE_OP_WAITING must be set in op->flags
     before submitting the operation, and the operating thread must wait for it
     to be cleared before proceeding:

		wait_on_bit(&op->flags, FSCACHE_OP_WAITING,
			    fscache_wait_bit, TASK_UNINTERRUPTIBLE);

 (2) The operation may be fast asynchronous (FSCACHE_OP_FAST), in which case it
     will be given to keventd to process.  Such an operation is not permitted
     to sleep on I/O.

     This is, for example, used by CacheFiles to copy data from a backing fs
     page to a netfs page after the backing fs has read the page in.

     If this option is used, op->fast_work and op->processor must be
     initialised before submitting the operation:

		INIT_WORK(&op->fast_work, do_some_work);

 (3) The operation may be slow asynchronous (FSCACHE_OP_SLOW), in which case it
     will be given to the slow work facility to process.  Such an operation is
     permitted to sleep on I/O.

     This is, for example, used by FS-Cache to handle background writes of
     pages that have just been fetched from a remote server.

     If this option is used, op->slow_work and op->processor must be
     initialised before submitting the operation:

		fscache_operation_init_slow(op, processor)

Furthermore, operations may be one of two types:

 (1) Exclusive (FSCACHE_OP_EXCLUSIVE).  Operations of this type may not run in
     conjunction with any other operation on the object being operated upon.

     An example of this is the attribute change operation, in which the file
     being written to may need truncation.

 (2) Shareable.  Operations of this type may be running simultaneously.  It's
     up to the operation implementation to prevent interference between other
     operations running at the same time.

=========
PROCEDURE
=========

Operations are used through the following procedure:

 (1) The submitting thread must allocate the operation and initialise it
     itself.  Normally this would be part of a more specific structure with the
     generic op embedded within.

 (2) The submitting thread must then submit the operation for processing using
     one of the following two functions:

	int fscache_submit_op(struct fscache_object *object,
			      struct fscache_operation *op);

	int fscache_submit_exclusive_op(struct fscache_object *object,
					struct fscache_operation *op);

     The first function should be used to submit non-exclusive ops and the
     second to submit exclusive ones.  The caller must still set the
     FSCACHE_OP_EXCLUSIVE flag.

     If successful, both functions will assign the operation to the specified
     object and return 0.  -ENOBUFS will be returned if the object specified is
     permanently unavailable.

     The operation manager will defer operations on an object that is still
     undergoing lookup or creation.  The operation will also be deferred if an
     operation of conflicting exclusivity is in progress on the object.

     If the operation is asynchronous, the manager will retain a reference to
     it, so the caller should put their reference to it by passing it to:

	void fscache_put_operation(struct fscache_operation *op);

 (3) If the submitting thread wants to do the work itself, and has marked the
     operation with FSCACHE_OP_MYTHREAD, then it should monitor
     FSCACHE_OP_WAITING as described above and check the state of the object if
     necessary (the object might have died whilst the thread was waiting).

     When it has finished doing its processing, it should call
     fscache_put_operation() on it.

 (4) The operation holds an effective lock upon the object, preventing other
     exclusive ops conflicting until it is released.  The operation can be
     enqueued for further immediate asynchronous processing by adjusting the
     CPU time provisioning option if necessary, eg:

	op->flags &= ~FSCACHE_OP_TYPE;
	op->flags |= ~FSCACHE_OP_FAST;

     and calling:

	void fscache_enqueue_operation(struct fscache_operation *op)

     This can be used to allow other things to have use of the worker thread
     pools.

=====================
ASYNCHRONOUS CALLBACK
=====================

When used in asynchronous mode, the worker thread pool will invoke the
processor method with a pointer to the operation.  This should then get at the
container struct by using container_of():

	static void fscache_write_op(struct fscache_operation *_op)
	{
		struct fscache_storage *op =
			container_of(_op, struct fscache_storage, op);
	...
	}

The caller holds a reference on the operation, and will invoke
fscache_put_operation() when the processor function returns.  The processor
function is at liberty to call fscache_enqueue_operation() or to take extra
references.

Signed-off-by: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Steve Dickson <steved@redhat.com>
Acked-by: Trond Myklebust <Trond.Myklebust@netapp.com>
Acked-by: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk>
Tested-by: Daire Byrne <Daire.Byrne@framestore.com>
2009-04-03 16:42:39 +01:00
arch Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs-2.6 2009-04-02 21:09:10 -07:00
block Merge branch 'percpu-cpumask-x86-for-linus-2' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tip/linux-2.6-tip 2009-03-28 13:48:38 -07:00
crypto Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/herbert/crypto-2.6 2009-03-26 11:04:34 -07:00
Documentation FS-Cache: Add and document asynchronous operation handling 2009-04-03 16:42:39 +01:00
drivers Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs-2.6 2009-04-02 21:09:10 -07:00
firmware smc91c92_cs: use request_firmware 2009-03-30 20:25:13 +05:30
fs FS-Cache: Add and document asynchronous operation handling 2009-04-03 16:42:39 +01:00
include FS-Cache: Implement the cookie management part of the netfs API 2009-04-03 16:42:38 +01:00
init Create a dynamically sized pool of threads for doing very slow work items 2009-04-03 16:42:35 +01:00
ipc Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs-2.6 2009-04-02 21:09:10 -07:00
kernel Document the slow work thread pool 2009-04-03 16:42:35 +01:00
lib cpumask: fix slab corruption caused by alloc_cpumask_var_node() 2009-04-02 19:05:11 -07:00
mm FS-Cache: Recruit a page flags for cache management 2009-04-03 16:42:36 +01:00
net Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs-2.6 2009-04-02 21:09:10 -07:00
samples samples: mark {static|__init|__exit} for {init|exit} functions 2009-01-06 15:59:12 -08:00
scripts Merge branch 'core/percpu' into percpu-cpumask-x86-for-linus-2 2009-03-27 17:28:43 +01:00
security Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs-2.6 2009-04-02 21:09:10 -07:00
sound proc 2/2: remove struct proc_dir_entry::owner 2009-03-31 01:14:44 +04:00
usr bzip2/lzma: don't ask for compression mode for the default initramfs 2009-03-28 17:27:15 -07:00
virt/kvm KVM: Get support IRQ routing entry counts 2009-03-24 11:03:14 +02:00
.gitignore Fix and clean top .gitignore 2008-06-29 12:18:00 -07:00
.mailmap Add Sascha Hauer to .mailmap 2009-02-06 08:47:25 -08:00
COPYING
CREDITS MAINTAINERS: move old ide-{floppy,tape} entries to CREDITS (take 2) 2009-03-31 20:15:31 +02:00
Kbuild kbuild: asm symlink support for arch/$ARCH/include 2008-07-25 22:12:34 +02:00
MAINTAINERS Merge git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/davem/net-2.6 2009-04-02 21:05:30 -07:00
Makefile Merge branch 'core/percpu' into percpu-cpumask-x86-for-linus-2 2009-03-27 17:28:43 +01:00
README README: fix a wrong filename 2009-02-20 17:57:49 -08:00
REPORTING-BUGS

	Linux kernel release 2.6.xx <http://kernel.org/>

These are the release notes for Linux version 2.6.  Read them carefully,
as they tell you what this is all about, explain how to install the
kernel, and what to do if something goes wrong. 

WHAT IS LINUX?

  Linux is a clone of the operating system Unix, written from scratch by
  Linus Torvalds with assistance from a loosely-knit team of hackers across
  the Net. It aims towards POSIX and Single UNIX Specification compliance.

  It has all the features you would expect in a modern fully-fledged Unix,
  including true multitasking, virtual memory, shared libraries, demand
  loading, shared copy-on-write executables, proper memory management,
  and multistack networking including IPv4 and IPv6.

  It is distributed under the GNU General Public License - see the
  accompanying COPYING file for more details. 

ON WHAT HARDWARE DOES IT RUN?

  Although originally developed first for 32-bit x86-based PCs (386 or higher),
  today Linux also runs on (at least) the Compaq Alpha AXP, Sun SPARC and
  UltraSPARC, Motorola 68000, PowerPC, PowerPC64, ARM, Hitachi SuperH, Cell,
  IBM S/390, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, Intel IA-64, DEC VAX, AMD x86-64, AXIS CRIS,
  Xtensa, AVR32 and Renesas M32R architectures.

  Linux is easily portable to most general-purpose 32- or 64-bit architectures
  as long as they have a paged memory management unit (PMMU) and a port of the
  GNU C compiler (gcc) (part of The GNU Compiler Collection, GCC). Linux has
  also been ported to a number of architectures without a PMMU, although
  functionality is then obviously somewhat limited.
  Linux has also been ported to itself. You can now run the kernel as a
  userspace application - this is called UserMode Linux (UML).

DOCUMENTATION:

 - There is a lot of documentation available both in electronic form on
   the Internet and in books, both Linux-specific and pertaining to
   general UNIX questions.  I'd recommend looking into the documentation
   subdirectories on any Linux FTP site for the LDP (Linux Documentation
   Project) books.  This README is not meant to be documentation on the
   system: there are much better sources available.

 - There are various README files in the Documentation/ subdirectory:
   these typically contain kernel-specific installation notes for some 
   drivers for example. See Documentation/00-INDEX for a list of what
   is contained in each file.  Please read the Changes file, as it
   contains information about the problems, which may result by upgrading
   your kernel.

 - The Documentation/DocBook/ subdirectory contains several guides for
   kernel developers and users.  These guides can be rendered in a
   number of formats:  PostScript (.ps), PDF, HTML, & man-pages, among others.
   After installation, "make psdocs", "make pdfdocs", "make htmldocs",
   or "make mandocs" will render the documentation in the requested format.

INSTALLING the kernel source:

 - If you install the full sources, put the kernel tarball in a
   directory where you have permissions (eg. your home directory) and
   unpack it:

		gzip -cd linux-2.6.XX.tar.gz | tar xvf -

   or
		bzip2 -dc linux-2.6.XX.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -


   Replace "XX" with the version number of the latest kernel.

   Do NOT use the /usr/src/linux area! This area has a (usually
   incomplete) set of kernel headers that are used by the library header
   files.  They should match the library, and not get messed up by
   whatever the kernel-du-jour happens to be.

 - You can also upgrade between 2.6.xx releases by patching.  Patches are
   distributed in the traditional gzip and the newer bzip2 format.  To
   install by patching, get all the newer patch files, enter the
   top level directory of the kernel source (linux-2.6.xx) and execute:

		gzip -cd ../patch-2.6.xx.gz | patch -p1

   or
		bzip2 -dc ../patch-2.6.xx.bz2 | patch -p1

   (repeat xx for all versions bigger than the version of your current
   source tree, _in_order_) and you should be ok.  You may want to remove
   the backup files (xxx~ or xxx.orig), and make sure that there are no
   failed patches (xxx# or xxx.rej). If there are, either you or me has
   made a mistake.

   Unlike patches for the 2.6.x kernels, patches for the 2.6.x.y kernels
   (also known as the -stable kernels) are not incremental but instead apply
   directly to the base 2.6.x kernel.  Please read
   Documentation/applying-patches.txt for more information.

   Alternatively, the script patch-kernel can be used to automate this
   process.  It determines the current kernel version and applies any
   patches found.

		linux/scripts/patch-kernel linux

   The first argument in the command above is the location of the
   kernel source.  Patches are applied from the current directory, but
   an alternative directory can be specified as the second argument.

 - If you are upgrading between releases using the stable series patches
   (for example, patch-2.6.xx.y), note that these "dot-releases" are
   not incremental and must be applied to the 2.6.xx base tree. For
   example, if your base kernel is 2.6.12 and you want to apply the
   2.6.12.3 patch, you do not and indeed must not first apply the
   2.6.12.1 and 2.6.12.2 patches. Similarly, if you are running kernel
   version 2.6.12.2 and want to jump to 2.6.12.3, you must first
   reverse the 2.6.12.2 patch (that is, patch -R) _before_ applying
   the 2.6.12.3 patch.
   You can read more on this in Documentation/applying-patches.txt

 - Make sure you have no stale .o files and dependencies lying around:

		cd linux
		make mrproper

   You should now have the sources correctly installed.

SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS

   Compiling and running the 2.6.xx kernels requires up-to-date
   versions of various software packages.  Consult
   Documentation/Changes for the minimum version numbers required
   and how to get updates for these packages.  Beware that using
   excessively old versions of these packages can cause indirect
   errors that are very difficult to track down, so don't assume that
   you can just update packages when obvious problems arise during
   build or operation.

BUILD directory for the kernel:

   When compiling the kernel all output files will per default be
   stored together with the kernel source code.
   Using the option "make O=output/dir" allow you to specify an alternate
   place for the output files (including .config).
   Example:
     kernel source code:	/usr/src/linux-2.6.N
     build directory:		/home/name/build/kernel

   To configure and build the kernel use:
   cd /usr/src/linux-2.6.N
   make O=/home/name/build/kernel menuconfig
   make O=/home/name/build/kernel
   sudo make O=/home/name/build/kernel modules_install install

   Please note: If the 'O=output/dir' option is used then it must be
   used for all invocations of make.

CONFIGURING the kernel:

   Do not skip this step even if you are only upgrading one minor
   version.  New configuration options are added in each release, and
   odd problems will turn up if the configuration files are not set up
   as expected.  If you want to carry your existing configuration to a
   new version with minimal work, use "make oldconfig", which will
   only ask you for the answers to new questions.

 - Alternate configuration commands are:
	"make config"      Plain text interface.
	"make menuconfig"  Text based color menus, radiolists & dialogs.
	"make xconfig"     X windows (Qt) based configuration tool.
	"make gconfig"     X windows (Gtk) based configuration tool.
	"make oldconfig"   Default all questions based on the contents of
			   your existing ./.config file and asking about
			   new config symbols.
	"make silentoldconfig"
			   Like above, but avoids cluttering the screen
			   with questions already answered.
	"make defconfig"   Create a ./.config file by using the default
			   symbol values from arch/$ARCH/defconfig.
	"make allyesconfig"
			   Create a ./.config file by setting symbol
			   values to 'y' as much as possible.
	"make allmodconfig"
			   Create a ./.config file by setting symbol
			   values to 'm' as much as possible.
	"make allnoconfig" Create a ./.config file by setting symbol
			   values to 'n' as much as possible.
	"make randconfig"  Create a ./.config file by setting symbol
			   values to random values.

   You can find more information on using the Linux kernel config tools
   in Documentation/kbuild/kconfig.txt.

	NOTES on "make config":
	- having unnecessary drivers will make the kernel bigger, and can
	  under some circumstances lead to problems: probing for a
	  nonexistent controller card may confuse your other controllers
	- compiling the kernel with "Processor type" set higher than 386
	  will result in a kernel that does NOT work on a 386.  The
	  kernel will detect this on bootup, and give up.
	- A kernel with math-emulation compiled in will still use the
	  coprocessor if one is present: the math emulation will just
	  never get used in that case.  The kernel will be slightly larger,
	  but will work on different machines regardless of whether they
	  have a math coprocessor or not. 
	- the "kernel hacking" configuration details usually result in a
	  bigger or slower kernel (or both), and can even make the kernel
	  less stable by configuring some routines to actively try to
	  break bad code to find kernel problems (kmalloc()).  Thus you
	  should probably answer 'n' to the questions for
          "development", "experimental", or "debugging" features.

COMPILING the kernel:

 - Make sure you have at least gcc 3.2 available.
   For more information, refer to Documentation/Changes.

   Please note that you can still run a.out user programs with this kernel.

 - Do a "make" to create a compressed kernel image. It is also
   possible to do "make install" if you have lilo installed to suit the
   kernel makefiles, but you may want to check your particular lilo setup first.

   To do the actual install you have to be root, but none of the normal
   build should require that. Don't take the name of root in vain.

 - If you configured any of the parts of the kernel as `modules', you
   will also have to do "make modules_install".

 - Verbose kernel compile/build output:

   Normally the kernel build system runs in a fairly quiet mode (but not
   totally silent).  However, sometimes you or other kernel developers need
   to see compile, link, or other commands exactly as they are executed.
   For this, use "verbose" build mode.  This is done by inserting
   "V=1" in the "make" command.  E.g.:

	make V=1 all

   To have the build system also tell the reason for the rebuild of each
   target, use "V=2".  The default is "V=0".

 - Keep a backup kernel handy in case something goes wrong.  This is 
   especially true for the development releases, since each new release
   contains new code which has not been debugged.  Make sure you keep a
   backup of the modules corresponding to that kernel, as well.  If you
   are installing a new kernel with the same version number as your
   working kernel, make a backup of your modules directory before you
   do a "make modules_install".
   Alternatively, before compiling, use the kernel config option
   "LOCALVERSION" to append a unique suffix to the regular kernel version.
   LOCALVERSION can be set in the "General Setup" menu.

 - In order to boot your new kernel, you'll need to copy the kernel
   image (e.g. .../linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage after compilation)
   to the place where your regular bootable kernel is found. 

 - Booting a kernel directly from a floppy without the assistance of a
   bootloader such as LILO, is no longer supported.

   If you boot Linux from the hard drive, chances are you use LILO which
   uses the kernel image as specified in the file /etc/lilo.conf.  The
   kernel image file is usually /vmlinuz, /boot/vmlinuz, /bzImage or
   /boot/bzImage.  To use the new kernel, save a copy of the old image
   and copy the new image over the old one.  Then, you MUST RERUN LILO
   to update the loading map!! If you don't, you won't be able to boot
   the new kernel image.

   Reinstalling LILO is usually a matter of running /sbin/lilo. 
   You may wish to edit /etc/lilo.conf to specify an entry for your
   old kernel image (say, /vmlinux.old) in case the new one does not
   work.  See the LILO docs for more information. 

   After reinstalling LILO, you should be all set.  Shutdown the system,
   reboot, and enjoy!

   If you ever need to change the default root device, video mode,
   ramdisk size, etc.  in the kernel image, use the 'rdev' program (or
   alternatively the LILO boot options when appropriate).  No need to
   recompile the kernel to change these parameters. 

 - Reboot with the new kernel and enjoy. 

IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG:

 - If you have problems that seem to be due to kernel bugs, please check
   the file MAINTAINERS to see if there is a particular person associated
   with the part of the kernel that you are having trouble with. If there
   isn't anyone listed there, then the second best thing is to mail
   them to me (torvalds@linux-foundation.org), and possibly to any other
   relevant mailing-list or to the newsgroup.

 - In all bug-reports, *please* tell what kernel you are talking about,
   how to duplicate the problem, and what your setup is (use your common
   sense).  If the problem is new, tell me so, and if the problem is
   old, please try to tell me when you first noticed it.

 - If the bug results in a message like

	unable to handle kernel paging request at address C0000010
	Oops: 0002
	EIP:   0010:XXXXXXXX
	eax: xxxxxxxx   ebx: xxxxxxxx   ecx: xxxxxxxx   edx: xxxxxxxx
	esi: xxxxxxxx   edi: xxxxxxxx   ebp: xxxxxxxx
	ds: xxxx  es: xxxx  fs: xxxx  gs: xxxx
	Pid: xx, process nr: xx
	xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx

   or similar kernel debugging information on your screen or in your
   system log, please duplicate it *exactly*.  The dump may look
   incomprehensible to you, but it does contain information that may
   help debugging the problem.  The text above the dump is also
   important: it tells something about why the kernel dumped code (in
   the above example it's due to a bad kernel pointer). More information
   on making sense of the dump is in Documentation/oops-tracing.txt

 - If you compiled the kernel with CONFIG_KALLSYMS you can send the dump
   as is, otherwise you will have to use the "ksymoops" program to make
   sense of the dump (but compiling with CONFIG_KALLSYMS is usually preferred).
   This utility can be downloaded from
   ftp://ftp.<country>.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/ksymoops/ .
   Alternately you can do the dump lookup by hand:

 - In debugging dumps like the above, it helps enormously if you can
   look up what the EIP value means.  The hex value as such doesn't help
   me or anybody else very much: it will depend on your particular
   kernel setup.  What you should do is take the hex value from the EIP
   line (ignore the "0010:"), and look it up in the kernel namelist to
   see which kernel function contains the offending address.

   To find out the kernel function name, you'll need to find the system
   binary associated with the kernel that exhibited the symptom.  This is
   the file 'linux/vmlinux'.  To extract the namelist and match it against
   the EIP from the kernel crash, do:

		nm vmlinux | sort | less

   This will give you a list of kernel addresses sorted in ascending
   order, from which it is simple to find the function that contains the
   offending address.  Note that the address given by the kernel
   debugging messages will not necessarily match exactly with the
   function addresses (in fact, that is very unlikely), so you can't
   just 'grep' the list: the list will, however, give you the starting
   point of each kernel function, so by looking for the function that
   has a starting address lower than the one you are searching for but
   is followed by a function with a higher address you will find the one
   you want.  In fact, it may be a good idea to include a bit of
   "context" in your problem report, giving a few lines around the
   interesting one. 

   If you for some reason cannot do the above (you have a pre-compiled
   kernel image or similar), telling me as much about your setup as
   possible will help.  Please read the REPORTING-BUGS document for details.

 - Alternately, you can use gdb on a running kernel. (read-only; i.e. you
   cannot change values or set break points.) To do this, first compile the
   kernel with -g; edit arch/i386/Makefile appropriately, then do a "make
   clean". You'll also need to enable CONFIG_PROC_FS (via "make config").

   After you've rebooted with the new kernel, do "gdb vmlinux /proc/kcore".
   You can now use all the usual gdb commands. The command to look up the
   point where your system crashed is "l *0xXXXXXXXX". (Replace the XXXes
   with the EIP value.)

   gdb'ing a non-running kernel currently fails because gdb (wrongly)
   disregards the starting offset for which the kernel is compiled.