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authorLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2025-10-03 18:48:02 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2025-10-03 18:48:02 -0700
commit7dbec0bbc3b468310be172f1ce6ddc9411c84952 (patch)
treed7fb08a5e40b3e916136fc426236715c425c55ed /Documentation/admin-guide
parentMerge tag 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/rdma/rdma (diff)
parentdm raid: use proper md_ro_state enumerators (diff)
downloadlinux-7dbec0bbc3b468310be172f1ce6ddc9411c84952.tar.gz
linux-7dbec0bbc3b468310be172f1ce6ddc9411c84952.zip
Merge tag 'for-6.18/dm-changes' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/device-mapper/linux-dm
Pull device mapper updates from Mikulas Patocka: - a new dm-pcache target for read/write caching on persistent memory - fix typos in docs - misc small refactoring - mark dm-error with DM_TARGET_PASSES_INTEGRITY - dm-request-based: fix NULL pointer dereference and quiesce_depth out of sync - dm-linear: optimize REQ_PREFLUSH - dm-vdo: return error on corrupted metadata - dm-integrity: support asynchronous hash interface * tag 'for-6.18/dm-changes' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/device-mapper/linux-dm: (27 commits) dm raid: use proper md_ro_state enumerators dm-integrity: prefer synchronous hash interface dm-integrity: enable asynchronous hash interface dm-integrity: rename internal_hash dm-integrity: add the "offset" argument dm-integrity: allocate the recalculate buffer with kmalloc dm-integrity: introduce integrity_kmap and integrity_kunmap dm-integrity: replace bvec_kmap_local with kmap_local_page dm-integrity: use internal variable for digestsize dm vdo: return error on corrupted metadata in start_restoring_volume functions dm vdo: Update code to use mem_is_zero dm: optimize REQ_PREFLUSH with data when using the linear target dm-pcache: use int type to store negative error codes dm: fix "writen"->"written" dm-pcache: cleanup: fix coding style report by checkpatch.pl dm-pcache: remove ctrl_lock for pcache_cache_segment dm: fix NULL pointer dereference in __dm_suspend() dm: fix queue start/stop imbalance under suspend/load/resume races dm-pcache: add persistent cache target in device-mapper dm error: mark as DM_TARGET_PASSES_INTEGRITY ...
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/admin-guide')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/delay.rst8
-rw-r--r--Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/dm-pcache.rst202
-rw-r--r--Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/index.rst1
-rw-r--r--Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/vdo.rst1
4 files changed, 208 insertions, 4 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/delay.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/delay.rst
index 4d667228e744..a1e673c0e782 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/delay.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/delay.rst
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ dm-delay
========
Device-Mapper's "delay" target delays reads and/or writes
-and/or flushs and optionally maps them to different devices.
+and/or flushes and optionally maps them to different devices.
Arguments::
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ Table line has to either have 3, 6 or 9 arguments:
to write and flush operations on optionally different write_device with
optionally different sector offset
-9: same as 6 arguments plus define flush_offset and flush_delay explicitely
+9: same as 6 arguments plus define flush_offset and flush_delay explicitly
on/with optionally different flush_device/flush_offset.
Offsets are specified in sectors.
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ Example scripts
#!/bin/sh
#
# Create mapped device delaying write and flush operations for 400ms and
- # splitting reads to device $1 but writes and flushs to different device $2
+ # splitting reads to device $1 but writes and flushes to different device $2
# to different offsets of 2048 and 4096 sectors respectively.
#
dmsetup create delayed --table "0 `blockdev --getsz $1` delay $1 2048 0 $2 4096 400"
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ Example scripts
::
#!/bin/sh
#
- # Create mapped device delaying reads for 50ms, writes for 100ms and flushs for 333ms
+ # Create mapped device delaying reads for 50ms, writes for 100ms and flushes for 333ms
# onto the same backing device at offset 0 sectors.
#
dmsetup create delayed --table "0 `blockdev --getsz $1` delay $1 0 50 $2 0 100 $1 0 333"
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/dm-pcache.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/dm-pcache.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..09d327ef4b14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/dm-pcache.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,202 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+=================================
+dm-pcache — Persistent Cache
+=================================
+
+*Author: Dongsheng Yang <dongsheng.yang@linux.dev>*
+
+This document describes *dm-pcache*, a Device-Mapper target that lets a
+byte-addressable *DAX* (persistent-memory, “pmem”) region act as a
+high-performance, crash-persistent cache in front of a slower block
+device. The code lives in `drivers/md/dm-pcache/`.
+
+Quick feature summary
+=====================
+
+* *Write-back* caching (only mode currently supported).
+* *16 MiB segments* allocated on the pmem device.
+* *Data CRC32* verification (optional, per cache).
+* Crash-safe: every metadata structure is duplicated (`PCACHE_META_INDEX_MAX
+ == 2`) and protected with CRC+sequence numbers.
+* *Multi-tree indexing* (indexing trees sharded by logical address) for high PMem parallelism
+* Pure *DAX path* I/O – no extra BIO round-trips
+* *Log-structured write-back* that preserves backend crash-consistency
+
+
+Constructor
+===========
+
+::
+
+ pcache <cache_dev> <backing_dev> [<number_of_optional_arguments> <cache_mode writeback> <data_crc true|false>]
+
+========================= ====================================================
+``cache_dev`` Any DAX-capable block device (``/dev/pmem0``…).
+ All metadata *and* cached blocks are stored here.
+
+``backing_dev`` The slow block device to be cached.
+
+``cache_mode`` Optional, Only ``writeback`` is accepted at the
+ moment.
+
+``data_crc`` Optional, default to ``false``
+
+ * ``true`` – store CRC32 for every cached entry
+ and verify on reads
+ * ``false`` – skip CRC (faster)
+========================= ====================================================
+
+Example
+-------
+
+.. code-block:: shell
+
+ dmsetup create pcache_sdb --table \
+ "0 $(blockdev --getsz /dev/sdb) pcache /dev/pmem0 /dev/sdb 4 cache_mode writeback data_crc true"
+
+The first time a pmem device is used, dm-pcache formats it automatically
+(super-block, cache_info, etc.).
+
+
+Status line
+===========
+
+``dmsetup status <device>`` (``STATUSTYPE_INFO``) prints:
+
+::
+
+ <sb_flags> <seg_total> <cache_segs> <segs_used> \
+ <gc_percent> <cache_flags> \
+ <key_head_seg>:<key_head_off> \
+ <dirty_tail_seg>:<dirty_tail_off> \
+ <key_tail_seg>:<key_tail_off>
+
+Field meanings
+--------------
+
+=============================== =============================================
+``sb_flags`` Super-block flags (e.g. endian marker).
+
+``seg_total`` Number of physical *pmem* segments.
+
+``cache_segs`` Number of segments used for cache.
+
+``segs_used`` Segments currently allocated (bitmap weight).
+
+``gc_percent`` Current GC high-water mark (0-90).
+
+``cache_flags`` Bit 0 – DATA_CRC enabled
+ Bit 1 – INIT_DONE (cache initialised)
+ Bits 2-5 – cache mode (0 == WB).
+
+``key_head`` Where new key-sets are being written.
+
+``dirty_tail`` First dirty key-set that still needs
+ write-back to the backing device.
+
+``key_tail`` First key-set that may be reclaimed by GC.
+=============================== =============================================
+
+
+Messages
+========
+
+*Change GC trigger*
+
+::
+
+ dmsetup message <dev> 0 gc_percent <0-90>
+
+
+Theory of operation
+===================
+
+Sub-devices
+-----------
+
+==================== =========================================================
+backing_dev Any block device (SSD/HDD/loop/LVM, etc.).
+cache_dev DAX device; must expose direct-access memory.
+==================== =========================================================
+
+Segments and key-sets
+---------------------
+
+* The pmem space is divided into *16 MiB segments*.
+* Each write allocates space from a per-CPU *data_head* inside a segment.
+* A *cache-key* records a logical range on the origin and where it lives
+ inside pmem (segment + offset + generation).
+* 128 keys form a *key-set* (kset); ksets are written sequentially in pmem
+ and are themselves crash-safe (CRC).
+* The pair *(key_tail, dirty_tail)* delimit clean/dirty and live/dead ksets.
+
+Write-back
+----------
+
+Dirty keys are queued into a tree; a background worker copies data
+back to the backing_dev and advances *dirty_tail*. A FLUSH/FUA bio from the
+upper layers forces an immediate metadata commit.
+
+Garbage collection
+------------------
+
+GC starts when ``segs_used >= seg_total * gc_percent / 100``. It walks
+from *key_tail*, frees segments whose every key has been invalidated, and
+advances *key_tail*.
+
+CRC verification
+----------------
+
+If ``data_crc is enabled`` dm-pcache computes a CRC32 over every cached data
+range when it is inserted and stores it in the on-media key. Reads
+validate the CRC before copying to the caller.
+
+
+Failure handling
+================
+
+* *pmem media errors* – all metadata copies are read with
+ ``copy_mc_to_kernel``; an uncorrectable error logs and aborts initialisation.
+* *Cache full* – if no free segment can be found, writes return ``-EBUSY``;
+ dm-pcache retries internally (request deferral).
+* *System crash* – on attach, the driver replays ksets from *key_tail* to
+ rebuild the in-core trees; every segment’s generation guards against
+ use-after-free keys.
+
+
+Limitations & TODO
+==================
+
+* Only *write-back* mode; other modes planned.
+* Only FIFO cache invalidate; other (LRU, ARC...) planned.
+* Table reload is not supported currently.
+* Discard planned.
+
+
+Example workflow
+================
+
+.. code-block:: shell
+
+ # 1. Create devices
+ dmsetup create pcache_sdb --table \
+ "0 $(blockdev --getsz /dev/sdb) pcache /dev/pmem0 /dev/sdb 4 cache_mode writeback data_crc true"
+
+ # 2. Put a filesystem on top
+ mkfs.ext4 /dev/mapper/pcache_sdb
+ mount /dev/mapper/pcache_sdb /mnt
+
+ # 3. Tune GC threshold to 80 %
+ dmsetup message pcache_sdb 0 gc_percent 80
+
+ # 4. Observe status
+ watch -n1 'dmsetup status pcache_sdb'
+
+ # 5. Shutdown
+ umount /mnt
+ dmsetup remove pcache_sdb
+
+
+``dm-pcache`` is under active development; feedback, bug reports and patches
+are very welcome!
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/index.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/index.rst
index cc5aec861576..f1c1f4b824ba 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/index.rst
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ Device Mapper
dm-integrity
dm-io
dm-log
+ dm-pcache
dm-queue-length
dm-raid
dm-service-time
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/vdo.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/vdo.rst
index a14e6d3e787c..8a67b320a97b 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/vdo.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/device-mapper/vdo.rst
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0-only
+======
dm-vdo
======