]> git.ipfire.org Git - thirdparty/kernel/stable.git/commit
ext4: don't cache extent during splitting extent
authorZhang Yi <yi.zhang@huawei.com>
Sat, 29 Nov 2025 10:32:37 +0000 (18:32 +0800)
committerGreg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Thu, 26 Feb 2026 23:01:39 +0000 (15:01 -0800)
commit9a2b95cdaf07785e2739199037bd9c0863ccc1be
treebe6bedb9c9501c7ec67781edd4f0e6e965979a14
parent7015fcf473796e1d2d876f241bd9e0c36f3d4eef
ext4: don't cache extent during splitting extent

commit 8b4b19a2f96348d70bfa306ef7d4a13b0bcbea79 upstream.

Caching extents during the splitting process is risky, as it may result
in stale extents remaining in the status tree. Moreover, in most cases,
the corresponding extent block entries are likely already cached before
the split happens, making caching here not particularly useful.

Assume we have an unwritten extent, and then DIO writes the first half.

  [UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU] on-disk extent        U: unwritten extent
  [UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU] extent status tree
  |<-   ->| ----> dio write this range

First, when ext4_split_extent_at() splits this extent, it truncates the
existing extent and then inserts a new one. During this process, this
extent status entry may be shrunk, and calls to ext4_find_extent() and
ext4_cache_extents() may occur, which could potentially insert the
truncated range as a hole into the extent status tree. After the split
is completed, this hole is not replaced with the correct status.

  [UUUUUUU|UUUUUUUU] on-disk extent        U: unwritten extent
  [UUUUUUU|HHHHHHHH] extent status tree    H: hole

Then, the outer calling functions will not correct this remaining hole
extent either. Finally, if we perform a delayed buffer write on this
latter part, it will re-insert the delayed extent and cause an error in
space accounting.

In adition, if the unwritten extent cache is not shrunk during the
splitting, ext4_cache_extents() also conflicts with existing extents
when caching extents. In the future, we will add checks when caching
extents, which will trigger a warning. Therefore, Do not cache extents
that are being split.

Signed-off-by: Zhang Yi <yi.zhang@huawei.com>
Reviewed-by: Ojaswin Mujoo <ojaswin@linux.ibm.com>
Reviewed-by: Baokun Li <libaokun1@huawei.com>
Cc: stable@kernel.org
Message-ID: <20251129103247.686136-6-yi.zhang@huaweicloud.com>
Signed-off-by: Theodore Ts'o <tytso@mit.edu>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
fs/ext4/extents.c