[RFC PATCH v3 11/11] iomap: Handle deadlock due to repeating folios in RWF_WRITETHROUGH

Ojaswin Mujoo <[email protected]> Wed, 5 Aug 2026 11:58:17 +0530
Newsgroups gmane.linux.kernel,gmane.linux.file-systems,gmane.linux.kernel.mm
Message-ID <7eb663a29c18e40d0000422792543ab3512c5a7e.1785908600.git.ojaswin@linux.ibm.com>
In iomap_writethrough_iter() we might encounter repeating folios across
multiple iterations. Repeating folios can occur if, example,
copy_folio_from_iter_atomic() does a short copy due to userspace pages
not faulted in. This is an issue because a previous loop might have
started writeback on them but not yet issued the IO. In the next
iteration trying to get the same folio with FGP_STABLE will result in a
deadlock. Since repeating folios will always be encountered back to
back, we can just use a simple cur != prev check to detect them.

Use this to avoid waiting for writeback or starting writeback on folios
we have already processed. Note that in ->endio() we might end up
calling folio_end_writethrough() twice on the same folio which can cause
issues with folio_xor_flags_has_waiters(). For simplicity, just change
the folio_xor_flags_has_waiters() call to an idempotent variant.

Reported-by: Pankaj Raghav <[email protected]>
Co-developed-by: Ritesh Harjani (IBM) <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Ritesh Harjani (IBM) <[email protected]>
Signed-off-by: Ojaswin Mujoo <[email protected]>
---
 fs/iomap/buffered-io.c | 37 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-------
 mm/filemap.c           |  3 ++-
 2 files changed, 32 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/iomap/buffered-io.c b/fs/iomap/buffered-io.c
index 0844361fe0f1..70c1565e5416 100644
--- a/fs/iomap/buffered-io.c
+++ b/fs/iomap/buffered-io.c
@@ -804,6 +804,13 @@ struct folio *iomap_get_folio(struct iomap_iter *iter, loff_t pos, size_t len)
 {
 	fgf_t fgp = FGP_WRITEBEGIN;
 
+	/*
+	 * For writethrough, we open code the FGP_STABLE logic directly in
+	 * iomap_writhrethrough_iter() so disable it here.. See
+	 * iomap_writethrough_iter() for details.
+	 */
+	if (iter->flags & IOMAP_WRITETHROUGH)
+		fgp &= ~FGP_STABLE;
 	if (iter->flags & IOMAP_NOWAIT)
 		fgp |= FGP_NOWAIT;
 	if (iter->flags & IOMAP_DONTCACHE)
@@ -1383,15 +1390,12 @@ iomap_writethrough_try_submit(struct iomap_writethrough_ctx *wt_ctx,
  * need to clear the master dirty bit.
  */
 static void iomap_folio_prepare_writethrough(struct folio *folio, size_t off,
-					     size_t len)
+					     size_t len, bool already_prepared)
 {
 	bool fully_written;
 	u64 zero = 0;
 	u64 tmp_off = off;
 
-	if (folio_test_writeback(folio))
-		folio_wait_writeback(folio);
-
 	if (folio_mkclean(folio))
 		folio_mark_dirty(folio);
 
@@ -1409,7 +1413,8 @@ static void iomap_folio_prepare_writethrough(struct folio *folio, size_t off,
 	}
 
 	task_io_account_write(folio_nr_pages(folio) * PAGE_SIZE);
-	folio_test_set_writeback(folio);
+	if (!already_prepared)
+		folio_test_set_writeback(folio);
 }
 
 /**
@@ -1426,6 +1431,17 @@ static void iomap_folio_prepare_writethrough(struct folio *folio, size_t off,
  * Folio handling note: We might be writing through a partial folio so we need
  * to be careful to not clear the folio dirty bit unless there are no dirty blocks
  * in the folio after the writethrough.
+ *
+ * **A corner case to be careful about**
+ *
+ * For writethrough, we open code the stable write behavior to handle the case
+ * where we encounter a folio that we already started writeback on but have not
+ * yet submitted. In that case we must not wait for writeback again to avoid
+ * deadlocking. Repeating folios can occur if, example,
+ * copy_folio_from_iter_atomic() does a short copy due to userspace pages not
+ * faulted in. Also, repeating folios will always be encountered back to back so
+ * we can just use a simple cur != prev check to detect them.
+
  */
 static int iomap_writethrough_iter(struct iomap_writethrough_ctx *wt_ctx,
 				   struct iomap_iter *iter, struct iov_iter *i,
@@ -1439,6 +1455,7 @@ static int iomap_writethrough_iter(struct iomap_writethrough_ctx *wt_ctx,
 	size_t chunk = mapping_max_folio_size(mapping);
 	unsigned int bdp_flags = (iter->flags & IOMAP_NOWAIT) ? BDP_ASYNC : 0;
 	unsigned int bs = i_blocksize(iter->inode);
+	struct folio *prev_folio = NULL;
 
 	/* copied over based on how DIO handles these flags */
 	if (iter->iomap.type == IOMAP_UNWRITTEN)
@@ -1530,6 +1547,10 @@ static int iomap_writethrough_iter(struct iomap_writethrough_ctx *wt_ctx,
 		if (mapping_writably_mapped(mapping))
 			flush_dcache_folio(folio);
 
+		 /* Open coding stable write behavior, see comment on top. */
+		if (prev_folio != folio)
+			folio_wait_writeback(folio);
+
 		copied = copy_folio_from_iter_atomic(folio, offset, bytes, i);
 		written = iomap_write_end(iter, bytes, copied, folio) ?
 			  copied : 0;
@@ -1544,8 +1565,10 @@ static int iomap_writethrough_iter(struct iomap_writethrough_ctx *wt_ctx,
 		off_aligned = round_down(offset, bs);
 		len_aligned = round_up(offset + written, bs) - off_aligned;
 
-		iomap_folio_prepare_writethrough(folio, off_aligned,
-						 len_aligned);
+		iomap_folio_prepare_writethrough(
+			folio, off_aligned, len_aligned, prev_folio == folio);
+
+		prev_folio = folio;
 
 		if (!wt_ctx->nr_bvecs) {
 			wt_ctx->bio_pos = round_down(pos, bs);
diff --git a/mm/filemap.c b/mm/filemap.c
index a1a5f8837e03..fc3ed0619838 100644
--- a/mm/filemap.c
+++ b/mm/filemap.c
@@ -1711,7 +1711,8 @@ void folio_end_writethrough(struct folio *folio, bool error)
 	if (!error)
 		node_stat_mod_folio(folio, NR_WRITTEN, nr);
 
-	if (folio_xor_flags_has_waiters(folio, 1 << PG_writeback))
+	folio_test_clear_writeback(folio);
+	if (folio_test_waiters(folio))
 		folio_wake_bit(folio, PG_writeback);
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(folio_end_writethrough);
-- 
2.55.0