[PATCH v4 3/6] nfs4.2: open UNCACHEABLE_FILE_DATA files with O_DIRECT
Mike Snitzer <[email protected]> Mon, 27 Jul 2026 17:09:40 -0400
| Newsgroups | gmane.linux.nfs |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <8f107c866d97997d9dde76090aacdbbe9752d2e2.1785140181.git.snitzer@kernel.org> |
Honor the per-file UNCACHEABLE_FILE_DATA attribute by transparently
opening such regular files with O_DIRECT, so reads and writes bypass the
page cache as the attribute requires, without the application having to
request O_DIRECT itself.
This follows the model the specification describes: the attribute is
"similar in intent to O_DIRECT" and clients "retain flexibility in how
they satisfy the requirements" (draft-ietf-nfsv4-uncacheable-files
Section 4.4, "Relationship to Direct I/O"), and its Implementation
Status (Section 6) describes a prototype Linux client that "treats the
attribute as an indication to use O_DIRECT-like behavior for file
access".
Introduce an NFS_CONTEXT_O_DIRECT open-context flag: nfs4_atomic_open()
sets it when the resolved inode has uncacheable_file_data set (and the
open is not O_APPEND), and the open paths nfs_atomic_open() and
nfs4_file_open() apply O_DIRECT to the file when the flag is set.
The I/O mode is thus selected at open time and is not changed for an
already-open file: a later change to the attribute takes effect on the
next open. The specification permits this -- a client that has already
opened a file MAY continue with its existing caching behavior and apply
the updated attribute to subsequent operations (Section 5).
The delegation interaction in Section 4.3 was considered: it permits read
caching to remain when another NFSv4.2 mechanism, such as a delegation,
already ensures a consistent view of the file. That relaxation is
optional ("may remain appropriate") and read-only -- it does not relax
write-behind suppression (Section 4.1) or the WRITE durability invariant
(Section 4.2). This implementation deliberately does not take it: an
uncacheable file is opened O_DIRECT regardless of any delegation held,
which is compliant (read caching is simply suppressed more aggressively
than the Section 4.3 minimum) and avoids decoupling read vs write caching
behind a single open flag. Relaxing reads under a delegation is left as
a possible future optimization.
Section 6 observes the benefit holds "for applications that issue
well-formed I/O requests". That alignment caveat does not constrain the
Linux NFS client's over-the-wire path: the client readily issues
misaligned I/O using O_DIRECT over SunRPC to the remote NFS server. The
only place a fallback from O_DIRECT to buffered I/O for misaligned I/O
applies is NFS LOCALIO (fs/nfs/localio.c), which detects non-DIO-aligned
I/O and falls back internally; that path is unaffected by this change.
Link: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-nfsv4-uncacheable-files/
Signed-off-by: Mike Snitzer <[email protected]>
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8
---
fs/nfs/dir.c | 4 ++++
fs/nfs/nfs4file.c | 2 ++
fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c | 10 ++++++++++
include/linux/nfs_fs.h | 1 +
4 files changed, 17 insertions(+)
diff --git a/fs/nfs/dir.c b/fs/nfs/dir.c
index c7b723c18620..6b07abf272b1 100644
--- a/fs/nfs/dir.c
+++ b/fs/nfs/dir.c
@@ -2208,6 +2208,10 @@ int nfs_atomic_open(struct inode *dir, struct dentry *dentry,
goto out;
}
file->f_mode |= FMODE_CAN_ODIRECT;
+ if (test_bit(NFS_CONTEXT_O_DIRECT, &ctx->flags)) {
+ file->f_flags |= O_DIRECT;
+ open_flags |= O_DIRECT;
+ }
err = nfs_finish_open(ctx, ctx->dentry, file, open_flags);
trace_nfs_atomic_open_exit(dir, ctx, open_flags, err);
diff --git a/fs/nfs/nfs4file.c b/fs/nfs/nfs4file.c
index be40e126c539..6401f6363f75 100644
--- a/fs/nfs/nfs4file.c
+++ b/fs/nfs/nfs4file.c
@@ -91,6 +91,8 @@ nfs4_file_open(struct inode *inode, struct file *filp)
nfs_fscache_open_file(inode, filp);
err = 0;
filp->f_mode |= FMODE_CAN_ODIRECT;
+ if (test_bit(NFS_CONTEXT_O_DIRECT, &ctx->flags))
+ filp->f_flags |= O_DIRECT;
out_put_ctx:
put_nfs_open_context(ctx);
diff --git a/fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c b/fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c
index 19de0a37b036..5e1dbdee65bb 100644
--- a/fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c
+++ b/fs/nfs/nfs4proc.c
@@ -3853,6 +3853,16 @@ nfs4_atomic_open(struct inode *dir, struct nfs_open_context *ctx,
if (IS_ERR(state))
return ERR_CAST(state);
+
+ /*
+ * Use O_DIRECT if file was marked as Uncacheable, see:
+ * https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-ietf-nfsv4-uncacheable-files/
+ */
+ if (!(open_flags & O_DIRECT) && NFS_I(state->inode)->uncacheable_file_data) {
+ if (!(open_flags & O_APPEND))
+ set_bit(NFS_CONTEXT_O_DIRECT, &ctx->flags);
+ }
+
return state->inode;
}
diff --git a/include/linux/nfs_fs.h b/include/linux/nfs_fs.h
index 8552a0d778d9..48b806aa3a2f 100644
--- a/include/linux/nfs_fs.h
+++ b/include/linux/nfs_fs.h
@@ -110,6 +110,7 @@ struct nfs_open_context {
#define NFS_CONTEXT_UNLOCK (3)
#define NFS_CONTEXT_FILE_OPEN (4)
#define NFS_CONTEXT_WRITE_SYNC (5)
+#define NFS_CONTEXT_O_DIRECT (6)
struct nfs4_threshold *mdsthreshold;
struct list_head list;
--
2.47.3