[PATCH 1/2] ocfs2: cluster: use GFP_NOFS for heartbeat bio allocation

Joseph Qi <[email protected]> Fri, 10 Jul 2026 15:17:55 +0800
Newsgroups dev.linux.lists.ocfs2-devel,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel
Message-ID <[email protected]>
o2hb_setup_one_bio() allocates the heartbeat bio with GFP_ATOMIC. The
disk heartbeat runs in the o2hb kernel thread (o2hb_do_disk_heartbeat),
which is process context and can sleep, so there is no atomicity
requirement here.

GFP_ATOMIC lacks __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM, so the allocation is not served
from the fs_bio_set mempool reserve and can return NULL under memory
pressure. A failed heartbeat allocation aborts the heartbeat and can
lead to the local node being fenced, which is exactly what the old
comment worried about.

Use GFP_NOFS instead. It keeps __GFP_DIRECT_RECLAIM so the allocation is
backed by the fs_bio_set mempool and cannot fail, while avoiding
recursion back into the filesystem during heartbeat I/O. As the
allocation can no longer fail, drop the dead ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM) path in
o2hb_setup_one_bio() and the now-redundant IS_ERR() handling in its
callers.

Signed-off-by: Joseph Qi <[email protected]>
---
 fs/ocfs2/cluster/heartbeat.c | 41 +++++++-----------------------------
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 33 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/ocfs2/cluster/heartbeat.c b/fs/ocfs2/cluster/heartbeat.c
index 6da96a374fcdf..ef6a11fdef5bc 100644
--- a/fs/ocfs2/cluster/heartbeat.c
+++ b/fs/ocfs2/cluster/heartbeat.c
@@ -522,16 +522,12 @@ static struct bio *o2hb_setup_one_bio(struct o2hb_region *reg,
 	struct bio *bio;
 	struct page *page;
 
-	/* Testing has shown this allocation to take long enough under
-	 * GFP_KERNEL that the local node can get fenced. It would be
-	 * nicest if we could pre-allocate these bios and avoid this
-	 * all together. */
-	bio = bio_alloc(reg_bdev(reg), 16, opf, GFP_ATOMIC);
-	if (!bio) {
-		mlog(ML_ERROR, "Could not alloc slots BIO!\n");
-		bio = ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM);
-		goto bail;
-	}
+	/*
+	 * The heartbeat runs in process context and can sleep, so use
+	 * GFP_NOFS. It is backed by the fs_bio_set mempool and thus cannot
+	 * fail, while avoiding recursion back into the filesystem.
+	 */
+	bio = bio_alloc(reg_bdev(reg), 16, opf, GFP_NOFS);
 
 	/* Must put everything in 512 byte sectors for the bio... */
 	bio->bi_iter.bi_sector = (reg->hr_start_block + cs) << (bits - 9);
@@ -556,7 +552,6 @@ static struct bio *o2hb_setup_one_bio(struct o2hb_region *reg,
 		vec_start = 0;
 	}
 
-bail:
 	*current_slot = cs;
 	return bio;
 }
@@ -566,7 +561,6 @@ static int o2hb_read_slots(struct o2hb_region *reg,
 			   unsigned int max_slots)
 {
 	unsigned int current_slot = begin_slot;
-	int status;
 	struct o2hb_bio_wait_ctxt wc;
 	struct bio *bio;
 
@@ -575,30 +569,18 @@ static int o2hb_read_slots(struct o2hb_region *reg,
 	while(current_slot < max_slots) {
 		bio = o2hb_setup_one_bio(reg, &wc, &current_slot, max_slots,
 					 REQ_OP_READ);
-		if (IS_ERR(bio)) {
-			status = PTR_ERR(bio);
-			mlog_errno(status);
-			goto bail_and_wait;
-		}
-
 		atomic_inc(&wc.wc_num_reqs);
 		submit_bio(bio);
 	}
 
-	status = 0;
-
-bail_and_wait:
 	o2hb_wait_on_io(&wc);
-	if (wc.wc_error && !status)
-		status = wc.wc_error;
 
-	return status;
+	return wc.wc_error;
 }
 
 static int o2hb_issue_node_write(struct o2hb_region *reg,
 				 struct o2hb_bio_wait_ctxt *write_wc)
 {
-	int status;
 	unsigned int slot;
 	struct bio *bio;
 
@@ -610,18 +592,11 @@ static int o2hb_issue_node_write(struct o2hb_region *reg,
 
 	bio = o2hb_setup_one_bio(reg, write_wc, &slot, slot+1,
 				 REQ_OP_WRITE | REQ_SYNC);
-	if (IS_ERR(bio)) {
-		status = PTR_ERR(bio);
-		mlog_errno(status);
-		goto bail;
-	}
 
 	atomic_inc(&write_wc->wc_num_reqs);
 	submit_bio(bio);
 
-	status = 0;
-bail:
-	return status;
+	return 0;
 }
 
 static u32 o2hb_compute_block_crc_le(struct o2hb_region *reg,
-- 
2.39.3