[PATCH v5 17/20] ext4: Fix data integrity writeout issues in nojournal mode

Jan Kara <[email protected]> Mon, 27 Jul 2026 12:49:35 +0200
Newsgroups org.kernel.vger.linux-ext4,org.kernel.vger.linux-fsdevel
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Several racing fsyncs on ext4 in nojournal mode could result in some
fsync returning earlier than all metadata buffers were properly
persisted. Also ext4_fsync() in nojournal mode was somewhat inefficient
because it was always writing out the inode regardless whether it was
dirty or not.

Fix these issues by using new .sync_inode_metadata method which makes
sure all inode related metadata is written to disk during any
WB_SYNC_ALL writeback in nojournal mode. This also somewhat simplifies
the nojournal mode fsync handling.

Signed-off-by: Jan Kara <[email protected]>
---
 fs/ext4/ext4.h  |  1 +
 fs/ext4/fsync.c | 28 +++------------
 fs/ext4/inode.c | 90 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-----------------
 fs/ext4/super.c |  7 +++-
 4 files changed, 72 insertions(+), 54 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/ext4/ext4.h b/fs/ext4/ext4.h
index 64f8f63f4415..0f06155a35a6 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/ext4.h
+++ b/fs/ext4/ext4.h
@@ -3166,6 +3166,7 @@ extern struct inode *__ext4_iget(struct super_block *sb, unsigned long ino,
 	__ext4_iget((sb), (ino), (flags), __func__, __LINE__)
 
 extern int  ext4_write_inode(struct inode *, struct writeback_control *);
+extern int  ext4_sync_inode_metadata(struct inode *, struct writeback_control *);
 extern int  ext4_setattr(struct mnt_idmap *, struct dentry *,
 			 struct iattr *);
 extern u32  ext4_dio_alignment(struct inode *inode);
diff --git a/fs/ext4/fsync.c b/fs/ext4/fsync.c
index b7ea4433f4be..2999c2cc8fcf 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/fsync.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/fsync.c
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@
 static int ext4_sync_parent(struct inode *inode)
 {
 	struct dentry *dentry, *next;
-	struct mapping_metadata_bhs *mmb;
 	int ret = 0;
 
 	if (!ext4_test_inode_state(inode, EXT4_STATE_NEWENTRY))
@@ -69,12 +68,6 @@ static int ext4_sync_parent(struct inode *inode)
 		 * through ext4_evict_inode()) and so we are safe to flush
 		 * metadata blocks and the inode.
 		 */
-		mmb = ext4_i_metadata_bhs(inode);
-		if (mmb) {
-			ret = mmb_sync(mmb);
-			if (ret)
-				break;
-		}
 		ret = sync_inode_metadata(inode, 1);
 		if (ret)
 			break;
@@ -87,22 +80,11 @@ static int ext4_fsync_nojournal(struct file *file, loff_t start, loff_t end,
 				int datasync, bool *needs_barrier)
 {
 	struct inode *inode = file->f_inode;
-	struct writeback_control wbc = {
-		.sync_mode = WB_SYNC_ALL,
-		.nr_to_write = 0,
-	};
 	int ret;
 
-	ret = mmb_fsync_noflush(file, ext4_i_metadata_bhs(inode),
-				start, end, datasync);
+	ret = sync_inode_metadata(inode, 1);
 	if (ret)
 		return ret;
-
-	/* Force writeout of inode table buffer to disk */
-	ret = ext4_write_inode(inode, &wbc);
-	if (ret)
-		return ret;
-
 	ret = ext4_sync_parent(inode);
 
 	if (test_opt(inode->i_sb, BARRIER))
@@ -160,6 +142,10 @@ int ext4_sync_file(struct file *file, loff_t start, loff_t end, int datasync)
 	if (sb_rdonly(inode->i_sb))
 		goto out;
 
+	ret = file_write_and_wait_range(file, start, end);
+	if (ret)
+		goto out;
+
 	if (!EXT4_SB(inode->i_sb)->s_journal) {
 		ret = ext4_fsync_nojournal(file, start, end, datasync,
 					   &needs_barrier);
@@ -168,10 +154,6 @@ int ext4_sync_file(struct file *file, loff_t start, loff_t end, int datasync)
 		goto out;
 	}
 
-	ret = file_write_and_wait_range(file, start, end);
-	if (ret)
-		goto out;
-
 	/*
 	 *  The caller's filemap_fdatawrite()/wait will sync the data.
 	 *  Metadata is in the journal, we wait for proper transaction to
diff --git a/fs/ext4/inode.c b/fs/ext4/inode.c
index e6acef486ee1..7a1f961cd11c 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/inode.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/inode.c
@@ -5799,6 +5799,10 @@ static int ext4_do_update_inode(handle_t *handle,
  * ext4_mark_inode_dirty().  This is a correctness thing for WB_SYNC_ALL
  * writeback.
  *
+ * For nojournal mode all the work is done in ext4_sync_inode_metadata()
+ * because inode content is already copied into raw inode buffer and inode
+ * is marked with I_METADATA_WRITEBACK.
+ *
  * Note that we are absolutely dependent upon all inode dirtiers doing the
  * right thing: they *must* call mark_inode_dirty() after dirtying info in
  * which we are interested.
@@ -5824,42 +5828,54 @@ int ext4_write_inode(struct inode *inode, struct writeback_control *wbc)
 	if (unlikely(err))
 		return err;
 
-	if (EXT4_SB(inode->i_sb)->s_journal) {
-		if (ext4_journal_current_handle()) {
-			ext4_debug("called recursively, non-PF_MEMALLOC!\n");
-			dump_stack();
-			return -EIO;
-		}
+	if (!EXT4_SB(inode->i_sb)->s_journal)
+		return 0;
 
-		/*
-		 * No need to force transaction in WB_SYNC_NONE mode. Also
-		 * ext4_sync_fs() will force the commit after everything is
-		 * written.
-		 */
-		if (wbc->sync_mode != WB_SYNC_ALL || wbc->for_sync)
-			return 0;
+	if (ext4_journal_current_handle()) {
+		ext4_debug("called recursively, non-PF_MEMALLOC!\n");
+		dump_stack();
+		return -EIO;
+	}
+
+	/*
+	 * No need to force transaction in WB_SYNC_NONE mode. Also
+	 * ext4_sync_fs() will force the commit after everything is
+	 * written.
+	 */
+	if (wbc->sync_mode != WB_SYNC_ALL || wbc->for_sync)
+		return 0;
 
-		err = ext4_fc_commit(EXT4_SB(inode->i_sb)->s_journal,
+	return ext4_fc_commit(EXT4_SB(inode->i_sb)->s_journal,
 						EXT4_I(inode)->i_sync_tid);
-	} else {
-		struct ext4_iloc iloc;
+}
+
+int ext4_sync_inode_metadata(struct inode *inode, struct writeback_control *wbc)
+{
+	struct ext4_iloc iloc;
+	struct mapping_metadata_bhs *mmb;
+	int err;
 
-		err = __ext4_get_inode_loc_noinmem(inode, &iloc);
+	/* We should only get here in nojournal mode */
+	if (WARN_ON_ONCE(EXT4_SB(inode->i_sb)->s_journal))
+		return -EFSCORRUPTED;
+
+	err = __ext4_get_inode_loc_noinmem(inode, &iloc);
+	if (err)
+		return err;
+	mmb = READ_ONCE(EXT4_I(inode)->i_metadata_bhs);
+	if (mmb) {
+		err = mmb_sync(mmb);
 		if (err)
-			return err;
-		/*
-		 * sync(2) will flush the whole buffer cache. No need to do
-		 * it here separately for each inode.
-		 */
-		if (wbc->sync_mode == WB_SYNC_ALL && !wbc->for_sync)
-			sync_dirty_buffer(iloc.bh);
-		if (buffer_req(iloc.bh) && !buffer_uptodate(iloc.bh)) {
-			ext4_error_inode_block(inode, iloc.bh->b_blocknr, EIO,
-					       "IO error syncing inode");
-			err = -EIO;
-		}
-		brelse(iloc.bh);
+			goto out;
 	}
+	sync_dirty_buffer(iloc.bh);
+	if (buffer_write_io_error(iloc.bh)) {
+		ext4_error_inode_block(inode, iloc.bh->b_blocknr, EIO,
+				       "IO error syncing inode");
+		err = -EIO;
+	}
+out:
+	brelse(iloc.bh);
 	return err;
 }
 
@@ -6407,6 +6423,20 @@ int ext4_mark_iloc_dirty(handle_t *handle,
 	/* ext4_do_update_inode() does jbd2_journal_dirty_metadata */
 	err = ext4_do_update_inode(handle, inode, iloc);
 	put_bh(iloc->bh);
+	/*
+	 * Mark that there's metadata writeout pending for the inode so that it
+	 * gets properly flushed on fsync(2) and similar.
+	 */
+	if (!EXT4_SB(inode->i_sb)->s_journal) {
+		/*
+		 * Inode didn't need to go through dirtying, make sure it is
+		 * attached to wb so that writeback can handle it.
+		 */
+		spin_lock(&inode->i_lock);
+		inode_attach_wb(inode, NULL);
+		spin_unlock(&inode->i_lock);
+		set_inode_metadata_writeback(inode);
+	}
 	return err;
 }
 
diff --git a/fs/ext4/super.c b/fs/ext4/super.c
index 8671fa1209dd..ae33f5bcb133 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/super.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/super.c
@@ -1608,9 +1608,13 @@ static int ext4_nfs_commit_metadata(struct inode *inode)
 	struct writeback_control wbc = {
 		.sync_mode = WB_SYNC_ALL
 	};
+	int ret;
 
 	trace_ext4_nfs_commit_metadata(inode);
-	return ext4_write_inode(inode, &wbc);
+	ret = ext4_write_inode(inode, &wbc);
+	if (!ret && inode_state_read_once(inode) & I_METADATA_WRITEBACK)
+		ret = ext4_sync_inode_metadata(inode, &wbc);
+	return ret;
 }
 
 #ifdef CONFIG_QUOTA
@@ -1667,6 +1671,7 @@ static const struct super_operations ext4_sops = {
 	.free_inode	= ext4_free_in_core_inode,
 	.destroy_inode	= ext4_destroy_inode,
 	.write_inode	= ext4_write_inode,
+	.sync_inode_metadata = ext4_sync_inode_metadata,
 	.dirty_inode	= ext4_dirty_inode,
 	.drop_inode	= ext4_drop_inode,
 	.evict_inode	= ext4_evict_inode,
-- 
2.51.0