dax: require 'struct page' by default for filesystem dax
If a dax buffer from a device that does not map pages is passed to
read(2) or write(2) as a target for direct-I/O it triggers SIGBUS. If
gdb attempts to examine the contents of a dax buffer from a device that
does not map pages it triggers SIGBUS. If fork(2) is called on a process
with a dax mapping from a device that does not map pages it triggers
SIGBUS. 'struct page' is required otherwise several kernel code paths
break in surprising ways. Disable filesystem-dax on devices that do not
map pages.
In addition to needing pfn_to_page() to be valid we also require devmap
pages. We need this to detect dax pages in the get_user_pages_fast()
path and so that we can stop managing the VM_MIXEDMAP flag. For DAX
drivers that have not supported get_user_pages() to date we allow them
to opt-in to supporting DAX with the CONFIG_FS_DAX_LIMITED configuration
option which requires ->direct_access() to return pfn_t_special() pfns.
This leaves DAX support in brd disabled and scheduled for removal.
Note that when the initial dax support was being merged a few years back
there was concern that struct page was unsuitable for use with next
generation persistent memory devices. The theoretical concern was that
struct page access, being such a hotly used data structure in the
kernel, would lead to media wear out. While that was a reasonable
conservative starting position it has not held true in practice. We have
long since committed to using devm_memremap_pages() to support higher
order kernel functionality that needs get_user_pages() and
pfn_to_page().
Cc: Jeff Moyer <jmoyer@redhat.com>
Cc: Ross Zwisler <ross.zwisler@linux.intel.com>
Cc: Benjamin Herrenschmidt <benh@kernel.crashing.org>
Cc: Paul Mackerras <paulus@samba.org>
Cc: Michael Ellerman <mpe@ellerman.id.au>
Cc: Martin Schwidefsky <schwidefsky@de.ibm.com>
Cc: Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@de.ibm.com>
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig <hch@lst.de>
Reviewed-by: Gerald Schaefer <gerald.schaefer@de.ibm.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
4 files changed
