[dm-devel] Re: [PATCH 3/3] Add timeout feature

[Pavel Machek]

On Wed 2008-07-09 09:10:27, Dave Chinner wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 07, 2008 at 01:07:31PM +0200, Pavel Machek wrote:
> > Hi!
> > 
> > > I still disagree with this whole patch.  There is not reason to let
> > > the freeze request timeout - an auto-unfreezing will only confuse the
> > > hell out of the caller.  The only reason where the current XFS freeze
> > > call can hang and this would be theoretically useful is when the
> > 
> > What happens when someone dirties so much data that vm swaps out
> > whatever process that frozen the filesystem?
> 
> a) you can't dirty a frozen filesystem - by definition a frozen
>    filesystem is a *clean filesystem* and *cannot be dirtied*.

Can you stop me?

mmap("/some/huge_file", MAP_SHARED);

then write to memory mapping?

> b) Swap doesn't write through the filesystem
> c) you can still read from a frozen filesystem to page your
>    executable?? in.

atime modification should mean dirty data, right? And dirty data mean
memory pressure, right? 

> d) if dirtying another unfrozen filesystem swaps out your
                 ~~~~~~~
>    application so it can't run, then there's a major VM bug.
>    Regardless, until the app completes it is relying on the
>    filesystem being frozen, so it better remain frozen....

Agreed. With emphasis on "another".

> > I though that was why the timeout was there...
> 
> Not that I know of. 

Ok, lets see how you deal with mmap.
								Pavel

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