Merge: Backport multigrain timestamps

MR: https://gitlab.com/redhat/centos-stream/src/kernel/centos-stream-10/-/merge_requests/1589

JIRA: https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHEL-121527

Omitted-fix: 12f2930 xfs: port xfs_ioc_start_commit to multigrain timestamps
This is an important fix and it's already into the xfs rhel 10.2.

This has been integrated into Linux via XFS tree, so it's better to keep it
there than pushing things out of order without a good reason. The XFS update
is already dependent on this one without this patch anyway.

Signed-off-by: Carlos Maiolino <cmaiolino@redhat.com>

Approved-by: Ian Kent <ikent@redhat.com>
Approved-by: Miklos Szeredi <mszeredi@redhat.com>
Approved-by: Tony Camuso <tcamuso@redhat.com>
Approved-by: Rafael Aquini <raquini@redhat.com>
Approved-by: CKI KWF Bot <cki-ci-bot+kwf-gitlab-com@redhat.com>

Merged-by: CKI GitLab Kmaint Pipeline Bot <26919896-cki-kmaint-pipeline-bot@users.noreply.gitlab.com>

Author: CKI KWF Bot

Documentation/filesystems/index.rst

@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ algorithms work.
    fiemap
    files
    locks
+   multigrain-ts
    mount_api
    quota
    seq_file

Documentation/filesystems/multigrain-ts.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,125 @@
+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+=====================
+Multigrain Timestamps
+=====================
+
+Introduction
+============
+Historically, the kernel has always used coarse time values to stamp inodes.
+This value is updated every jiffy, so any change that happens within that jiffy
+will end up with the same timestamp.
+
+When the kernel goes to stamp an inode (due to a read or write), it first gets
+the current time and then compares it to the existing timestamp(s) to see
+whether anything will change. If nothing changed, then it can avoid updating
+the inode's metadata.
+
+Coarse timestamps are therefore good from a performance standpoint, since they
+reduce the need for metadata updates, but bad from the standpoint of
+determining whether anything has changed, since a lot of things can happen in a
+jiffy.
+
+They are particularly troublesome with NFSv3, where unchanging timestamps can
+make it difficult to tell whether to invalidate caches. NFSv4 provides a
+dedicated change attribute that should always show a visible change, but not
+all filesystems implement this properly, causing the NFS server to substitute
+the ctime in many cases.
+
+Multigrain timestamps aim to remedy this by selectively using fine-grained
+timestamps when a file has had its timestamps queried recently, and the current
+coarse-grained time does not cause a change.
+
+Inode Timestamps
+================
+There are currently 3 timestamps in the inode that are updated to the current
+wallclock time on different activity:
+
+ctime:
+  The inode change time. This is stamped with the current time whenever
+  the inode's metadata is changed. Note that this value is not settable
+  from userland.
+
+mtime:
+  The inode modification time. This is stamped with the current time
+  any time a file's contents change.
+
+atime:
+  The inode access time. This is stamped whenever an inode's contents are
+  read. Widely considered to be a terrible mistake. Usually avoided with
+  options like noatime or relatime.
+
+Updating the mtime always implies a change to the ctime, but updating the
+atime due to a read request does not.
+
+Multigrain timestamps are only tracked for the ctime and the mtime. atimes are
+not affected and always use the coarse-grained value (subject to the floor).
+
+Inode Timestamp Ordering
+========================
+
+In addition to just providing info about changes to individual files, file
+timestamps also serve an important purpose in applications like "make". These
+programs measure timestamps in order to determine whether source files might be
+newer than cached objects.
+
+Userland applications like make can only determine ordering based on
+operational boundaries. For a syscall those are the syscall entry and exit
+points. For io_uring or nfsd operations, that's the request submission and
+response. In the case of concurrent operations, userland can make no
+determination about the order in which things will occur.
+
+For instance, if a single thread modifies one file, and then another file in
+sequence, the second file must show an equal or later mtime than the first. The
+same is true if two threads are issuing similar operations that do not overlap
+in time.
+
+If however, two threads have racing syscalls that overlap in time, then there
+is no such guarantee, and the second file may appear to have been modified
+before, after or at the same time as the first, regardless of which one was
+submitted first.
+
+Note that the above assumes that the system doesn't experience a backward jump
+of the realtime clock. If that occurs at an inopportune time, then timestamps
+can appear to go backward, even on a properly functioning system.
+
+Multigrain Timestamp Implementation
+===================================
+Multigrain timestamps are aimed at ensuring that changes to a single file are
+always recognizable, without violating the ordering guarantees when multiple
+different files are modified. This affects the mtime and the ctime, but the
+atime will always use coarse-grained timestamps.
+
+It uses an unused bit in the i_ctime_nsec field to indicate whether the mtime
+or ctime has been queried. If either or both have, then the kernel takes
+special care to ensure the next timestamp update will display a visible change.
+This ensures tight cache coherency for use-cases like NFS, without sacrificing
+the benefits of reduced metadata updates when files aren't being watched.
+
+The Ctime Floor Value
+=====================
+It's not sufficient to simply use fine or coarse-grained timestamps based on
+whether the mtime or ctime has been queried. A file could get a fine grained
+timestamp, and then a second file modified later could get a coarse-grained one
+that appears earlier than the first, which would break the kernel's timestamp
+ordering guarantees.
+
+To mitigate this problem, maintain a global floor value that ensures that
+this can't happen. The two files in the above example may appear to have been
+modified at the same time in such a case, but they will never show the reverse
+order. To avoid problems with realtime clock jumps, the floor is managed as a
+monotonic ktime_t, and the values are converted to realtime clock values as
+needed.
+
+Implementation Notes
+====================
+Multigrain timestamps are intended for use by local filesystems that get
+ctime values from the local clock. This is in contrast to network filesystems
+and the like that just mirror timestamp values from a server.
+
+For most filesystems, it's sufficient to just set the FS_MGTIME flag in the
+fstype->fs_flags in order to opt-in, providing the ctime is only ever set via
+inode_set_ctime_current(). If the filesystem has a ->getattr routine that
+doesn't call generic_fillattr, then it should call fill_mg_cmtime() to
+fill those values. For setattr, it should use setattr_copy() to update the
+timestamps, or otherwise mimic its behavior.

fs/attr.c

@@ -271,6 +271,47 @@ int inode_newsize_ok(const struct inode *inode, loff_t offset)
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(inode_newsize_ok);
 
+/**
+ * setattr_copy_mgtime - update timestamps for mgtime inodes
+ * @inode: inode timestamps to be updated
+ * @attr: attrs for the update
+ *
+ * With multigrain timestamps, take more care to prevent races when
+ * updating the ctime. Always update the ctime to the very latest using
+ * the standard mechanism, and use that to populate the atime and mtime
+ * appropriately (unless those are being set to specific values).
+ */
+static void setattr_copy_mgtime(struct inode *inode, const struct iattr *attr)
+{
+	unsigned int ia_valid = attr->ia_valid;
+	struct timespec64 now;
+
+	if (ia_valid & ATTR_CTIME) {
+		/*
+		 * In the case of an update for a write delegation, we must respect
+		 * the value in ia_ctime and not use the current time.
+		 */
+		if (ia_valid & ATTR_DELEG)
+			now = inode_set_ctime_deleg(inode, attr->ia_ctime);
+		else
+			now = inode_set_ctime_current(inode);
+	} else {
+		/* If ATTR_CTIME isn't set, then ATTR_MTIME shouldn't be either. */
+		WARN_ON_ONCE(ia_valid & ATTR_MTIME);
+		now = current_time(inode);
+	}
+
+	if (ia_valid & ATTR_ATIME_SET)
+		inode_set_atime_to_ts(inode, attr->ia_atime);
+	else if (ia_valid & ATTR_ATIME)
+		inode_set_atime_to_ts(inode, now);
+
+	if (ia_valid & ATTR_MTIME_SET)
+		inode_set_mtime_to_ts(inode, attr->ia_mtime);
+	else if (ia_valid & ATTR_MTIME)
+		inode_set_mtime_to_ts(inode, now);
+}
+
 /**
  * setattr_copy - copy simple metadata updates into the generic inode
  * @idmap:	idmap of the mount the inode was found from
@@ -303,19 +344,27 @@ void setattr_copy(struct mnt_idmap *idmap, struct inode *inode,
 
 	i_uid_update(idmap, attr, inode);
 	i_gid_update(idmap, attr, inode);
-	if (ia_valid & ATTR_ATIME)
-		inode_set_atime_to_ts(inode, attr->ia_atime);
-	if (ia_valid & ATTR_MTIME)
-		inode_set_mtime_to_ts(inode, attr->ia_mtime);
-	if (ia_valid & ATTR_CTIME)
-		inode_set_ctime_to_ts(inode, attr->ia_ctime);
 	if (ia_valid & ATTR_MODE) {
 		umode_t mode = attr->ia_mode;
 		if (!in_group_or_capable(idmap, inode,
 					 i_gid_into_vfsgid(idmap, inode)))
 			mode &= ~S_ISGID;
 		inode->i_mode = mode;
 	}
+
+	if (is_mgtime(inode))
+		return setattr_copy_mgtime(inode, attr);
+
+	if (ia_valid & ATTR_ATIME)
+		inode_set_atime_to_ts(inode, attr->ia_atime);
+	if (ia_valid & ATTR_MTIME)
+		inode_set_mtime_to_ts(inode, attr->ia_mtime);
+	if (ia_valid & ATTR_CTIME) {
+		if (ia_valid & ATTR_DELEG)
+			inode_set_ctime_deleg(inode, attr->ia_ctime);
+		else
+			inode_set_ctime_to_ts(inode, attr->ia_ctime);
+	}
 }
 EXPORT_SYMBOL(setattr_copy);
 

fs/btrfs/file.c

@@ -1120,26 +1120,6 @@ void btrfs_check_nocow_unlock(struct btrfs_inode *inode)
 	btrfs_drew_write_unlock(&inode->root->snapshot_lock);
 }
 
-static void update_time_for_write(struct inode *inode)
-{
-	struct timespec64 now, ts;
-
-	if (IS_NOCMTIME(inode))
-		return;
-
-	now = current_time(inode);
-	ts = inode_get_mtime(inode);
-	if (!timespec64_equal(&ts, &now))
-		inode_set_mtime_to_ts(inode, now);
-
-	ts = inode_get_ctime(inode);
-	if (!timespec64_equal(&ts, &now))
-		inode_set_ctime_to_ts(inode, now);
-
-	if (IS_I_VERSION(inode))
-		inode_inc_iversion(inode);
-}
-
 int btrfs_write_check(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *from, size_t count)
 {
 	struct file *file = iocb->ki_filp;
@@ -1170,7 +1150,10 @@ int btrfs_write_check(struct kiocb *iocb, struct iov_iter *from, size_t count)
 	 * need to start yet another transaction to update the inode as we will
 	 * update the inode when we finish writing whatever data we write.
 	 */
-	update_time_for_write(inode);
+	if (!IS_NOCMTIME(inode)) {
+		inode_set_mtime_to_ts(inode, inode_set_ctime_current(inode));
+		inode_inc_iversion(inode);
+	}
 
 	start_pos = round_down(pos, fs_info->sectorsize);
 	oldsize = i_size_read(inode);

fs/btrfs/super.c

@@ -2191,7 +2191,8 @@ static struct file_system_type btrfs_fs_type = {
 	.init_fs_context	= btrfs_init_fs_context,
 	.parameters		= btrfs_fs_parameters,
 	.kill_sb		= btrfs_kill_super,
-	.fs_flags		= FS_REQUIRES_DEV | FS_BINARY_MOUNTDATA | FS_ALLOW_IDMAP,
+	.fs_flags		= FS_REQUIRES_DEV | FS_BINARY_MOUNTDATA |
+				  FS_ALLOW_IDMAP | FS_MGTIME,
  };
 
 MODULE_ALIAS_FS("btrfs");

fs/ext4/super.c

@@ -7402,7 +7402,7 @@ static struct file_system_type ext4_fs_type = {
 	.init_fs_context	= ext4_init_fs_context,
 	.parameters		= ext4_param_specs,
 	.kill_sb		= ext4_kill_sb,
-	.fs_flags		= FS_REQUIRES_DEV | FS_ALLOW_IDMAP,
+	.fs_flags		= FS_REQUIRES_DEV | FS_ALLOW_IDMAP | FS_MGTIME,
 };
 MODULE_ALIAS_FS("ext4");