0001 The Linux Journalling API
0002 =========================
0003
0004 Overview
0005 --------
0006
0007 Details
0008 ~~~~~~~
0009
0010 The journalling layer is easy to use. You need to first of all create a
0011 journal_t data structure. There are two calls to do this dependent on
0012 how you decide to allocate the physical media on which the journal
0013 resides. The jbd2_journal_init_inode() call is for journals stored in
0014 filesystem inodes, or the jbd2_journal_init_dev() call can be used
0015 for journal stored on a raw device (in a continuous range of blocks). A
0016 journal_t is a typedef for a struct pointer, so when you are finally
0017 finished make sure you call jbd2_journal_destroy() on it to free up
0018 any used kernel memory.
0019
0020 Once you have got your journal_t object you need to 'mount' or load the
0021 journal file. The journalling layer expects the space for the journal
0022 was already allocated and initialized properly by the userspace tools.
0023 When loading the journal you must call jbd2_journal_load() to process
0024 journal contents. If the client file system detects the journal contents
0025 does not need to be processed (or even need not have valid contents), it
0026 may call jbd2_journal_wipe() to clear the journal contents before
0027 calling jbd2_journal_load().
0028
0029 Note that jbd2_journal_wipe(..,0) calls
0030 jbd2_journal_skip_recovery() for you if it detects any outstanding
0031 transactions in the journal and similarly jbd2_journal_load() will
0032 call jbd2_journal_recover() if necessary. I would advise reading
0033 ext4_load_journal() in fs/ext4/super.c for examples on this stage.
0034
0035 Now you can go ahead and start modifying the underlying filesystem.
0036 Almost.
0037
0038 You still need to actually journal your filesystem changes, this is done
0039 by wrapping them into transactions. Additionally you also need to wrap
0040 the modification of each of the buffers with calls to the journal layer,
0041 so it knows what the modifications you are actually making are. To do
0042 this use jbd2_journal_start() which returns a transaction handle.
0043
0044 jbd2_journal_start() and its counterpart jbd2_journal_stop(),
0045 which indicates the end of a transaction are nestable calls, so you can
0046 reenter a transaction if necessary, but remember you must call
0047 jbd2_journal_stop() the same number of times as
0048 jbd2_journal_start() before the transaction is completed (or more
0049 accurately leaves the update phase). Ext4/VFS makes use of this feature to
0050 simplify handling of inode dirtying, quota support, etc.
0051
0052 Inside each transaction you need to wrap the modifications to the
0053 individual buffers (blocks). Before you start to modify a buffer you
0054 need to call jbd2_journal_get_create_access() /
0055 jbd2_journal_get_write_access() /
0056 jbd2_journal_get_undo_access() as appropriate, this allows the
0057 journalling layer to copy the unmodified
0058 data if it needs to. After all the buffer may be part of a previously
0059 uncommitted transaction. At this point you are at last ready to modify a
0060 buffer, and once you are have done so you need to call
0061 jbd2_journal_dirty_metadata(). Or if you've asked for access to a
0062 buffer you now know is now longer required to be pushed back on the
0063 device you can call jbd2_journal_forget() in much the same way as you
0064 might have used bforget() in the past.
0065
0066 A jbd2_journal_flush() may be called at any time to commit and
0067 checkpoint all your transactions.
0068
0069 Then at umount time , in your put_super() you can then call
0070 jbd2_journal_destroy() to clean up your in-core journal object.
0071
0072 Unfortunately there a couple of ways the journal layer can cause a
0073 deadlock. The first thing to note is that each task can only have a
0074 single outstanding transaction at any one time, remember nothing commits
0075 until the outermost jbd2_journal_stop(). This means you must complete
0076 the transaction at the end of each file/inode/address etc. operation you
0077 perform, so that the journalling system isn't re-entered on another
0078 journal. Since transactions can't be nested/batched across differing
0079 journals, and another filesystem other than yours (say ext4) may be
0080 modified in a later syscall.
0081
0082 The second case to bear in mind is that jbd2_journal_start() can block
0083 if there isn't enough space in the journal for your transaction (based
0084 on the passed nblocks param) - when it blocks it merely(!) needs to wait
0085 for transactions to complete and be committed from other tasks, so
0086 essentially we are waiting for jbd2_journal_stop(). So to avoid
0087 deadlocks you must treat jbd2_journal_start() /
0088 jbd2_journal_stop() as if they were semaphores and include them in
0089 your semaphore ordering rules to prevent
0090 deadlocks. Note that jbd2_journal_extend() has similar blocking
0091 behaviour to jbd2_journal_start() so you can deadlock here just as
0092 easily as on jbd2_journal_start().
0093
0094 Try to reserve the right number of blocks the first time. ;-). This will
0095 be the maximum number of blocks you are going to touch in this
0096 transaction. I advise having a look at at least ext4_jbd.h to see the
0097 basis on which ext4 uses to make these decisions.
0098
0099 Another wriggle to watch out for is your on-disk block allocation
0100 strategy. Why? Because, if you do a delete, you need to ensure you
0101 haven't reused any of the freed blocks until the transaction freeing
0102 these blocks commits. If you reused these blocks and crash happens,
0103 there is no way to restore the contents of the reallocated blocks at the
0104 end of the last fully committed transaction. One simple way of doing
0105 this is to mark blocks as free in internal in-memory block allocation
0106 structures only after the transaction freeing them commits. Ext4 uses
0107 journal commit callback for this purpose.
0108
0109 With journal commit callbacks you can ask the journalling layer to call
0110 a callback function when the transaction is finally committed to disk,
0111 so that you can do some of your own management. You ask the journalling
0112 layer for calling the callback by simply setting
0113 ``journal->j_commit_callback`` function pointer and that function is
0114 called after each transaction commit. You can also use
0115 ``transaction->t_private_list`` for attaching entries to a transaction
0116 that need processing when the transaction commits.
0117
0118 JBD2 also provides a way to block all transaction updates via
0119 jbd2_journal_lock_updates() /
0120 jbd2_journal_unlock_updates(). Ext4 uses this when it wants a
0121 window with a clean and stable fs for a moment. E.g.
0122
0123 ::
0124
0125
0126 jbd2_journal_lock_updates() //stop new stuff happening..
0127 jbd2_journal_flush() // checkpoint everything.
0128 ..do stuff on stable fs
0129 jbd2_journal_unlock_updates() // carry on with filesystem use.
0130
0131 The opportunities for abuse and DOS attacks with this should be obvious,
0132 if you allow unprivileged userspace to trigger codepaths containing
0133 these calls.
0134
0135 Fast commits
0136 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
0137
0138 JBD2 to also allows you to perform file-system specific delta commits known as
0139 fast commits. In order to use fast commits, you will need to set following
0140 callbacks that perform correspodning work:
0141
0142 `journal->j_fc_cleanup_cb`: Cleanup function called after every full commit and
0143 fast commit.
0144
0145 `journal->j_fc_replay_cb`: Replay function called for replay of fast commit
0146 blocks.
0147
0148 File system is free to perform fast commits as and when it wants as long as it
0149 gets permission from JBD2 to do so by calling the function
0150 :c:func:`jbd2_fc_begin_commit()`. Once a fast commit is done, the client
0151 file system should tell JBD2 about it by calling
0152 :c:func:`jbd2_fc_end_commit()`. If file system wants JBD2 to perform a full
0153 commit immediately after stopping the fast commit it can do so by calling
0154 :c:func:`jbd2_fc_end_commit_fallback()`. This is useful if fast commit operation
0155 fails for some reason and the only way to guarantee consistency is for JBD2 to
0156 perform the full traditional commit.
0157
0158 JBD2 helper functions to manage fast commit buffers. File system can use
0159 :c:func:`jbd2_fc_get_buf()` and :c:func:`jbd2_fc_wait_bufs()` to allocate
0160 and wait on IO completion of fast commit buffers.
0161
0162 Currently, only Ext4 implements fast commits. For details of its implementation
0163 of fast commits, please refer to the top level comments in
0164 fs/ext4/fast_commit.c.
0165
0166 Summary
0167 ~~~~~~~
0168
0169 Using the journal is a matter of wrapping the different context changes,
0170 being each mount, each modification (transaction) and each changed
0171 buffer to tell the journalling layer about them.
0172
0173 Data Types
0174 ----------
0175
0176 The journalling layer uses typedefs to 'hide' the concrete definitions
0177 of the structures used. As a client of the JBD2 layer you can just rely
0178 on the using the pointer as a magic cookie of some sort. Obviously the
0179 hiding is not enforced as this is 'C'.
0180
0181 Structures
0182 ~~~~~~~~~~
0183
0184 .. kernel-doc:: include/linux/jbd2.h
0185 :internal:
0186
0187 Functions
0188 ---------
0189
0190 The functions here are split into two groups those that affect a journal
0191 as a whole, and those which are used to manage transactions
0192
0193 Journal Level
0194 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0195
0196 .. kernel-doc:: fs/jbd2/journal.c
0197 :export:
0198
0199 .. kernel-doc:: fs/jbd2/recovery.c
0200 :internal:
0201
0202 Transasction Level
0203 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
0204
0205 .. kernel-doc:: fs/jbd2/transaction.c
0206
0207 See also
0208 --------
0209
0210 `Journaling the Linux ext2fs Filesystem, LinuxExpo 98, Stephen
0211 Tweedie <http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/sct/ext3/journal-design.ps.gz>`__
0212
0213 `Ext3 Journalling FileSystem, OLS 2000, Dr. Stephen
0214 Tweedie <http://olstrans.sourceforge.net/release/OLS2000-ext3/OLS2000-ext3.html>`__
0215