Merge tag 'vfs-6.13.mgtime' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/vfs/vfs

Pull vfs multigrain timestamps from Christian Brauner:
 "This is another try at implementing multigrain timestamps. This time
  with significant help from the timekeeping maintainers to reduce the
  performance impact.

  Thomas provided a base branch that contains the required timekeeping
  interfaces for the VFS. It serves as the base for the multi-grain
  timestamp work:

   - Multigrain timestamps allow the kernel to use fine-grained
     timestamps when an inode's attributes is being actively observed
     via ->getattr(). With this support, it's possible for a file to get
     a fine-grained timestamp, and another modified after it to get a
     coarse-grained stamp that is earlier than the fine-grained time. If
     this happens then the files can appear to have been modified in
     reverse order, which breaks VFS ordering guarantees.

     To prevent this, a floor value is maintained for multigrain
     timestamps. Whenever a fine-grained timestamp is handed out, record
     it, and when later coarse-grained stamps are handed out, ensure
     they are not earlier than that value. If the coarse-grained
     timestamp is earlier than the fine-grained floor, return the floor
     value instead.

     The timekeeper changes add a static singleton atomic64_t into
     timekeeper.c that is used to keep track of the latest fine-grained
     time ever handed out. This is tracked as a monotonic ktime_t value
     to ensure that it isn't affected by clock jumps. Because it is
     updated at different times than the rest of the timekeeper object,
     the floor value is managed independently of the timekeeper via a
     cmpxchg() operation, and sits on its own cacheline.

     Two new public timekeeper interfaces are added:

      (1) ktime_get_coarse_real_ts64_mg() fills a timespec64 with the
          later of the coarse-grained clock and the floor time

      (2) ktime_get_real_ts64_mg() gets the fine-grained clock value,
          and tries to swap it into the floor. A timespec64 is filled
          with the result.

   - The VFS has always used coarse-grained timestamps when updating the
     ctime and mtime after a change. This has the benefit of allowing
     filesystems to optimize away a lot metadata updates, down to around
     1 per jiffy, even when a file is under heavy writes.

     Unfortunately, this has always been an issue when we're exporting
     via NFSv3, which relies on timestamps to validate caches. A lot of
     changes can happen in a jiffy, so timestamps aren't sufficient to
     help the client decide when to invalidate the cache. Even with
     NFSv4, a lot of exported filesystems don't properly support a
     change attribute and are subject to the same problems with
     timestamp granularity. Other applications have similar issues with
     timestamps (e.g backup applications).

     If we were to always use fine-grained timestamps, that would
     improve the situation, but that becomes rather expensive, as the
     underlying filesystem would have to log a lot more metadata
     updates.

     This adds a way to only use fine-grained timestamps when they are
     being actively queried. Use the (unused) top bit in
     inode->i_ctime_nsec as a flag that indicates whether the current
     timestamps have been queried via stat() or the like. When it's set,
     we allow the kernel to use a fine-grained timestamp iff it's
     necessary to make the ctime show a different value.

     This solves the problem of being able to distinguish the timestamp
     between updates, but introduces a new problem: it's now possible
     for a file being changed to get a fine-grained timestamp. A file
     that is altered just a bit later can then get a coarse-grained one
     that appears older than the earlier fine-grained time. This
     violates timestamp ordering guarantees.

     This is where the earlier mentioned timkeeping interfaces help. A
     global monotonic atomic64_t value is kept that acts as a timestamp
     floor. When we go to stamp a file, we first get the latter of the
     current floor value and the current coarse-grained time. If the
     inode ctime hasn't been queried then we just attempt to stamp it
     with that value.

     If it has been queried, then first see whether the current coarse
     time is later than the existing ctime. If it is, then we accept
     that value. If it isn't, then we get a fine-grained time and try to
     swap that into the global floor. Whether that succeeds or fails, we
     take the resulting floor time, convert it to realtime and try to
     swap that into the ctime.

     We take the result of the ctime swap whether it succeeds or fails,
     since either is just as valid.

     Filesystems can opt into this by setting the FS_MGTIME fstype flag.
     Others should be unaffected (other than being subject to the same
     floor value as multigrain filesystems)"

* tag 'vfs-6.13.mgtime' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/vfs/vfs:
  fs: reduce pointer chasing in is_mgtime() test
  tmpfs: add support for multigrain timestamps
  btrfs: convert to multigrain timestamps
  ext4: switch to multigrain timestamps
  xfs: switch to multigrain timestamps
  Documentation: add a new file documenting multigrain timestamps
  fs: add percpu counters for significant multigrain timestamp events
  fs: tracepoints around multigrain timestamp events
  fs: handle delegated timestamps in setattr_copy_mgtime
  timekeeping: Add percpu counter for tracking floor swap events
  timekeeping: Add interfaces for handling timestamps with a floor value
  fs: have setattr_copy handle multigrain timestamps appropriately
  fs: add infrastructure for multigrain timestamps

2 files changed, 126 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/index.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
index e8e496d23e1d..44e9e77ffe0d 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/index.rst
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ algorithms work.
    fiemap
    files
    locks
+   multigrain-ts
    mount_api
    quota
    seq_file
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/multigrain-ts.rst b/Documentation/filesystems/multigrain-ts.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..c779e47284e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/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.