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authorYafang Shao <laoar.shao@gmail.com>2024-09-29 20:28:31 +0800
committerChristian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>2024-10-22 11:16:57 +0200
commite6957c99dca5fd919756e6721e798cbadd23445a (patch)
tree51b7c0f13bf4f8a0cf74c3cbc0d3870f625ce666 /Documentation
parent6474353a5e3d0b2cf610153cea0c61f576a36d0a (diff)
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vfs: Add a sysctl for automated deletion of dentry
Commit 681ce8623567 ("vfs: Delete the associated dentry when deleting a file") introduced an unconditional deletion of the associated dentry when a file is removed. However, this led to performance regressions in specific benchmarks, such as ilebench.sum_operations/s [0], prompting a revert in commit 4a4be1ad3a6e ("Revert "vfs: Delete the associated dentry when deleting a file""). This patch seeks to reintroduce the concept conditionally, where the associated dentry is deleted only when the user explicitly opts for it during file removal. A new sysctl fs.automated_deletion_of_dentry is added for this purpose. Its default value is set to 0. There are practical use cases for this proactive dentry reclamation. Besides the Elasticsearch use case mentioned in commit 681ce8623567, additional examples have surfaced in our production environment. For instance, in video rendering services that continuously generate temporary files, upload them to persistent storage servers, and then delete them, a large number of negative dentries—serving no useful purpose—accumulate. Users in such cases would benefit from proactively reclaiming these negative dentries. Link: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fsdevel/202405291318.4dfbb352-oliver.sang@intel.com [0] Link: https://lore.kernel.org/all/20240912-programm-umgibt-a1145fa73bb6@brauner/ Suggested-by: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org> Acked-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Yafang Shao <laoar.shao@gmail.com> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20240929122831.92515-1-laoar.shao@gmail.com Cc: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> Cc: Al Viro <viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk> Cc: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org> Cc: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz> Cc: Mateusz Guzik <mjguzik@gmail.com> Signed-off-by: Christian Brauner <brauner@kernel.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst5
1 files changed, 5 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst
index 47499a1742bd..30c61474dec5 100644
--- a/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst
+++ b/Documentation/admin-guide/sysctl/fs.rst
@@ -38,6 +38,11 @@ requests. ``aio-max-nr`` allows you to change the maximum value
``aio-max-nr`` does not result in the
pre-allocation or re-sizing of any kernel data structures.
+dentry-negative
+----------------------------
+
+Policy for negative dentries. Set to 1 to to always delete the dentry when a
+file is removed, and 0 to disable it. By default, this behavior is disabled.
dentry-state
------------