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Documentation / block / writeback_cache_control.txt


Based on kernel version 4.16.1. Page generated on 2018-04-09 11:52 EST.

1	
2	Explicit volatile write back cache control
3	=====================================
4	
5	Introduction
6	------------
7	
8	Many storage devices, especially in the consumer market, come with volatile
9	write back caches.  That means the devices signal I/O completion to the
10	operating system before data actually has hit the non-volatile storage.  This
11	behavior obviously speeds up various workloads, but it means the operating
12	system needs to force data out to the non-volatile storage when it performs
13	a data integrity operation like fsync, sync or an unmount.
14	
15	The Linux block layer provides two simple mechanisms that let filesystems
16	control the caching behavior of the storage device.  These mechanisms are
17	a forced cache flush, and the Force Unit Access (FUA) flag for requests.
18	
19	
20	Explicit cache flushes
21	----------------------
22	
23	The REQ_PREFLUSH flag can be OR ed into the r/w flags of a bio submitted from
24	the filesystem and will make sure the volatile cache of the storage device
25	has been flushed before the actual I/O operation is started.  This explicitly
26	guarantees that previously completed write requests are on non-volatile
27	storage before the flagged bio starts. In addition the REQ_PREFLUSH flag can be
28	set on an otherwise empty bio structure, which causes only an explicit cache
29	flush without any dependent I/O.  It is recommend to use
30	the blkdev_issue_flush() helper for a pure cache flush.
31	
32	
33	Forced Unit Access
34	-----------------
35	
36	The REQ_FUA flag can be OR ed into the r/w flags of a bio submitted from the
37	filesystem and will make sure that I/O completion for this request is only
38	signaled after the data has been committed to non-volatile storage.
39	
40	
41	Implementation details for filesystems
42	--------------------------------------
43	
44	Filesystems can simply set the REQ_PREFLUSH and REQ_FUA bits and do not have to
45	worry if the underlying devices need any explicit cache flushing and how
46	the Forced Unit Access is implemented.  The REQ_PREFLUSH and REQ_FUA flags
47	may both be set on a single bio.
48	
49	
50	Implementation details for make_request_fn based block drivers
51	--------------------------------------------------------------
52	
53	These drivers will always see the REQ_PREFLUSH and REQ_FUA bits as they sit
54	directly below the submit_bio interface.  For remapping drivers the REQ_FUA
55	bits need to be propagated to underlying devices, and a global flush needs
56	to be implemented for bios with the REQ_PREFLUSH bit set.  For real device
57	drivers that do not have a volatile cache the REQ_PREFLUSH and REQ_FUA bits
58	on non-empty bios can simply be ignored, and REQ_PREFLUSH requests without
59	data can be completed successfully without doing any work.  Drivers for
60	devices with volatile caches need to implement the support for these
61	flags themselves without any help from the block layer.
62	
63	
64	Implementation details for request_fn based block drivers
65	--------------------------------------------------------------
66	
67	For devices that do not support volatile write caches there is no driver
68	support required, the block layer completes empty REQ_PREFLUSH requests before
69	entering the driver and strips off the REQ_PREFLUSH and REQ_FUA bits from
70	requests that have a payload.  For devices with volatile write caches the
71	driver needs to tell the block layer that it supports flushing caches by
72	doing:
73	
74		blk_queue_write_cache(sdkp->disk->queue, true, false);
75	
76	and handle empty REQ_OP_FLUSH requests in its prep_fn/request_fn.  Note that
77	REQ_PREFLUSH requests with a payload are automatically turned into a sequence
78	of an empty REQ_OP_FLUSH request followed by the actual write by the block
79	layer.  For devices that also support the FUA bit the block layer needs
80	to be told to pass through the REQ_FUA bit using:
81	
82		blk_queue_write_cache(sdkp->disk->queue, true, true);
83	
84	and the driver must handle write requests that have the REQ_FUA bit set
85	in prep_fn/request_fn.  If the FUA bit is not natively supported the block
86	layer turns it into an empty REQ_OP_FLUSH request after the actual write.
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