commit 420e3646 allowed the kernel to reduce the number of unnecessary
commit calls by skipping the commit when there are a large number of
outstanding pages.
However, the current test in nfs_commit_unstable_pages does not handle
the edge condition properly. When ncommit == 0, then that means that the
kernel doesn't need to do anything more for the inode. The current test
though in the WB_SYNC_NONE case will return true, and the inode will end
up being marked dirty. Once that happens the inode will never be clean
until there's a WB_SYNC_ALL flush.
Fix this by immediately returning from nfs_commit_unstable_pages when
ncommit == 0.
Mike noticed this problem initially in RHEL5 (2.6.18-based kernel) which
has a backported version of 420e3646. The inode cache there was growing
very large. The inode cache was unable to be shrunk since the inodes
were all marked dirty. Calling sync() would essentially "fix" the
problem -- the WB_SYNC_ALL flush would result in the inodes all being
marked clean.
What I'm not clear on is how big a problem this is in mainline kernels
as the writeback code there is very different. Either way, it seems
incorrect to re-mark the inode dirty in this case.
Reported-by: Mike McLean <mikem@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Jeff Layton <jlayton@redhat.com>
Cc: stable@kernel.org [2.6.34+]
Signed-off-by: Trond Myklebust <Trond.Myklebust@netapp.com>
3236c3e1ad