1 .. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
3 ==========================
4 General Filesystem Caching
5 ==========================
10 This facility is a general purpose cache for network filesystems, though it
11 could be used for caching other things such as ISO9660 filesystems too.
13 FS-Cache mediates between cache backends (such as CacheFS) and network
20 +---------+ | +----------+ | | /dev/hda5 |
21 | | | | +--------------+
24 | AFS |----->| FS-Cache |
27 | | | | +--------------+
28 +---------+ | +----------+ | | |
29 | | | +-->| CacheFiles |
30 | ISOFS |--+ | /var/cache |
34 Or to look at it another way, FS-Cache is a module that provides a caching
35 facility to a network filesystem such that the cache is transparent to the
44 ~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
50 | NFS |----->| FS-Cache |
52 +---------+ | | | +--------------+ +--------------+
54 V +----------+ +-->| CacheFiles |-->| Ext3 |
55 +---------+ | /var/cache | | /dev/sda6 |
56 | | +--------------+ +--------------+
59 +---------+ +--------------+ |
61 ~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~|~~~~
64 +---------+ +--------------+
66 | Process | | cachefilesd |
68 +---------+ +--------------+
71 FS-Cache does not follow the idea of completely loading every netfs file
72 opened in its entirety into a cache before permitting it to be accessed and
73 then serving the pages out of that cache rather than the netfs inode because:
75 (1) It must be practical to operate without a cache.
77 (2) The size of any accessible file must not be limited to the size of the
80 (3) The combined size of all opened files (this includes mapped libraries)
81 must not be limited to the size of the cache.
83 (4) The user should not be forced to download an entire file just to do a
84 one-off access of a small portion of it (such as might be done with the
87 It instead serves the cache out in PAGE_SIZE chunks as and when requested by
88 the netfs('s) using it.
91 FS-Cache provides the following facilities:
93 (1) More than one cache can be used at once. Caches can be selected
94 explicitly by use of tags.
96 (2) Caches can be added / removed at any time.
98 (3) The netfs is provided with an interface that allows either party to
99 withdraw caching facilities from a file (required for (2)).
101 (4) The interface to the netfs returns as few errors as possible, preferring
102 rather to let the netfs remain oblivious.
104 (5) Cookies are used to represent indices, files and other objects to the
105 netfs. The simplest cookie is just a NULL pointer - indicating nothing
108 (6) The netfs is allowed to propose - dynamically - any index hierarchy it
109 desires, though it must be aware that the index search function is
110 recursive, stack space is limited, and indices can only be children of
113 (7) Data I/O is done direct to and from the netfs's pages. The netfs
114 indicates that page A is at index B of the data-file represented by cookie
115 C, and that it should be read or written. The cache backend may or may
116 not start I/O on that page, but if it does, a netfs callback will be
117 invoked to indicate completion. The I/O may be either synchronous or
120 (8) Cookies can be "retired" upon release. At this point FS-Cache will mark
121 them as obsolete and the index hierarchy rooted at that point will get
124 (9) The netfs provides a "match" function for index searches. In addition to
125 saying whether a match was made or not, this can also specify that an
126 entry should be updated or deleted.
128 (10) As much as possible is done asynchronously.
131 FS-Cache maintains a virtual indexing tree in which all indices, files, objects
132 and pages are kept. Bits of this tree may actually reside in one or more
137 +------------------------------------+
141 +--------------------------+ +-----------+
143 homedir mirror afs.org redhat.com
145 +------------+ +---------------+ +----------+
147 00001 00002 00007 00125 vol00001 vol00002
149 +---+---+ +-----+ +---+ +------+------+ +-----+----+
150 | | | | | | | | | | | | |
151 PG0 PG1 PG2 PG0 XATTR PG0 PG1 DIRENT DIRENT DIRENT R/W R/O Bak
161 In the example above, you can see two netfs's being backed: NFS and AFS. These
162 have different index hierarchies:
164 * The NFS primary index contains per-server indices. Each server index is
165 indexed by NFS file handles to get data file objects. Each data file
166 objects can have an array of pages, but may also have further child
167 objects, such as extended attributes and directory entries. Extended
168 attribute objects themselves have page-array contents.
170 * The AFS primary index contains per-cell indices. Each cell index contains
171 per-logical-volume indices. Each of volume index contains up to three
172 indices for the read-write, read-only and backup mirrors of those volumes.
173 Each of these contains vnode data file objects, each of which contains an
176 The very top index is the FS-Cache master index in which individual netfs's
179 Any index object may reside in more than one cache, provided it only has index
180 children. Any index with non-index object children will be assumed to only
184 The netfs API to FS-Cache can be found in:
186 Documentation/filesystems/caching/netfs-api.rst
188 The cache backend API to FS-Cache can be found in:
190 Documentation/filesystems/caching/backend-api.rst
192 A description of the internal representations and object state machine can be
195 Documentation/filesystems/caching/object.rst
198 Statistical Information
199 =======================
201 If FS-Cache is compiled with the following options enabled::
203 CONFIG_FSCACHE_STATS=y
204 CONFIG_FSCACHE_HISTOGRAM=y
206 then it will gather certain statistics and display them through a number of
209 /proc/fs/fscache/stats
210 ----------------------
212 This shows counts of a number of events that can happen in FS-Cache:
214 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
215 |CLASS |EVENT |MEANING |
216 +==============+=======+=======================================================+
217 |Cookies |idx=N |Number of index cookies allocated |
218 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
219 | |dat=N |Number of data storage cookies allocated |
220 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
221 | |spc=N |Number of special cookies allocated |
222 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
223 |Objects |alc=N |Number of objects allocated |
224 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
225 | |nal=N |Number of object allocation failures |
226 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
227 | |avl=N |Number of objects that reached the available state |
228 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
229 | |ded=N |Number of objects that reached the dead state |
230 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
231 |ChkAux |non=N |Number of objects that didn't have a coherency check |
232 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
233 | |ok=N |Number of objects that passed a coherency check |
234 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
235 | |upd=N |Number of objects that needed a coherency data update |
236 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
237 | |obs=N |Number of objects that were declared obsolete |
238 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
239 |Pages |mrk=N |Number of pages marked as being cached |
240 | |unc=N |Number of uncache page requests seen |
241 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
242 |Acquire |n=N |Number of acquire cookie requests seen |
243 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
244 | |nul=N |Number of acq reqs given a NULL parent |
245 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
246 | |noc=N |Number of acq reqs rejected due to no cache available |
247 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
248 | |ok=N |Number of acq reqs succeeded |
249 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
250 | |nbf=N |Number of acq reqs rejected due to error |
251 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
252 | |oom=N |Number of acq reqs failed on ENOMEM |
253 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
254 |Lookups |n=N |Number of lookup calls made on cache backends |
255 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
256 | |neg=N |Number of negative lookups made |
257 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
258 | |pos=N |Number of positive lookups made |
259 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
260 | |crt=N |Number of objects created by lookup |
261 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
262 | |tmo=N |Number of lookups timed out and requeued |
263 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
264 |Updates |n=N |Number of update cookie requests seen |
265 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
266 | |nul=N |Number of upd reqs given a NULL parent |
267 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
268 | |run=N |Number of upd reqs granted CPU time |
269 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
270 |Relinqs |n=N |Number of relinquish cookie requests seen |
271 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
272 | |nul=N |Number of rlq reqs given a NULL parent |
273 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
274 | |wcr=N |Number of rlq reqs waited on completion of creation |
275 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
276 |AttrChg |n=N |Number of attribute changed requests seen |
277 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
278 | |ok=N |Number of attr changed requests queued |
279 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
280 | |nbf=N |Number of attr changed rejected -ENOBUFS |
281 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
282 | |oom=N |Number of attr changed failed -ENOMEM |
283 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
284 | |run=N |Number of attr changed ops given CPU time |
285 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
286 |Allocs |n=N |Number of allocation requests seen |
287 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
288 | |ok=N |Number of successful alloc reqs |
289 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
290 | |wt=N |Number of alloc reqs that waited on lookup completion |
291 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
292 | |nbf=N |Number of alloc reqs rejected -ENOBUFS |
293 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
294 | |int=N |Number of alloc reqs aborted -ERESTARTSYS |
295 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
296 | |ops=N |Number of alloc reqs submitted |
297 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
298 | |owt=N |Number of alloc reqs waited for CPU time |
299 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
300 | |abt=N |Number of alloc reqs aborted due to object death |
301 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
302 |Retrvls |n=N |Number of retrieval (read) requests seen |
303 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
304 | |ok=N |Number of successful retr reqs |
305 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
306 | |wt=N |Number of retr reqs that waited on lookup completion |
307 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
308 | |nod=N |Number of retr reqs returned -ENODATA |
309 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
310 | |nbf=N |Number of retr reqs rejected -ENOBUFS |
311 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
312 | |int=N |Number of retr reqs aborted -ERESTARTSYS |
313 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
314 | |oom=N |Number of retr reqs failed -ENOMEM |
315 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
316 | |ops=N |Number of retr reqs submitted |
317 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
318 | |owt=N |Number of retr reqs waited for CPU time |
319 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
320 | |abt=N |Number of retr reqs aborted due to object death |
321 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
322 |Stores |n=N |Number of storage (write) requests seen |
323 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
324 | |ok=N |Number of successful store reqs |
325 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
326 | |agn=N |Number of store reqs on a page already pending storage |
327 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
328 | |nbf=N |Number of store reqs rejected -ENOBUFS |
329 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
330 | |oom=N |Number of store reqs failed -ENOMEM |
331 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
332 | |ops=N |Number of store reqs submitted |
333 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
334 | |run=N |Number of store reqs granted CPU time |
335 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
336 | |pgs=N |Number of pages given store req processing time |
337 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
338 | |rxd=N |Number of store reqs deleted from tracking tree |
339 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
340 | |olm=N |Number of store reqs over store limit |
341 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
342 |VmScan |nos=N |Number of release reqs against pages with no |
344 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
345 | |gon=N |Number of release reqs against pages stored by |
346 | | |time lock granted |
347 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
348 | |bsy=N |Number of release reqs ignored due to in-progress store|
349 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
350 | |can=N |Number of page stores cancelled due to release req |
351 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
352 |Ops |pend=N |Number of times async ops added to pending queues |
353 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
354 | |run=N |Number of times async ops given CPU time |
355 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
356 | |enq=N |Number of times async ops queued for processing |
357 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
358 | |can=N |Number of async ops cancelled |
359 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
360 | |rej=N |Number of async ops rejected due to object |
361 | | |lookup/create failure |
362 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
363 | |ini=N |Number of async ops initialised |
364 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
365 | |dfr=N |Number of async ops queued for deferred release |
366 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
367 | |rel=N |Number of async ops released |
368 | | |(should equal ini=N when idle) |
369 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
370 | |gc=N |Number of deferred-release async ops garbage collected |
371 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
372 |CacheOp |alo=N |Number of in-progress alloc_object() cache ops |
373 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
374 | |luo=N |Number of in-progress lookup_object() cache ops |
375 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
376 | |luc=N |Number of in-progress lookup_complete() cache ops |
377 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
378 | |gro=N |Number of in-progress grab_object() cache ops |
379 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
380 | |upo=N |Number of in-progress update_object() cache ops |
381 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
382 | |dro=N |Number of in-progress drop_object() cache ops |
383 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
384 | |pto=N |Number of in-progress put_object() cache ops |
385 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
386 | |syn=N |Number of in-progress sync_cache() cache ops |
387 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
388 | |atc=N |Number of in-progress attr_changed() cache ops |
389 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
390 | |rap=N |Number of in-progress read_or_alloc_page() cache ops |
391 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
392 | |ras=N |Number of in-progress read_or_alloc_pages() cache ops |
393 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
394 | |alp=N |Number of in-progress allocate_page() cache ops |
395 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
396 | |als=N |Number of in-progress allocate_pages() cache ops |
397 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
398 | |wrp=N |Number of in-progress write_page() cache ops |
399 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
400 | |ucp=N |Number of in-progress uncache_page() cache ops |
401 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
402 | |dsp=N |Number of in-progress dissociate_pages() cache ops |
403 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
404 |CacheEv |nsp=N |Number of object lookups/creations rejected due to |
406 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
407 | |stl=N |Number of stale objects deleted |
408 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
409 | |rtr=N |Number of objects retired when relinquished |
410 + +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
411 | |cul=N |Number of objects culled |
412 +--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
416 /proc/fs/fscache/histogram
417 --------------------------
421 cat /proc/fs/fscache/histogram
422 JIFS SECS OBJ INST OP RUNS OBJ RUNS RETRV DLY RETRIEVLS
423 ===== ===== ========= ========= ========= ========= =========
425 This shows the breakdown of the number of times each amount of time
426 between 0 jiffies and HZ-1 jiffies a variety of tasks took to run. The
427 columns are as follows:
429 ========= =======================================================
430 COLUMN TIME MEASUREMENT
431 ========= =======================================================
432 OBJ INST Length of time to instantiate an object
433 OP RUNS Length of time a call to process an operation took
434 OBJ RUNS Length of time a call to process an object event took
435 RETRV DLY Time between an requesting a read and lookup completing
436 RETRIEVLS Time between beginning and end of a retrieval
437 ========= =======================================================
439 Each row shows the number of events that took a particular range of times.
440 Each step is 1 jiffy in size. The JIFS column indicates the particular
441 jiffy range covered, and the SECS field the equivalent number of seconds.
448 If CONFIG_FSCACHE_OBJECT_LIST is enabled, the FS-Cache facility will maintain a
449 list of all the objects currently allocated and allow them to be viewed
452 /proc/fs/fscache/objects
454 This will look something like::
456 [root@andromeda ~]# head /proc/fs/fscache/objects
457 OBJECT PARENT STAT CHLDN OPS OOP IPR EX READS EM EV F S | NETFS_COOKIE_DEF TY FL NETFS_DATA OBJECT_KEY, AUX_DATA
458 ======== ======== ==== ===== === === === == ===== == == = = | ================ == == ================ ================
459 17e4b 2 ACTV 0 0 0 0 0 0 7b 4 0 0 | NFS.fh DT 0 ffff88001dd82820 010006017edcf8bbc93b43298fdfbe71e50b57b13a172c0117f38472, e567634700000000000000000000000063f2404a000000000000000000000000c9030000000000000000000063f2404a
460 1693a 2 ACTV 0 0 0 0 0 0 7b 4 0 0 | NFS.fh DT 0 ffff88002db23380 010006017edcf8bbc93b43298fdfbe71e50b57b1e0162c01a2df0ea6, 420ebc4a000000000000000000000000420ebc4a0000000000000000000000000e1801000000000000000000420ebc4a
462 where the first set of columns before the '|' describe the object:
464 ======= ===============================================================
466 ======= ===============================================================
467 OBJECT Object debugging ID (appears as OBJ%x in some debug messages)
468 PARENT Debugging ID of parent object
470 CHLDN Number of child objects of this object
471 OPS Number of outstanding operations on this object
472 OOP Number of outstanding child object management operations
474 EX Number of outstanding exclusive operations
475 READS Number of outstanding read operations
476 EM Object's event mask
477 EV Events raised on this object
479 S Object work item busy state mask (1:pending 2:running)
480 ======= ===============================================================
482 and the second set of columns describe the object's cookie, if present:
484 ================ ======================================================
486 ================ ======================================================
487 NETFS_COOKIE_DEF Name of netfs cookie definition
488 TY Cookie type (IX - index, DT - data, hex - special)
490 NETFS_DATA Netfs private data stored in the cookie
491 OBJECT_KEY Object key } 1 column, with separating comma
492 AUX_DATA Object aux data } presence may be configured
493 ================ ======================================================
495 The data shown may be filtered by attaching the a key to an appropriate keyring
496 before viewing the file. Something like::
498 keyctl add user fscache:objlist <restrictions> @s
500 where <restrictions> are a selection of the following letters:
502 == =========================================================
503 K Show hexdump of object key (don't show if not given)
504 A Show hexdump of object aux data (don't show if not given)
505 == =========================================================
507 and the following paired letters:
509 == =========================================================
510 C Show objects that have a cookie
511 c Show objects that don't have a cookie
512 B Show objects that are busy
513 b Show objects that aren't busy
514 W Show objects that have pending writes
515 w Show objects that don't have pending writes
516 R Show objects that have outstanding reads
517 r Show objects that don't have outstanding reads
518 S Show objects that have work queued
519 s Show objects that don't have work queued
520 == =========================================================
522 If neither side of a letter pair is given, then both are implied. For example:
524 keyctl add user fscache:objlist KB @s
526 shows objects that are busy, and lists their object keys, but does not dump
527 their auxiliary data. It also implies "CcWwRrSs", but as 'B' is given, 'b' is
530 By default all objects and all fields will be shown.
536 If CONFIG_FSCACHE_DEBUG is enabled, the FS-Cache facility can have runtime
537 debugging enabled by adjusting the value in::
539 /sys/module/fscache/parameters/debug
541 This is a bitmask of debugging streams to enable:
543 ======= ======= =============================== =======================
544 BIT VALUE STREAM POINT
545 ======= ======= =============================== =======================
546 0 1 Cache management Function entry trace
547 1 2 Function exit trace
549 3 8 Cookie management Function entry trace
550 4 16 Function exit trace
552 6 64 Page handling Function entry trace
553 7 128 Function exit trace
555 9 512 Operation management Function entry trace
556 10 1024 Function exit trace
558 ======= ======= =============================== =======================
560 The appropriate set of values should be OR'd together and the result written to
561 the control file. For example::
563 echo $((1|8|64)) >/sys/module/fscache/parameters/debug
565 will turn on all function entry debugging.