<feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom'>
<title>linux-toradex.git/fs/dcache.c, branch v3.4.16</title>
<subtitle>Linux kernel for Apalis and Colibri modules</subtitle>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/'/>
<entry>
<title>vfs: dcache: fix deadlock in tree traversal</title>
<updated>2012-10-07T15:32:22+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Miklos Szeredi</name>
<email>miklos@szeredi.hu</email>
</author>
<published>2012-09-17T20:23:30+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=9316bed3701438b79644e80cc4dd4903a40c756b'/>
<id>9316bed3701438b79644e80cc4dd4903a40c756b</id>
<content type='text'>
commit 8110e16d42d587997bcaee0c864179e6d93603fe upstream.

IBM reported a deadlock in select_parent().  This was found to be caused
by taking rename_lock when already locked when restarting the tree
traversal.

There are two cases when the traversal needs to be restarted:

 1) concurrent d_move(); this can only happen when not already locked,
    since taking rename_lock protects against concurrent d_move().

 2) racing with final d_put() on child just at the moment of ascending
    to parent; rename_lock doesn't protect against this rare race, so it
    can happen when already locked.

Because of case 2, we need to be able to handle restarting the traversal
when rename_lock is already held.  This patch fixes all three callers of
try_to_ascend().

IBM reported that the deadlock is gone with this patch.

[ I rewrote the patch to be smaller and just do the "goto again" if the
  lock was already held, but credit goes to Miklos for the real work.
   - Linus ]

Signed-off-by: Miklos Szeredi &lt;mszeredi@suse.cz&gt;
Cc: Al Viro &lt;viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;

</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
commit 8110e16d42d587997bcaee0c864179e6d93603fe upstream.

IBM reported a deadlock in select_parent().  This was found to be caused
by taking rename_lock when already locked when restarting the tree
traversal.

There are two cases when the traversal needs to be restarted:

 1) concurrent d_move(); this can only happen when not already locked,
    since taking rename_lock protects against concurrent d_move().

 2) racing with final d_put() on child just at the moment of ascending
    to parent; rename_lock doesn't protect against this rare race, so it
    can happen when already locked.

Because of case 2, we need to be able to handle restarting the traversal
when rename_lock is already held.  This patch fixes all three callers of
try_to_ascend().

IBM reported that the deadlock is gone with this patch.

[ I rewrote the patch to be smaller and just do the "goto again" if the
  lock was already held, but credit goes to Miklos for the real work.
   - Linus ]

Signed-off-by: Miklos Szeredi &lt;mszeredi@suse.cz&gt;
Cc: Al Viro &lt;viro@ZenIV.linux.org.uk&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;

</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>vfs: dcache: use DCACHE_DENTRY_KILLED instead of DCACHE_DISCONNECTED in d_kill()</title>
<updated>2012-10-02T17:29:51+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Miklos Szeredi</name>
<email>mszeredi@suse.cz</email>
</author>
<published>2012-09-17T20:31:38+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=f92e8b0ddb85dfe7d8d2547516c873ec8dd9838e'/>
<id>f92e8b0ddb85dfe7d8d2547516c873ec8dd9838e</id>
<content type='text'>
commit b161dfa6937ae46d50adce8a7c6b12233e96e7bd upstream.

IBM reported a soft lockup after applying the fix for the rename_lock
deadlock.  Commit c83ce989cb5f ("VFS: Fix the nfs sillyrename regression
in kernel 2.6.38") was found to be the culprit.

The nfs sillyrename fix used DCACHE_DISCONNECTED to indicate that the
dentry was killed.  This flag can be set on non-killed dentries too,
which results in infinite retries when trying to traverse the dentry
tree.

This patch introduces a separate flag: DCACHE_DENTRY_KILLED, which is
only set in d_kill() and makes try_to_ascend() test only this flag.

IBM reported successful test results with this patch.

Signed-off-by: Miklos Szeredi &lt;mszeredi@suse.cz&gt;
Cc: Trond Myklebust &lt;Trond.Myklebust@netapp.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;

</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
commit b161dfa6937ae46d50adce8a7c6b12233e96e7bd upstream.

IBM reported a soft lockup after applying the fix for the rename_lock
deadlock.  Commit c83ce989cb5f ("VFS: Fix the nfs sillyrename regression
in kernel 2.6.38") was found to be the culprit.

The nfs sillyrename fix used DCACHE_DISCONNECTED to indicate that the
dentry was killed.  This flag can be set on non-killed dentries too,
which results in infinite retries when trying to traverse the dentry
tree.

This patch introduces a separate flag: DCACHE_DENTRY_KILLED, which is
only set in d_kill() and makes try_to_ascend() test only this flag.

IBM reported successful test results with this patch.

Signed-off-by: Miklos Szeredi &lt;mszeredi@suse.cz&gt;
Cc: Trond Myklebust &lt;Trond.Myklebust@netapp.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman &lt;gregkh@linuxfoundation.org&gt;

</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>vfs: make word-at-a-time accesses handle a non-existing page</title>
<updated>2012-05-03T21:01:40+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Linus Torvalds</name>
<email>torvalds@linux-foundation.org</email>
</author>
<published>2012-05-03T17:16:43+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=e419b4cc585680940bc42f8ca8a071d6023fb1bb'/>
<id>e419b4cc585680940bc42f8ca8a071d6023fb1bb</id>
<content type='text'>
It turns out that there are more cases than CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC that
can have holes in the kernel address space: it seems to happen easily
with Xen, and it looks like the AMD gart64 code will also punch holes
dynamically.

Actually hitting that case is still very unlikely, so just do the
access, and take an exception and fix it up for the very unlikely case
of it being a page-crosser with no next page.

And hey, this abstraction might even help other architectures that have
other issues with unaligned word accesses than the possible missing next
page.  IOW, this could do the byte order magic too.

Peter Anvin fixed a thinko in the shifting for the exception case.

Reported-and-tested-by: Jana Saout &lt;jana@saout.de&gt;
Cc:  Peter Anvin &lt;hpa@zytor.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
It turns out that there are more cases than CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC that
can have holes in the kernel address space: it seems to happen easily
with Xen, and it looks like the AMD gart64 code will also punch holes
dynamically.

Actually hitting that case is still very unlikely, so just do the
access, and take an exception and fix it up for the very unlikely case
of it being a page-crosser with no next page.

And hey, this abstraction might even help other architectures that have
other issues with unaligned word accesses than the possible missing next
page.  IOW, this could do the byte order magic too.

Peter Anvin fixed a thinko in the shifting for the exception case.

Reported-and-tested-by: Jana Saout &lt;jana@saout.de&gt;
Cc:  Peter Anvin &lt;hpa@zytor.com&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>vfs: fix d_ancestor() case in d_materialize_unique</title>
<updated>2012-03-28T16:54:34+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Michel Lespinasse</name>
<email>walken@google.com</email>
</author>
<published>2012-03-27T00:32:44+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=b18dafc86bb879d2f38a1743985d7ceb283c2f4d'/>
<id>b18dafc86bb879d2f38a1743985d7ceb283c2f4d</id>
<content type='text'>
In d_materialise_unique() there are 3 subcases to the 'aliased dentry'
case; in two subcases the inode i_lock is properly released but this
does not occur in the -ELOOP subcase.

This seems to have been introduced by commit 1836750115f2 ("fix loop
checks in d_materialise_unique()").

Signed-off-by: Michel Lespinasse &lt;walken@google.com&gt;
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org # v3.0+
[ Added a comment, and moved the unlock to where we generate the -ELOOP,
  which seems to be more natural.

  You probably can't actually trigger this without a buggy network file
  server - d_materialize_unique() is for finding aliases on non-local
  filesystems, and the d_ancestor() case is for a hardlinked directory
  loop.

  But we should be robust in the case of such buggy servers anyway. ]
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
In d_materialise_unique() there are 3 subcases to the 'aliased dentry'
case; in two subcases the inode i_lock is properly released but this
does not occur in the -ELOOP subcase.

This seems to have been introduced by commit 1836750115f2 ("fix loop
checks in d_materialise_unique()").

Signed-off-by: Michel Lespinasse &lt;walken@google.com&gt;
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org # v3.0+
[ Added a comment, and moved the unlock to where we generate the -ELOOP,
  which seems to be more natural.

  You probably can't actually trigger this without a buggy network file
  server - d_materialize_unique() is for finding aliases on non-local
  filesystems, and the d_ancestor() case is for a hardlinked directory
  loop.

  But we should be robust in the case of such buggy servers anyway. ]
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Merge tag 'module-for-3.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulg/linux</title>
<updated>2012-03-24T17:24:31+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Linus Torvalds</name>
<email>torvalds@linux-foundation.org</email>
</author>
<published>2012-03-24T17:24:31+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=11bcb32848ddb5ab28f09f142b625e2ba4d55c4c'/>
<id>11bcb32848ddb5ab28f09f142b625e2ba4d55c4c</id>
<content type='text'>
Pull cleanup of fs/ and lib/ users of module.h from Paul Gortmaker:
 "Fix up files in fs/ and lib/ dirs to only use module.h if they really
  need it.

  These are trivial in scope vs the work done previously.  We now have
  things where any few remaining cleanups can be farmed out to arch or
  subsystem maintainers, and I have done so when possible.  What is
  remaining here represents the bits that don't clearly lie within a
  single arch/subsystem boundary, like the fs dir and the lib dir.

  Some duplicate includes arising from overlapping fixes from
  independent subsystem maintainer submissions are also quashed."

Fix up trivial conflicts due to clashes with other include file cleanups
(including some due to the previous bug.h cleanup pull).

* tag 'module-for-3.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulg/linux:
  lib: reduce the use of module.h wherever possible
  fs: reduce the use of module.h wherever possible
  includecheck: delete any duplicate instances of module.h
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Pull cleanup of fs/ and lib/ users of module.h from Paul Gortmaker:
 "Fix up files in fs/ and lib/ dirs to only use module.h if they really
  need it.

  These are trivial in scope vs the work done previously.  We now have
  things where any few remaining cleanups can be farmed out to arch or
  subsystem maintainers, and I have done so when possible.  What is
  remaining here represents the bits that don't clearly lie within a
  single arch/subsystem boundary, like the fs dir and the lib dir.

  Some duplicate includes arising from overlapping fixes from
  independent subsystem maintainer submissions are also quashed."

Fix up trivial conflicts due to clashes with other include file cleanups
(including some due to the previous bug.h cleanup pull).

* tag 'module-for-3.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/paulg/linux:
  lib: reduce the use of module.h wherever possible
  fs: reduce the use of module.h wherever possible
  includecheck: delete any duplicate instances of module.h
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>fs: fix kernel-doc warnings in dcache.c</title>
<updated>2012-03-22T22:49:18+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Randy Dunlap</name>
<email>rdunlap@xenotime.net</email>
</author>
<published>2012-03-19T04:23:05+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=1f1e6e523e43e312c0e0d38c09828d53e9f709fc'/>
<id>1f1e6e523e43e312c0e0d38c09828d53e9f709fc</id>
<content type='text'>
Fix kernel-doc warnings in fs/dcache.c:

  Warning(fs/dcache.c:1743): No description found for parameter 'seqp'
  Warning(fs/dcache.c:1743): Excess function parameter 'seq' description in '__d_lookup_rcu'

Signed-off-by: Randy Dunlap &lt;rdunlap@xenotime.net&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Fix kernel-doc warnings in fs/dcache.c:

  Warning(fs/dcache.c:1743): No description found for parameter 'seqp'
  Warning(fs/dcache.c:1743): Excess function parameter 'seq' description in '__d_lookup_rcu'

Signed-off-by: Randy Dunlap &lt;rdunlap@xenotime.net&gt;
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Merge branch 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs</title>
<updated>2012-03-21T20:36:41+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Linus Torvalds</name>
<email>torvalds@linux-foundation.org</email>
</author>
<published>2012-03-21T20:36:41+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=e2a0883e4071237d09b604a342c28b96b44a04b3'/>
<id>e2a0883e4071237d09b604a342c28b96b44a04b3</id>
<content type='text'>
Pull vfs pile 1 from Al Viro:
 "This is _not_ all; in particular, Miklos' and Jan's stuff is not there
  yet."

* 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs: (64 commits)
  ext4: initialization of ext4_li_mtx needs to be done earlier
  debugfs-related mode_t whack-a-mole
  hfsplus: add an ioctl to bless files
  hfsplus: change finder_info to u32
  hfsplus: initialise userflags
  qnx4: new helper - try_extent()
  qnx4: get rid of qnx4_bread/qnx4_getblk
  take removal of PF_FORKNOEXEC to flush_old_exec()
  trim includes in inode.c
  um: uml_dup_mmap() relies on -&gt;mmap_sem being held, but activate_mm() doesn't hold it
  um: embed -&gt;stub_pages[] into mmu_context
  gadgetfs: list_for_each_safe() misuse
  ocfs2: fix leaks on failure exits in module_init
  ecryptfs: make register_filesystem() the last potential failure exit
  ntfs: forgets to unregister sysctls on register_filesystem() failure
  logfs: missing cleanup on register_filesystem() failure
  jfs: mising cleanup on register_filesystem() failure
  make configfs_pin_fs() return root dentry on success
  configfs: configfs_create_dir() has parent dentry in dentry-&gt;d_parent
  configfs: sanitize configfs_create()
  ...
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
Pull vfs pile 1 from Al Viro:
 "This is _not_ all; in particular, Miklos' and Jan's stuff is not there
  yet."

* 'for-linus' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/viro/vfs: (64 commits)
  ext4: initialization of ext4_li_mtx needs to be done earlier
  debugfs-related mode_t whack-a-mole
  hfsplus: add an ioctl to bless files
  hfsplus: change finder_info to u32
  hfsplus: initialise userflags
  qnx4: new helper - try_extent()
  qnx4: get rid of qnx4_bread/qnx4_getblk
  take removal of PF_FORKNOEXEC to flush_old_exec()
  trim includes in inode.c
  um: uml_dup_mmap() relies on -&gt;mmap_sem being held, but activate_mm() doesn't hold it
  um: embed -&gt;stub_pages[] into mmu_context
  gadgetfs: list_for_each_safe() misuse
  ocfs2: fix leaks on failure exits in module_init
  ecryptfs: make register_filesystem() the last potential failure exit
  ntfs: forgets to unregister sysctls on register_filesystem() failure
  logfs: missing cleanup on register_filesystem() failure
  jfs: mising cleanup on register_filesystem() failure
  make configfs_pin_fs() return root dentry on success
  configfs: configfs_create_dir() has parent dentry in dentry-&gt;d_parent
  configfs: sanitize configfs_create()
  ...
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>vfs: d_alloc_root() gone</title>
<updated>2012-03-21T01:29:37+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Al Viro</name>
<email>viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk</email>
</author>
<published>2012-02-13T03:15:47+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=32991ab305ace7017c62f8eecbe5eb36dc32e13b'/>
<id>32991ab305ace7017c62f8eecbe5eb36dc32e13b</id>
<content type='text'>
all callers converted to d_make_root() by now

Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
all callers converted to d_make_root() by now

Signed-off-by: Al Viro &lt;viro@zeniv.linux.org.uk&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>Merge branch 'dcache-word-accesses'</title>
<updated>2012-03-19T23:37:28+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Linus Torvalds</name>
<email>torvalds@linux-foundation.org</email>
</author>
<published>2012-03-19T23:37:28+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=b0e37d7ac6ba937c3776ff5111ff6a7fa832fb4f'/>
<id>b0e37d7ac6ba937c3776ff5111ff6a7fa832fb4f</id>
<content type='text'>
* branch 'dcache-word-accesses':
  vfs: use 'unsigned long' accesses for dcache name comparison and hashing

This does the name hashing and lookup using word-sized accesses when
that is efficient, namely on x86 (although any little-endian machine
with good unaligned accesses would do).

It does very much depend on little-endian logic, but it's a very hot
couple of functions under some real loads, and this patch improves the
performance of __d_lookup_rcu() and link_path_walk() by up to about 30%.
Giving a 10% improvement on some very pathname-heavy benchmarks.

Because we do make unaligned accesses past the filename, the
optimization is disabled when CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC is active, and we
effectively depend on the fact that on x86 we don't really ever have the
last page of usable RAM followed immediately by any IO memory (due to
ACPI tables, BIOS buffer areas etc).

Some of the bit operations we do are a bit "subtle".  It's commented,
but you do need to really think about the code.  Or just consider it
black magic.

Thanks to people on G+ for some of the optimized bit tricks.
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
* branch 'dcache-word-accesses':
  vfs: use 'unsigned long' accesses for dcache name comparison and hashing

This does the name hashing and lookup using word-sized accesses when
that is efficient, namely on x86 (although any little-endian machine
with good unaligned accesses would do).

It does very much depend on little-endian logic, but it's a very hot
couple of functions under some real loads, and this patch improves the
performance of __d_lookup_rcu() and link_path_walk() by up to about 30%.
Giving a 10% improvement on some very pathname-heavy benchmarks.

Because we do make unaligned accesses past the filename, the
optimization is disabled when CONFIG_DEBUG_PAGEALLOC is active, and we
effectively depend on the fact that on x86 we don't really ever have the
last page of usable RAM followed immediately by any IO memory (due to
ACPI tables, BIOS buffer areas etc).

Some of the bit operations we do are a bit "subtle".  It's commented,
but you do need to really think about the code.  Or just consider it
black magic.

Thanks to people on G+ for some of the optimized bit tricks.
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<title>vfs: get rid of batshit-insane pointless dentry hash calculations</title>
<updated>2012-03-19T23:19:53+00:00</updated>
<author>
<name>Linus Torvalds</name>
<email>torvalds@linux-foundation.org</email>
</author>
<published>2012-03-19T23:19:53+00:00</published>
<link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='https://git.toradex.cn/cgit/linux-toradex.git/commit/?id=6d7d1a0dc735ea8412769edae7154885021107a9'/>
<id>6d7d1a0dc735ea8412769edae7154885021107a9</id>
<content type='text'>
For some odd historical reason, the final mixing round for the dentry
cache hash table lookup had an insane "xor with big constant" logic.  In
two places.

The big constant that is being xor'ed is GOLDEN_RATIO_PRIME, which is a
fairly random-looking number that is designed to be *multiplied* with so
that the bits get spread out over a whole long-word.

But xor'ing with it is insane.  It doesn't really even change the hash -
it really only shifts the hash around in the hash table.  To make
matters worse, the insane big constant is different on 32-bit and 64-bit
builds, even though the name hash bits we use are always 32-bit (and the
bits from the pointer we mix in effectively are too).

It's all total voodoo programming, in other words.

Now, some testing and analysis of the hash chains shows that the rest of
the hash function seems to be fairly good.  It does pick the right bits
of the parent dentry pointer, for example, and while it's generally a
bad idea to use an xor to mix down the upper bits (because if there is a
repeating pattern, the xor can cause "destructive interference"), it
seems to not have been a disaster.

For example, replacing the hash with the normal "hash_long()" code (that
uses the GOLDEN_RATIO_PRIME constant correctly, btw) actually just makes
the hash worse.  The hand-picked hash knew which bits of the pointer had
the highest entropy, and hash_long() ends up mixing bits less optimally
at least in some trivial tests.

So the hash function overall seems fine, it just has that really odd
"shift result around by a constant xor".

So get rid of the silly xor, and replace the down-mixing of the bits
with an add instead of an xor that tends to not have the same kind of
destructive interference issues.  Some stats on the resulting hash
chains shows that they look statistically identical before and after,
but the code is simpler and no longer makes you go "WTF?".

Also, the incoming hash really is just "unsigned int", not a long, and
there's no real point to worry about the high 26 bits of the dentry
pointer for the 64-bit case, because they are all going to be identical
anyway.

So also change the hashing to be done in the more natural 'unsigned int'
that is the real size of the actual hashed data anyway.

Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</content>
<content type='xhtml'>
<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>
<pre>
For some odd historical reason, the final mixing round for the dentry
cache hash table lookup had an insane "xor with big constant" logic.  In
two places.

The big constant that is being xor'ed is GOLDEN_RATIO_PRIME, which is a
fairly random-looking number that is designed to be *multiplied* with so
that the bits get spread out over a whole long-word.

But xor'ing with it is insane.  It doesn't really even change the hash -
it really only shifts the hash around in the hash table.  To make
matters worse, the insane big constant is different on 32-bit and 64-bit
builds, even though the name hash bits we use are always 32-bit (and the
bits from the pointer we mix in effectively are too).

It's all total voodoo programming, in other words.

Now, some testing and analysis of the hash chains shows that the rest of
the hash function seems to be fairly good.  It does pick the right bits
of the parent dentry pointer, for example, and while it's generally a
bad idea to use an xor to mix down the upper bits (because if there is a
repeating pattern, the xor can cause "destructive interference"), it
seems to not have been a disaster.

For example, replacing the hash with the normal "hash_long()" code (that
uses the GOLDEN_RATIO_PRIME constant correctly, btw) actually just makes
the hash worse.  The hand-picked hash knew which bits of the pointer had
the highest entropy, and hash_long() ends up mixing bits less optimally
at least in some trivial tests.

So the hash function overall seems fine, it just has that really odd
"shift result around by a constant xor".

So get rid of the silly xor, and replace the down-mixing of the bits
with an add instead of an xor that tends to not have the same kind of
destructive interference issues.  Some stats on the resulting hash
chains shows that they look statistically identical before and after,
but the code is simpler and no longer makes you go "WTF?".

Also, the incoming hash really is just "unsigned int", not a long, and
there's no real point to worry about the high 26 bits of the dentry
pointer for the 64-bit case, because they are all going to be identical
anyway.

So also change the hashing to be done in the more natural 'unsigned int'
that is the real size of the actual hashed data anyway.

Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds &lt;torvalds@linux-foundation.org&gt;
</pre>
</div>
</content>
</entry>
</feed>
