TODO revision 1.1 1 # from: @(#)TODO 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/11/93
2 # $Id: TODO,v 1.1 1994/06/08 11:42:17 mycroft Exp $
3
4 NOTE: Changed the lookup on a page of inodes to search from the back
5 in case the same inode gets written twice on the same page.
6
7 Make sure that if you are writing a file, but not all the blocks
8 make it into a single segment, that you do not write the inode in
9 that segment.
10
11 Keith:
12 Why not delete the lfs_bmapv call, just mark everything dirty
13 that isn't deleted/truncated? Get some numbers about
14 what percentage of the stuff that the cleaner thinks
15 might be live is live. If it's high, get rid of lfs_bmapv.
16
17 There is a nasty problem in that it may take *more* room to write
18 the data to clean a segment than is returned by the new segment
19 because of indirect blocks in segment 2 being dirtied by the data
20 being copied into the log from segment 1. The suggested solution
21 at this point is to detect it when we have no space left on the
22 filesystem, write the extra data into the last segment (leaving
23 no clean ones), make it a checkpoint and shut down the file system
24 for fixing by a utility reading the raw partition. Argument is
25 that this should never happen and is practically impossible to fix
26 since the cleaner would have to theoretically build a model of the
27 entire filesystem in memory to detect the condition occurring.
28 A file coalescing cleaner will help avoid the problem, and one
29 that reads/writes from the raw disk could fix it.
30
31 DONE Currently, inodes are being flushed to disk synchronously upon
32 creation -- see ufs_makeinode. However, only the inode
33 is flushed, the directory "name" is written using VOP_BWRITE,
34 so it's not synchronous. Possible solutions: 1: get some
35 ordering in the writes so that inode/directory entries get
36 stuffed into the same segment. 2: do both synchronously
37 3: add Mendel's information into the stream so we log
38 creation/deletion of inodes. 4: do some form of partial
39 segment when changing the inode (creation/deletion/rename).
40 DONE Fix i_block increment for indirect blocks.
41 If the file system is tar'd, extracted on top of another LFS, the
42 IFILE ain't worth diddly. Is the cleaner writing the IFILE?
43 If not, let's make it read-only.
44 DONE Delete unnecessary source from utils in main-line source tree.
45 DONE Make sure that we're counting meta blocks in the inode i_block count.
46 Overlap the version and nextfree fields in the IFILE
47 DONE Vinvalbuf (Kirk):
48 Why writing blocks that are no longer useful?
49 Are the semantics of close such that blocks have to be flushed?
50 How specify in the buf chain the blocks that don't need
51 to be written? (Different numbering of indirect blocks.)
52
53 Margo:
54 Change so that only search one sector of inode block file for the
55 inode by using sector addresses in the ifile instead of
56 logical disk addresses.
57 Fix the use of the ifile version field to use the generation
58 number instead.
59 DONE Unmount; not doing a bgetvp (VHOLD) in lfs_newbuf call.
60 DONE Document in the README file where the checkpoint information is
61 on disk.
62 Variable block sizes (Margo/Keith).
63 Switch the byte accounting to sector accounting.
64 DONE Check lfs.h and make sure that the #defines/structures are all
65 actually needed.
66 DONE Add a check in lfs_segment.c so that if the segment is empty,
67 we don't write it.
68 Need to keep vnode v_numoutput up to date for pending writes?
69 DONE USENIX paper (Carl/Margo).
70
71
72 Evelyn:
73 lfsck: If delete a file that's being executed, the version number
74 isn't updated, and lfsck has to figure this out; case is the same as if have an inode that no directory references,
75 so the file should be reattached into lost+found.
76 Recovery/fsck.
77
78 Carl:
79 Investigate: clustering of reads (if blocks in the segment are ordered,
80 should read them all) and writes (McVoy paper).
81 Investigate: should the access time be part of the IFILE:
82 pro: theoretically, saves disk writes
83 con: cacheing inodes should obviate this advantage
84 the IFILE is already humongous
85 Cleaner.
86 Port to OSF/1 (Carl/Keith).
87 Currently there's no notion of write error checking.
88 + Failed data/inode writes should be rescheduled (kernel level
89 bad blocking).
90 + Failed superblock writes should cause selection of new
91 superblock for checkpointing.
92
93 FUTURE FANTASIES: ============
94
95 + unrm, versioning
96 + transactions
97 + extended cleaner policies (hot/cold data, data placement)
98
99 ==============================
100 Problem with the concept of multiple buffer headers referencing the segment:
101 Positives:
102 Don't lock down 1 segment per file system of physical memory.
103 Don't copy from buffers to segment memory.
104 Don't tie down the bus to transfer 1M.
105 Works on controllers supporting less than large transfers.
106 Disk can start writing immediately instead of waiting 1/2 rotation
107 and the full transfer.
108 Negatives:
109 Have to do segment write then segment summary write, since the latter
110 is what verifies that the segment is okay. (Is there another way
111 to do this?)
112 ==============================
113
114 The algorithm for selecting the disk addresses of the super-blocks
115 has to be available to the user program which checks the file system.
116
117 (Currently in newfs, becomes a common subroutine.)
118