[Drbd-dev] [PATCH v5 03/12] block: Add bio_reset()

[Tejun Heo]

Hello,

On Wed, Aug 08, 2012 at 05:07:11PM -0700, Kent Overstreet wrote:
> > > +void bio_reset(struct bio *bio)
> > > +{
> > > +	unsigned long flags = bio->bi_flags & (~0UL << BIO_RESET_BITS);
> > 
> > How many flags are we talking about?  If there aren't too many, I'd
> > prefer explicit BIO_FLAGS_PRESERVED or whatever.
> 
> It mostly isn't actual flags that are preserved - the high bits of the
> flags are used for indicating what slab the bvec was allocated from, and
> that's the main thing that has to be preserved.
> 
> So that's why I went with defining the things that are reset instead of
> the things that are preserved.
> 
> I would prefer if bitfields were used for at least BIO_POOL_IDX, but the
> problem is flags is used as an atomic bit vector for BIO_UPTODATE.
> 
> But flags isn't treated as an atomic bit vector elsewhere -
> bio_flagged() doesn't use test_bit(), and flags are set/cleared with

Not using test_bit() may not be necessarily wrong.

> atomic bit operations in some places but not in others (probably _most_
> of them are technically safe, but... ick).

Mixing atomic and non-atomic modifications is almost always wrong tho.

Anyways, understood.  Can you *please* put some comment what bits are
being preserved across reset then?  Things like this aren't obvious at
all and need ample explanation.

Thanks.

-- 
tejun