On Wed, Mar 17, 2021 at 01:12:01PM -0500, Connor Kuehl wrote: > Hi, > > I've been familiarizing myself with the virtiofs guest kernel module and I'm > trying to better understand how virtiofs maps a FUSE request into > scattergather lists. > > sg_count_fuse_req() starts knowing that there will be at least one in > header, as shown here (which makes sense): > > unsigned int size, total_sgs = 1 /* fuse_in_header */; > > However, I'm confused about this snippet right beneath it: > > if (args->in_numargs - args->in_pages) > total_sgs += 1; > > What is the significance of the sg that is needed in the cases where this > branch is taken? I'm not sure what its relationship is with args->in_numargs > since it will increment total_sgs regardless args->in_numargs is 3, 2, or > even 1 if args->in_pages is false. Hi Conor, I think all the in args are being mapped into a single scatter gather element and that's why it does not matter whether in_numargs is 3, 2 or 1. They will be mapped in a single element. sg_init_fuse_args() { len = fuse_len_args(numargs - argpages, args); if (len) sg_init_one(&sg[total_sgs++], argbuf, len); } out_sgs += sg_init_fuse_args(&sg[out_sgs], req, (struct fuse_arg *)args->in_args, args->in_numargs, args->in_pages, req->argbuf, &argbuf_used); When we are sending some data in some pages, then we set args->in_pages to true. And in that case, last element of args->in_args[] contains the total size of bytes in additional pages we are sending and is not part of in_args being mapped to scatter gather element. That's why this check. if (args->in_numargs - args->in_pages) total_sgs += 1; Not sure when we will have a case where args->in_numargs = 1 and args->in_pages=true. Do we ever hit that. Thanks Vivek > > Especially since the block right below it counts pages if args->in_pages is > true: > > if (args->in_pages) { > size = args->in_args[args->in_numargs - 1].size; > total_sgs += sg_count_fuse_pages(ap->descs, ap->num_pages, > size); > } > > The rest of the routine goes on similarly but for the 'out' components. > > I doubt incrementing 'total_sgs' in the first if-statement I showed above is > vestigial, I just think my mental model of what is happening here is > incomplete. > > Any clarification is much appreciated! > > Connor >