Re: [PATCH] NFS: Retry a zero-length short read

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On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 01:36:48PM -0400, Benjamin Coddington wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Mar 2016, J. Bruce Fields wrote:
> 
> > On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 12:22:22PM -0400, Trond Myklebust wrote:
> > > On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 11:20 AM, Benjamin Coddington
> > > <bcodding@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 16 Mar 2016, Benjamin Coddington wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> On Wed, 16 Mar 2016, Trond Myklebust wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >> > On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 10:22 AM, Benjamin Coddington
> > > >> > <bcodding@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > >> > > On Wed, 16 Mar 2016, Trond Myklebust wrote:
> > > >> > >
> > > >> > >> On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 5:17 AM, Benjamin Coddington
> > > >> > >> <bcodding@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > > >> > >> >
> > > >> > >> > A zero-length short read without eof should be retried rather than sending
> > > >> > >> > an error to the application.
> > > >> > >>
> > > >> > >>
> > > >> > >> In what situation would returning a 0 length read not be a bug? If the
> > > >> > >> server intended that we back off and retry, it has the alternative of
> > > >> > >> sending a JUKEBOX/DELAY error.
> > > >> > >
> > > >> > > If the server completes a local read but then another writer comes in and
> > > >> > > appends to the file before the server checks if it needs to set EOF, then
> > > >> > > the response might be 0 length without EOF set.
> > > >> >
> > > >> > Why isn't that EOF check done atomically with the read itself? This
> > > >> > still sounds like a server bug to me.
> > > >>
> > > >> I don't know -- I would guess because doing that atomically is harder than
> > > >> not, and I don't know where the RFCs say that a zero length response without
> > > >> eof is to be treated as an error or condition to be avoided.
> > > >>
> > > >> I'll look into that, and respond here.
> > > >
> > > > Indeed, it seems that it is more convenient for the linux server to send a
> > > > zero-length response without eof when the file grows.  It would probably be
> > > > more helpful if the server handled that case, but I think that 7530 states
> > > > that it doesn't have to handle that case.
> > >
> > > Here is what RFC5661 and RFC7530 say.
> > >
> > >    If the READ ended at the end-of-file (formally, in a correctly formed
> > >    READ request, if offset + count is equal to the size of the file), or
> > >    the READ request extends beyond the size of the file (if offset +
> > >    count is greater than the size of the file), eof is returned as TRUE;
> > >    otherwise, it is FALSE.  A successful READ of an empty file will
> > >    always return eof as TRUE.
> > >
> > > Here is what RFC1813 says:
> > >
> > >       eof
> > >          If the read ended at the end-of-file (formally, in a
> > >          correctly formed READ request, if READ3args.offset plus
> > >          READ3resok.count is equal to the size of the file), eof
> > >          is returned as TRUE; otherwise it is FALSE. A
> > >          successful READ of an empty file will always return eof
> > >          as TRUE.
> > >
> > > Where does it say that the eof determination is allowed to be
> > > non-atomic? Unlike structures such as change_info4, there isn't an
> > > "atomic" flag to allow the server to communicate to the client that it
> > > cannot rely on the eof flag. Since the determination is part of the
> > > same READ operation, you can't point to the "COMPOUNDS are not atomic"
> > > either.
> >
> > I wonder why READ has eof at all, instead of adopting read()'s
> > convention that 0 means eof?
> >
> > In any case, our server should be able to count on that convention
> > internally, so if getting a real "eof" out of the filesystem looks
> > daunting, why not for now just check for that case in
> > nfsd4_encode_readv()?:
> 
> It's probably not really that daunting.  Couldn't we check to see if inode's
> size has increased, and if so do the read again?

Does the client really have trouble with short reads in general, or only
with zero-length short reads?

> The concept of READ and eof atomicity should also include a concept of a
> boundary or barrier.  The operation is atomic within what bound - the
> server's response processing or the underlying filesystem?

Ideally the read data and eof both represent the same state of the file
with no file-modifying operations intervening between the two.

I could come up with artificial examples that would allow clients to
detect that we don't meet this standard.  I can't think of one that
would occur in practice (may just be my lack of imagination).

--b.
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