Encrypted files traditionally haven't supported DIO, due to the need to encrypt/decrypt the data. However, when the encryption is implemented using inline encryption (blk-crypto) instead of the traditional filesystem-layer encryption, it is straightforward to support DIO. This series adds support for this. There are multiple use cases for DIO on encrypted files, but avoiding double caching on loopback devices located in an encrypted directory is the main one currently. Previous versions of this series were sent out by Satya Tangirala. I've cleaned up a few things since Satya's last version, v9 (https://lore.kernel.org/all/20210604210908.2105870-1-satyat@xxxxxxxxxx/T/#u). But more notably, I've made a couple simplifications. First, since f2fs has now been converted to use iomap for DIO, I've dropped the patch which added fscrypt support to fs/direct-io.c. Second, I've returned to the original design where DIO requests must be fully aligned to the FS block size in terms of file position, length, and memory buffers. Satya previously was pursuing a slightly different design, where the memory buffers (but not the file position and length) were allowed to be aligned to just the block device logical block size. This was at the request of Dave Chinner on v4 and v6 of the patchset (https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fscrypt/20200720233739.824943-1-satyat@xxxxxxxxxx/T/#u and https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fscrypt/20200724184501.1651378-1-satyat@xxxxxxxxxx/T/#u). I believe that approach is a dead end, for two reasons. First, it necessarily causes it to be possible that crypto data units span bvecs. Splits cannot occur at such locations; however the block layer currently assumes that bios can be split at any bvec boundary. Changing that is quite difficult, as Satya's v9 patchset demonstrated. This is not an issue if we require FS block aligned buffers instead. Second, it doesn't change the fact that FS block alignment is still required for the file position and I/O length; this is unavoidable due to the granularity of encryption being the FS block size. So, it seems that relaxing the memory buffer alignment requirement wouldn't make things meaningfully easier for applications, which raises the question of why we would bother with it in the first place. Christoph Hellwig also said that he much prefers that fscrypt DIO be supported without sector-only alignment to start: https://lore.kernel.org/r/YPu+88KReGlt94o3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Given the above, as far as I know the only remaining objection to this patchset would be that DIO constraints aren't sufficiently discoverable by userspace. Now, to put this in context, this is a longstanding issue with all Linux filesystems, except XFS which has XFS_IOC_DIOINFO. It's not specific to this feature, and it doesn't actually seem to be too important in practice; many other filesystem features place constraints on DIO, and f2fs even *only* allows fully FS block size aligned DIO. (And for better or worse, many systems using fscrypt already have out-of-tree patches that enable DIO support, and people don't seem to have trouble with the FS block size alignment requirement.) I plan to propose a new generic ioctl to address the issue of DIO constraints being insufficiently discoverable. But until then, I'm wondering if people are willing to consider this patchset again, or whether it is considered blocked by this issue alone. (And if this patchset is still unacceptable, would it be acceptable with f2fs support only, given that f2fs *already* only allows FS block size aligned DIO?) Eric Biggers (5): fscrypt: add functions for direct I/O support iomap: support direct I/O with fscrypt using blk-crypto ext4: support direct I/O with fscrypt using blk-crypto f2fs: support direct I/O with fscrypt using blk-crypto fscrypt: update documentation for direct I/O support Documentation/filesystems/fscrypt.rst | 25 +++++++- fs/crypto/crypto.c | 8 +++ fs/crypto/inline_crypt.c | 90 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ fs/ext4/file.c | 10 +-- fs/ext4/inode.c | 7 +++ fs/f2fs/data.c | 7 +++ fs/f2fs/f2fs.h | 6 +- fs/iomap/direct-io.c | 6 ++ include/linux/fscrypt.h | 18 ++++++ 9 files changed, 170 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) base-commit: 1d1df41c5a33359a00e919d54eaebfb789711fdc -- 2.34.1