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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+==========================
+General Filesystem Caching
+==========================
+
+Overview
+========
+
+This facility is a general purpose cache for network filesystems, though it
+could be used for caching other things such as ISO9660 filesystems too.
+
+FS-Cache mediates between cache backends (such as CacheFiles) and network
+filesystems::
+
+ +---------+
+ | | +--------------+
+ | NFS |--+ | |
+ | | | +-->| CacheFS |
+ +---------+ | +----------+ | | /dev/hda5 |
+ | | | | +--------------+
+ +---------+ +-------------->| | |
+ | | +-------+ | |--+
+ | AFS |----->| | | FS-Cache |
+ | | | netfs |-->| |--+
+ +---------+ +-->| lib | | | |
+ | | | | | | +--------------+
+ +---------+ | +-------+ +----------+ | | |
+ | | | +-->| CacheFiles |
+ | 9P |--+ | /var/cache |
+ | | +--------------+
+ +---------+
+
+Or to look at it another way, FS-Cache is a module that provides a caching
+facility to a network filesystem such that the cache is transparent to the
+user::
+
+ +---------+
+ | |
+ | Server |
+ | |
+ +---------+
+ | NETWORK
+ ~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ |
+ | +----------+
+ V | |
+ +---------+ | |
+ | | | |
+ | NFS |----->| FS-Cache |
+ | | | |--+
+ +---------+ | | | +--------------+ +--------------+
+ | | | | | | | |
+ V +----------+ +-->| CacheFiles |-->| Ext3 |
+ +---------+ | /var/cache | | /dev/sda6 |
+ | | +--------------+ +--------------+
+ | VFS | ^ ^
+ | | | |
+ +---------+ +--------------+ |
+ | KERNEL SPACE | |
+ ~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~|~~~~
+ | USER SPACE | |
+ V | |
+ +---------+ +--------------+
+ | | | |
+ | Process | | cachefilesd |
+ | | | |
+ +---------+ +--------------+
+
+
+FS-Cache does not follow the idea of completely loading every netfs file
+opened in its entirety into a cache before permitting it to be accessed and
+then serving the pages out of that cache rather than the netfs inode because:
+
+ (1) It must be practical to operate without a cache.
+
+ (2) The size of any accessible file must not be limited to the size of the
+ cache.
+
+ (3) The combined size of all opened files (this includes mapped libraries)
+ must not be limited to the size of the cache.
+
+ (4) The user should not be forced to download an entire file just to do a
+ one-off access of a small portion of it (such as might be done with the
+ "file" program).
+
+It instead serves the cache out in chunks as and when requested by the netfs
+using it.
+
+
+FS-Cache provides the following facilities:
+
+ * More than one cache can be used at once. Caches can be selected
+ explicitly by use of tags.
+
+ * Caches can be added / removed at any time, even whilst being accessed.
+
+ * The netfs is provided with an interface that allows either party to
+ withdraw caching facilities from a file (required for (2)).
+
+ * The interface to the netfs returns as few errors as possible, preferring
+ rather to let the netfs remain oblivious.
+
+ * There are three types of cookie: cache, volume and data file cookies.
+ Cache cookies represent the cache as a whole and are not normally visible
+ to the netfs; the netfs gets a volume cookie to represent a collection of
+ files (typically something that a netfs would get for a superblock); and
+ data file cookies are used to cache data (something that would be got for
+ an inode).
+
+ * Volumes are matched using a key. This is a printable string that is used
+ to encode all the information that might be needed to distinguish one
+ superblock, say, from another. This would be a compound of things like
+ cell name or server address, volume name or share path. It must be a
+ valid pathname.
+
+ * Cookies are matched using a key. This is a binary blob and is used to
+ represent the object within a volume (so the volume key need not form
+ part of the blob). This might include things like an inode number and
+ uniquifier or a file handle.
+
+ * Cookie resources are set up and pinned by marking the cookie in-use.
+ This prevents the backing resources from being culled. Timed garbage
+ collection is employed to eliminate cookies that haven't been used for a
+ short while, thereby reducing resource overload. This is intended to be
+ used when a file is opened or closed.
+
+ A cookie can be marked in-use multiple times simultaneously; each mark
+ must be unused.
+
+ * Begin/end access functions are provided to delay cache withdrawal for the
+ duration of an operation and prevent structs from being freed whilst
+ we're looking at them.
+
+ * Data I/O is done by asynchronous DIO to/from a buffer described by the
+ netfs using an iov_iter.
+
+ * An invalidation facility is available to discard data from the cache and
+ to deal with I/O that's in progress that is accessing old data.
+
+ * Cookies can be "retired" upon release, thereby causing the object to be
+ removed from the cache.
+
+
+The netfs API to FS-Cache can be found in:
+
+ Documentation/filesystems/caching/netfs-api.rst
+
+The cache backend API to FS-Cache can be found in:
+
+ Documentation/filesystems/caching/backend-api.rst
+
+
+Statistical Information
+=======================
+
+If FS-Cache is compiled with the following options enabled::
+
+ CONFIG_FSCACHE_STATS=y
+
+then it will gather certain statistics and display them through:
+
+ /proc/fs/fscache/stats
+
+This shows counts of a number of events that can happen in FS-Cache:
+
++--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+|CLASS |EVENT |MEANING |
++==============+=======+=======================================================+
+|Cookies |n=N |Number of data storage cookies allocated |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |v=N |Number of volume index cookies allocated |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |vcol=N |Number of volume index key collisions |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |voom=N |Number of OOM events when allocating volume cookies |
++--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+|Acquire |n=N |Number of acquire cookie requests seen |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |ok=N |Number of acq reqs succeeded |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |oom=N |Number of acq reqs failed on ENOMEM |
++--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+|LRU |n=N |Number of cookies currently on the LRU |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |exp=N |Number of cookies expired off of the LRU |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |rmv=N |Number of cookies removed from the LRU |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |drp=N |Number of LRU'd cookies relinquished/withdrawn |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |at=N |Time till next LRU cull (jiffies) |
++--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+|Invals |n=N |Number of invalidations |
++--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+|Updates |n=N |Number of update cookie requests seen |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |rsz=N |Number of resize requests |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |rsn=N |Number of skipped resize requests |
++--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+|Relinqs |n=N |Number of relinquish cookie requests seen |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |rtr=N |Number of rlq reqs with retire=true |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |drop=N |Number of cookies no longer blocking re-acquisition |
++--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+|NoSpace |nwr=N |Number of write requests refused due to lack of space |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |ncr=N |Number of create requests refused due to lack of space |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |cull=N |Number of objects culled to make space |
++--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+|IO |rd=N |Number of read operations in the cache |
++ +-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+| |wr=N |Number of write operations in the cache |
++--------------+-------+-------------------------------------------------------+
+
+Netfslib will also add some stats counters of its own.
+
+
+Cache List
+==========
+
+FS-Cache provides a list of cache cookies:
+
+ /proc/fs/fscache/cookies
+
+This will look something like::
+
+ # cat /proc/fs/fscache/caches
+ CACHE REF VOLS OBJS ACCES S NAME
+ ======== ===== ===== ===== ===== = ===============
+ 00000001 2 1 2123 1 A default
+
+where the columns are:
+
+ ======= ===============================================================
+ COLUMN DESCRIPTION
+ ======= ===============================================================
+ CACHE Cache cookie debug ID (also appears in traces)
+ REF Number of references on the cache cookie
+ VOLS Number of volumes cookies in this cache
+ OBJS Number of cache objects in use
+ ACCES Number of accesses pinning the cache
+ S State
+ NAME Name of the cache.
+ ======= ===============================================================
+
+The state can be (-) Inactive, (P)reparing, (A)ctive, (E)rror or (W)ithdrawing.
+
+
+Volume List
+===========
+
+FS-Cache provides a list of volume cookies:
+
+ /proc/fs/fscache/volumes
+
+This will look something like::
+
+ VOLUME REF nCOOK ACC FL CACHE KEY
+ ======== ===== ===== === == =============== ================
+ 00000001 55 54 1 00 default afs,example.com,100058
+
+where the columns are:
+
+ ======= ===============================================================
+ COLUMN DESCRIPTION
+ ======= ===============================================================
+ VOLUME The volume cookie debug ID (also appears in traces)
+ REF Number of references on the volume cookie
+ nCOOK Number of cookies in the volume
+ ACC Number of accesses pinning the cache
+ FL Flags on the volume cookie
+ CACHE Name of the cache or "-"
+ KEY The indexing key for the volume
+ ======= ===============================================================
+
+
+Cookie List
+===========
+
+FS-Cache provides a list of cookies:
+
+ /proc/fs/fscache/cookies
+
+This will look something like::
+
+ # head /proc/fs/fscache/cookies
+ COOKIE VOLUME REF ACT ACC S FL DEF
+ ======== ======== === === === = == ================
+ 00000435 00000001 1 0 -1 - 08 0000000201d080070000000000000000, 0000000000000000
+ 00000436 00000001 1 0 -1 - 00 0000005601d080080000000000000000, 0000000000000051
+ 00000437 00000001 1 0 -1 - 08 00023b3001d0823f0000000000000000, 0000000000000000
+ 00000438 00000001 1 0 -1 - 08 0000005801d0807b0000000000000000, 0000000000000000
+ 00000439 00000001 1 0 -1 - 08 00023b3201d080a10000000000000000, 0000000000000000
+ 0000043a 00000001 1 0 -1 - 08 00023b3401d080a30000000000000000, 0000000000000000
+ 0000043b 00000001 1 0 -1 - 08 00023b3601d080b30000000000000000, 0000000000000000
+ 0000043c 00000001 1 0 -1 - 08 00023b3801d080b40000000000000000, 0000000000000000
+
+where the columns are:
+
+ ======= ===============================================================
+ COLUMN DESCRIPTION
+ ======= ===============================================================
+ COOKIE The cookie debug ID (also appears in traces)
+ VOLUME The parent volume cookie debug ID
+ REF Number of references on the volume cookie
+ ACT Number of times the cookie is marked for in use
+ ACC Number of access pins in the cookie
+ S State of the cookie
+ FL Flags on the cookie
+ DEF Key, auxiliary data
+ ======= ===============================================================
+
+
+Debugging
+=========
+
+If CONFIG_FSCACHE_DEBUG is enabled, the FS-Cache facility can have runtime
+debugging enabled by adjusting the value in::
+
+ /sys/module/fscache/parameters/debug
+
+This is a bitmask of debugging streams to enable:
+
+ ======= ======= =============================== =======================
+ BIT VALUE STREAM POINT
+ ======= ======= =============================== =======================
+ 0 1 Cache management Function entry trace
+ 1 2 Function exit trace
+ 2 4 General
+ 3 8 Cookie management Function entry trace
+ 4 16 Function exit trace
+ 5 32 General
+ 6-8 (Not used)
+ 9 512 I/O operation management Function entry trace
+ 10 1024 Function exit trace
+ 11 2048 General
+ ======= ======= =============================== =======================
+
+The appropriate set of values should be OR'd together and the result written to
+the control file. For example::
+
+ echo $((1|8|512)) >/sys/module/fscache/parameters/debug
+
+will turn on all function entry debugging.