block: add request update interface

This patch adds blk_update_request(), which updates struct request
with completing its data part, but doesn't complete the struct
request itself.
Though it looks like end_that_request_first() of older kernels,
blk_update_request() should be used only by request stacking drivers.

Request-based dm will use it in bio->bi_end_io callback to update
the original request when a data part of a cloned request completes.
Followings are additional background information of why request-based
dm needs this interface.

  - Request stacking drivers can't use blk_end_request() directly from
    the lower driver's completion context (bio->bi_end_io or rq->end_io),
    because some device drivers (e.g. ide) may try to complete
    their request with queue lock held, and it may cause deadlock.
    See below for detailed description of possible deadlock:
    <http://marc.info/?l=linux-kernel&m=120311479108569&w=2>

  - To solve that, request-based dm offloads the completion of
    cloned struct request to softirq context (i.e. using
    blk_complete_request() from rq->end_io).

  - Though it is possible to use the same solution from bio->bi_end_io,
    it will delay the notification of bio completion to the original
    submitter.  Also, it will cause inefficient partial completion,
    because the lower driver can't perform the cloned request anymore
    and request-based dm needs to requeue and redispatch it to
    the lower driver again later.  That's not good.

  - So request-based dm needs blk_update_request() to perform the bio
    completion in the lower driver's completion context, which is more
    efficient.

Signed-off-by: Kiyoshi Ueda <k-ueda@ct.jp.nec.com>
Signed-off-by: Jun'ichi Nomura <j-nomura@ce.jp.nec.com>
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com>

1 files changed, 2 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/include/linux/blkdev.h b/include/linux/blkdev.h
index e23b838825b..e82a84c9f37 100644
--- a/include/linux/blkdev.h
+++ b/include/linux/blkdev.h
@@ -791,6 +791,8 @@ extern void blk_complete_request(struct request *);
 extern void __blk_complete_request(struct request *);
 extern void blk_abort_request(struct request *);
 extern void blk_abort_queue(struct request_queue *);
+extern void blk_update_request(struct request *rq, int error,
+                               unsigned int nr_bytes);
 
 /*
  * blk_end_request() takes bytes instead of sectors as a complete size.