From 86c824b9434e764d01489688e4e38aee43b93fcf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jens Axboe Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:00:07 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] bio: add documentation to bio_alloc() Explain that with __GFP_WAIT set it will not fail, and that the caller must never allocate more than 1 bio at the time. Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe --- fs/bio.c | 18 ++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 18 insertions(+) diff --git a/fs/bio.c b/fs/bio.c index e0c9e545bbfa..cd42bb882f30 100644 --- a/fs/bio.c +++ b/fs/bio.c @@ -348,6 +348,24 @@ err: return NULL; } +/** + * bio_alloc - allocate a bio for I/O + * @gfp_mask: the GFP_ mask given to the slab allocator + * @nr_iovecs: number of iovecs to pre-allocate + * + * Description: + * bio_alloc will allocate a bio and associated bio_vec array that can hold + * at least @nr_iovecs entries. Allocations will be done from the + * fs_bio_set. Also see @bio_alloc_bioset. + * + * If %__GFP_WAIT is set, then bio_alloc will always be able to allocate + * a bio. This is due to the mempool guarantees. To make this work, callers + * must never allocate more than 1 bio at the time from this pool. Callers + * that need to allocate more than 1 bio must always submit the previously + * allocate bio for IO before attempting to allocate a new one. Failure to + * do so can cause livelocks under memory pressure. + * + **/ struct bio *bio_alloc(gfp_t gfp_mask, int nr_iovecs) { struct bio *bio = bio_alloc_bioset(gfp_mask, nr_iovecs, fs_bio_set);