Hey Christoph, I have a ... weird test setup where loop devices have directio enabled unconditionally on a system with 4k-lba disks, and now that I pulled down 6.15-rc1, I see failures in xfs/259: --- /run/fstests/bin/tests/xfs/259.out 2025-01-30 10:00:17.074275830 -0800 +++ /var/tmp/fstests/xfs/259.out.bad 2025-04-06 19:34:56.587315490 -0700 @@ -1,17 +1,428 @@ QA output created by 259 Trying to make (4TB - 4096B) long xfs, block size 4096 Trying to make (4TB - 4096B) long xfs, block size 2048 +block size 2048 cannot be smaller than sector size 4096 I think bugs in the loop driver's O_DIRECT handling are responsible for this. I boiled it down to the key commands so that you don't have to set up a bunch of hardware. First, some setup: # losetup -f --direct-io=on --sector-size 4096 --show /dev/sda # mkfs.xfs -f /dev/sda # mount /dev/sda /mnt On 6.14 and 6.15-rc1, if I create the loop device with directio mode and try to turn it off so that I can reduce the block size: # truncate -s 30g /mnt/a # losetup --direct-io=on -f --show /mnt/a /dev/loop1 # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 1 4096 # losetup --sector-size 2048 /dev/loop1 # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 0 2048 # losetup --direct-io=off /dev/loop1 # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 0 2048 # losetup --sector-size 2048 /dev/loop1 # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 0 2048 (yes, that is a weird sequence) Then trying to format an XFS filesystem fails: # mkfs.xfs -f /dev/loop1 -b size=2k -K meta-data=/dev/loop1 isize=512 agcount=4, agsize=393216 blks = sectsz=2048 attr=2, projid32bit=1 = crc=1 finobt=1, sparse=1, rmapbt=1 = reflink=1 bigtime=1 inobtcount=1 nrext64=1 = exchange=0 metadir=0 data = bsize=2048 blocks=1572864, imaxpct=25 = sunit=0 swidth=0 blks naming =version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0, ftype=1, parent=0 log =internal log bsize=2048 blocks=32768, version=2 = sectsz=2048 sunit=1 blks, lazy-count=1 realtime =none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0 = rgcount=0 rgsize=0 extents mkfs.xfs: pwrite failed: Input/output error I think there's a bug in the loop driver where changing LO_FLAGS_DIRECT_IO doesn't actually try to change the O_DIRECT state of the underlying lo->lo_backing_file->f_flags. So I can try to set a 2k block size on the loop dev, which turns off LO_FLAGS_DIRECT_IO but the fd is still open O_DIRECT so the writes fail. But this isn't a regression in -rc1, so maybe this is the expected behavior? /me notes that going the opposite direction (turning directio on after creation) fails: # losetup --direct-io=on /dev/loop2 losetup: /dev/loop2: set direct io failed: Invalid argument At least the loopdev stays in buffered mode and mkfs runs fine. But now let's try passing in "0" to losetup --sector-size to set the sector size to the minimum value. On 6.14, this happens: # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 1 4096 # losetup --sector-size 0 /dev/loop1 # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 1 4096 # losetup --direct-io=off /dev/loop1 # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 0 4096 # losetup --sector-size 0 /dev/loop1 # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 1 4096 Notice that the loopdev never changes block size, so mkfs fails: # mkfs.xfs -f /dev/loop1 -b size=2k -K block size 2048 cannot be smaller than sector size 4096 On 6.15-rc1, you actually /can/ change the sector size: # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 1 4096 # losetup --sector-size 0 /dev/loop1 # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 1 4096 # losetup --direct-io=off /dev/loop1 # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 0 4096 # losetup --sector-size 0 /dev/loop1 # losetup --list --raw /dev/loop1 NAME SIZELIMIT OFFSET AUTOCLEAR RO BACK-FILE DIO LOG-SEC /dev/loop1 0 0 0 0 /mnt/a 0 512 But the backing file still has O_DIRECT on, so formatting fails: # mkfs.xfs -f /dev/loop1 -b size=2k -K meta-data=/dev/loop1 isize=512 agcount=4, agsize=393216 blks = sectsz=512 attr=2, projid32bit=1 = crc=1 finobt=1, sparse=1, rmapbt=1 = reflink=1 bigtime=1 inobtcount=1 nrext64=1 = exchange=0 metadir=0 data = bsize=2048 blocks=1572864, imaxpct=25 = sunit=0 swidth=0 blks naming =version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0, ftype=1, parent=0 log =internal log bsize=2048 blocks=32768, version=2 = sectsz=512 sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1 realtime =none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0 = rgcount=0 rgsize=0 extents mkfs.xfs: pwrite failed: Input/output error So I /think/ what's going on here is that LOOP_SET_DIRECT_IO should be trying to set/clear O_DIRECT on the backing file. I chose to tag you because I think commit f4774e92aab85d ("loop: take the file system minimum dio alignment into account") is what caused the change in the block size setting behavior. I also see similar messages in xfs/078 and maybe xfs/432 if I turn on zoned=1 mode. Though as I mentioned, I think the problems with the loop driver go deeper than that commit. :/ Thoughts? --D (/me notes that xfs/801 is failing across the board, and I don't know what changed about THPs in tmpfs but clearly something's corrupting memory.)