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bees/docs/btrfs-kernel.md
Zygo Blaxell 19859b0a0d docs: toxic extents and btrfs send
Update documentation of toxic extent / slow backref workaround.

Add notes about btrfs send kernel bugs and incremental send failures.

Signed-off-by: Zygo Blaxell <bees@furryterror.org>
2018-11-08 21:31:02 -05:00

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Markdown

Recommended kernel version
==========================
Linux **4.14.34** or later.
A Brief List Of Btrfs Kernel Bugs
---------------------------------
Recent kernel bug fixes:
* 4.14.29: `WARN_ON(ref->count < 0)` in fs/btrfs/backref.c triggers
almost once per second. The `WARN_ON` is incorrect, and is now removed.
Unfixed kernel bugs (as of 4.14.71):
* **Bad _filesystem destroying_ interactions** with other Linux block
layers: `bcache` and `lvmcache` can fail spectacularly, and apparently
only do so while running bees. This is definitely a kernel bug,
either in btrfs or the lower block layers. **Avoid using bees with
these tools unless your filesystem is disposable and you intend to
debug the kernel.**
* **Compressed data corruption** is possible when using the `fallocate`
system call to punch holes into compressed extents that contain long
runs of zeros. The [bug results in intermittent corruption during
reads](https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-btrfs/msg81293.html), but
due to the bug, the kernel might sometimes mistakenly determine data
is duplicate, and deduplication will corrupt the data permanently.
This bug also affects compressed `kvm` raw images with the `discard`
feature on btrfs or any compressed file where `fallocate -d` or
`fallocate -p` has been used.
* **Deadlock** when [simultaneously using the same files in dedupe and
`rename`](https://www.spinics.net/lists/linux-btrfs/msg81109.html).
There is no way for bees to reliably know when another process is
about to rename a file while bees is deduping it. In the `rsync` case,
bees will dedupe the new file `rsync` is creating using the old file
`rsync` is copying from, while `rsync` will rename the new file over
the old file to replace it.
* **btrfs send** has various problems when bees is deduping RO snapshots,
especially if the snapshot is used as a parent for incremental send.
Minor kernel problems with workarounds:
* **Slow backrefs** (aka toxic extents): Under certain conditions,
if the number of references to a single shared extent grows too high,
the kernel consumes more and more CPU while holding locks that block
access to the filesystem. bees avoids this bug by measuring the time
the kernel spends performing `LOGICAL_INO` operations and permanently
blacklisting any extent or hash involved where the kernel starts
to get slow. In the bees log, such blocks are labelled as 'toxic'
hash/block addresses.
Older kernels:
* Older kernels have various data corruption and deadlock/hang issues
that are no longer listed here, and older kernels are missing important
features such as `LOGICAL_INO_V2`. Using an older kernel is not
recommended.