[PATCH 1/3] ntfs: wait for sync mft writes to complete

From: DaeMyung Kang

Date: Thu Apr 30 2026 - 13:21:51 EST


ntfs_sync_mft_mirror() and write_mft_record_nolock() with @sync set
are both documented as synchronous, but neither actually waits for
the bio they submit nor inspects bi_status. write_inode() can
return success while dirty mft record bytes are still in flight, and
bio errors are silently dropped: the volume is not marked with
errors and the inode is not redirtied. This breaks fsync()/sync
metadata durability.

Switch ntfs_sync_mft_mirror() and the @sync path of
write_mft_record_nolock() to submit_bio_wait() and propagate the
returned error to the caller. Capture ntfs_sync_mft_mirror()'s
return value at its call sites in write_mft_record_nolock() so a
mirror write failure surfaces too.

The @sync parameter only controls the main MFT bio. The !@sync main
submission is therefore unchanged and still uses ntfs_bio_end_io() to
drop the folio reference taken before submission. The mirror call
has always been documented as performing synchronous I/O regardless
of @sync, so making it actually block restores the originally
intended contract for both @sync and !@sync callers.

Note this only fixes the synchronous mirror/main paths reachable
from write_mft_record_nolock(). The main MFT write submitted from
ntfs_write_mft_block() (the .writepages path) still does not wait
for completion or check bi_status; that requires a larger
restructuring and is left to a follow-up patch.

Fixes: 115380f9a2f9 ("ntfs: update mft operations")
Signed-off-by: DaeMyung Kang <charsyam@xxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/ntfs/mft.c | 63 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------------------
1 file changed, 41 insertions(+), 22 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/ntfs/mft.c b/fs/ntfs/mft.c
index 7d989267a82b..4051b4823162 100644
--- a/fs/ntfs/mft.c
+++ b/fs/ntfs/mft.c
@@ -449,7 +449,7 @@ static void ntfs_bio_end_io(struct bio *bio)
int ntfs_sync_mft_mirror(struct ntfs_volume *vol, const u64 mft_no,
struct mft_record *m)
{
- u8 *kmirr = NULL;
+ u8 *kmirr;
struct folio *folio;
unsigned int folio_ofs, lcn_folio_off = 0;
int err = 0;
@@ -479,6 +479,7 @@ int ntfs_sync_mft_mirror(struct ntfs_volume *vol, const u64 mft_no,
kmirr = kmap_local_folio(folio, 0) + folio_ofs;
/* Copy the mst protected mft record to the mirror. */
memcpy(kmirr, m, vol->mft_record_size);
+ kunmap_local(kmirr);

if (vol->cluster_size_bits > PAGE_SHIFT) {
lcn_folio_off = folio->index << PAGE_SHIFT;
@@ -490,20 +491,22 @@ int ntfs_sync_mft_mirror(struct ntfs_volume *vol, const u64 mft_no,
NTFS_B_TO_SECTOR(vol, NTFS_CLU_TO_B(vol, vol->mftmirr_lcn) +
lcn_folio_off + folio_ofs);

- if (!bio_add_folio(bio, folio, vol->mft_record_size, folio_ofs)) {
+ if (bio_add_folio(bio, folio, vol->mft_record_size, folio_ofs))
+ err = submit_bio_wait(bio);
+ else
err = -EIO;
- bio_put(bio);
- goto unlock_folio;
- }
+ bio_put(bio);

- bio->bi_end_io = ntfs_bio_end_io;
- submit_bio(bio);
- /* Current state: all buffers are clean, unlocked, and uptodate. */
+ /*
+ * The in-memory mirror is now valid because we just memcpy()'d the
+ * mst-protected mft record into it. Mark the folio uptodate even on
+ * write error so a subsequent read_mapping_folio() does not refetch
+ * the stale on-disk mirror and overwrite this copy. The error is
+ * propagated to the caller via @err.
+ */
folio_mark_uptodate(folio);

-unlock_folio:
folio_unlock(folio);
- kunmap_local(kmirr);
folio_put(folio);
if (likely(!err)) {
ntfs_debug("Done.");
@@ -588,20 +591,36 @@ int write_mft_record_nolock(struct ntfs_inode *ni, struct mft_record *m, int syn
}

/* Synchronize the mft mirror now if not @sync. */
- if (!sync && ni->mft_no < vol->mftmirr_size)
- ntfs_sync_mft_mirror(vol, ni->mft_no, fixup_m);
+ if (!sync && ni->mft_no < vol->mftmirr_size) {
+ int sub_err = ntfs_sync_mft_mirror(vol, ni->mft_no,
+ fixup_m);
+ if (unlikely(sub_err) && !err)
+ err = sub_err;
+ }

- folio_get(folio);
- bio->bi_private = folio;
- bio->bi_end_io = ntfs_bio_end_io;
- submit_bio(bio);
+ if (sync) {
+ int sub_err = submit_bio_wait(bio);
+
+ bio_put(bio);
+ if (unlikely(sub_err) && !err)
+ err = sub_err;
+ } else {
+ folio_get(folio);
+ bio->bi_private = folio;
+ bio->bi_end_io = ntfs_bio_end_io;
+ submit_bio(bio);
+ }
offset += vol->cluster_size;
i++;
}

/* If @sync, now synchronize the mft mirror. */
- if (sync && ni->mft_no < vol->mftmirr_size)
- ntfs_sync_mft_mirror(vol, ni->mft_no, fixup_m);
+ if (sync && ni->mft_no < vol->mftmirr_size) {
+ int sub_err = ntfs_sync_mft_mirror(vol, ni->mft_no, fixup_m);
+
+ if (unlikely(sub_err) && !err)
+ err = sub_err;
+ }
kunmap_local(kaddr);
if (unlikely(err)) {
/* I/O error during writing. This is really bad! */
@@ -617,10 +636,10 @@ int write_mft_record_nolock(struct ntfs_inode *ni, struct mft_record *m, int syn
bio_put(bio);
err_out:
/*
- * Current state: all buffers are clean, unlocked, and uptodate.
- * The caller should mark the base inode as bad so that no more i/o
- * happens. ->drop_inode() will still be invoked so all extent inodes
- * and other allocated memory will be freed.
+ * The caller should mark the base inode as bad so no more I/O
+ * happens. ->drop_inode() will still be invoked so all extent inodes
+ * and other allocated memory will be freed. ENOMEM is retried by
+ * redirtying the mft record below.
*/
if (err == -ENOMEM) {
ntfs_error(vol->sb,
--
2.43.0