[PATCH] fuse: allow server to increase max_readahead via FUSE_INIT reply

[Jim Harris]

A FUSE server that advertises a large max_pages and max_write (e.g.
max_pages=256, max_write=1MB) cannot currently obtain matching
FUSE_READ request sizes from the kernel.  Buffered sequential writes
arrive at the server at the negotiated max_write size, but buffered
sequential reads remain capped at the kernel's default readahead
window (VM_READAHEAD_PAGES, 128KB; doubled to 256KB for files marked
POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL).  A 1MB application read() therefore turns
into four sequential 256KB FUSE_READ round-trips instead of one.

This is because process_init_reply() processes the server's
max_readahead response as:

	ra_pages = arg->max_readahead / PAGE_SIZE;
	fm->sb->s_bdi->ra_pages = min(fm->sb->s_bdi->ra_pages, ra_pages);

Since the kernel sends its current bdi->ra_pages as
init_in->max_readahead, and bdi->ra_pages is the default
VM_READAHEAD_PAGES at this point, the server can only ever decrease
the readahead window -- never increase it.  Even if the server
replies with max_readahead=1MB, the min() clamps it back to 128KB.

This clamp dates to commit 9cd684551124 ("[PATCH] fuse: fix async
read for legacy filesystems"), which introduced max_readahead at FUSE
protocol 7.6 and used min() to preserve legacy (<7.6) filesystem
behaviour.  Modern filesystems that explicitly advertise a larger
max_readahead are silently overridden.

Other filesystems set ra_pages or io_pages directly from negotiated
server/device capabilities: cifs sets ra_pages from rsize/rasize,
ceph from rasize/rsize mount options, 9p from maxdata, and nfs sets
io_pages from rpages.

Use the server's max_readahead response directly, bounded by
fc->max_pages (which is itself bounded by fc->max_pages_limit and,
for virtio-fs, by the virtqueue descriptor count):

	fm->sb->s_bdi->ra_pages = min_t(unsigned int, ra_pages,
					fc->max_pages);

This is backward compatible:

 - Servers that echo init_in->max_readahead back unchanged see the
   same effective readahead as today.
 - Servers that reply with a smaller value still reduce ra_pages.
 - Servers that do not negotiate FUSE_MAX_PAGES see no change, since
   fc->max_pages defaults to FUSE_DEFAULT_MAX_PAGES_PER_REQ (32),
   matching VM_READAHEAD_PAGES.
 - Only servers that both negotiate FUSE_MAX_PAGES and advertise a
   larger max_readahead see the new behaviour, and in that case
   fc->max_pages already gates per-request data size.

Signed-off-by: Jim Harris <jim.harris@xxxxxxxxxx>
Assisted-by: Cursor:claude-opus-4.7
---
Notes on AI assistance:

  The code analysis (tracing the readahead negotiation in
  process_init_reply(), confirming the behaviour of ractl_max_pages()
  in mm/readahead.c, and surveying how other filesystems set
  ra_pages/io_pages) and the bulk of this changelog were drafted with
  an AI coding assistant (see Assisted-by trailer).  The one-line code
  change was reviewed by me.  The motivating performance observation
  (a 1MB application read producing four 256KB FUSE_READ requests
  against a server advertising max_pages=256 and max_write=1MB) was
  observed by me on a real virtio-fs workload prior to any AI
  involvement, and verification of patched and unpatched behaviour
  was performed by me.

 fs/fuse/inode.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/fs/fuse/inode.c b/fs/fuse/inode.c
index deddfffb037f..272026f11a34 100644
--- a/fs/fuse/inode.c
+++ b/fs/fuse/inode.c
@@ -1494,7 +1494,7 @@ static void process_init_reply(struct fuse_mount *fm, struct fuse_args *args,
 		init_server_timeout(fc, timeout);
 
 		fm->sb->s_bdi->ra_pages =
-				min(fm->sb->s_bdi->ra_pages, ra_pages);
+				min_t(unsigned int, ra_pages, fc->max_pages);
 		fc->minor = arg->minor;
 		fc->max_write = arg->minor < 5 ? 4096 : arg->max_write;
 		fc->max_write = max_t(unsigned, 4096, fc->max_write);
-- 
2.43.0