ext4: add max_dir_size_kb mount option

Very large directories can cause significant performance problems, or
perhaps even invoke the OOM killer, if the process is running in a
highly constrained memory environment (whether it is VM's with a small
amount of memory or in a small memory cgroup).

So it is useful, in cloud server/data center environments, to be able
to set a filesystem-wide cap on the maximum size of a directory, to
ensure that directories never get larger than a sane size.  We do this
via a new mount option, max_dir_size_kb.  If there is an attempt to
grow the directory larger than max_dir_size_kb, the system call will
return ENOSPC instead.

Google-Bug-Id: 6863013

Signed-off-by: "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>

1 files changed, 10 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt
index 1b7f9ac..104322b 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/ext4.txt
@@ -375,6 +375,16 @@ dioread_nolock		locking. If the dioread_nolock option is specified
 			Because of the restrictions this options comprises
 			it is off by default (e.g. dioread_lock).
 
+max_dir_size_kb=n	This limits the size of directories so that any
+			attempt to expand them beyond the specified
+			limit in kilobytes will cause an ENOSPC error.
+			This is useful in memory constrained
+			environments, where a very large directory can
+			cause severe performance problems or even
+			provoke the Out Of Memory killer.  (For example,
+			if there is only 512mb memory available, a 176mb
+			directory may seriously cramp the system's style.)
+
 i_version		Enable 64-bit inode version support. This option is
 			off by default.