The File Struct Is Smaller In Linux 6.12 - May Help File Heavy Workloads

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The File Struct Is Smaller In Linux 6.12 - May Help File Heavy Workloads

The file structure is one of the most widely-used data structures by Linux kernel drivers. The file struct represents an open file and thus obviously very important and ubiquitous throughout the kernel. With the Linux 6.12 kernel the file struct has been adjusted so it's smaller than before and in turn could help with performance for file-heavy workloads...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.12-Shrinks-Struct-File

[geerge]

Love it.

[chilek]

Cool! Now my C programs will be able to open securely 26% more files. It's key change in 6.12!

[V1tol]

That's actually quite a lot of overhead.

[elbar]

fragmentation non-existent or (memory)fuse driver just in case as abstraction with structures according programmatic and performance needs...

[ddriver]

That's still a lot of bytes. What do they keep in there...

[zexelon]

I really hope someone has like 10 years of low level file system traffic recorded that uses this function and can be replayed through it as an acid test. Any adjustments to these "single point of failure" functions is mildly terrifying.

Something like this can affect all file systems and points in the system. While it had to happen... I really hope its tested beyond the nines.

[aviallon]

Cool! Now my C programs will be able to open securely 26% more files. It's key change in 6.12!

I believe the main gain is for workloads that open and close a ton of files.
Like a find for instance.

[browseria]

That's still a lot of bytes. What do they keep in there...

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/include/linux/fs.h#L1032

[NotMine999]

That's still a lot of bytes. What do they keep in there...

It might be where Linus keeps the Linux 'easter eggs'