FAILED: Patch "ext4: don't zero the entire extent if EXT4_EXT_DATA_PARTIAL_VALID1" failed to apply to 5.15-stable tree

The patch below does not apply to the 5.15-stable tree.
If someone wants it applied there, or to any other stable or longterm tree, then please email the backport, including the original git commit id to <[email protected]>.

Thanks,
Sasha

------------------ original commit in Linus's tree ------------------

From 1bf6974822d1dba86cf11b5f05498581cf3488a2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Zhang Yi <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2025 18:32:34 +0800
Subject: [PATCH] ext4: don't zero the entire extent if
EXT4_EXT_DATA_PARTIAL_VALID1

When allocating initialized blocks from a large unwritten extent, or when splitting an unwritten extent during end I/O and converting it to initialized, there is currently a potential issue of stale data if the extent needs to be split in the middle.

0 A B N
[UUUUUUUUUUUU] U: unwritten extent
[--DDDDDDDD--] D: valid data
|<- ->| ----> this range needs to be initialized

ext4_split_extent() first try to split this extent at B with EXT4_EXT_DATA_ENTIRE_VALID1 and EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT flag set, but ext4_split_extent_at() failed to split this extent due to temporary lack of space. It zeroout B to N and mark the entire extent from 0 to N as written.

0 A B N
[WWWWWWWWWWWW] W: written extent
[SSDDDDDDDDZZ] Z: zeroed, S: stale data

ext4_split_extent() then try to split this extent at A with EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2 flag set. This time, it split successfully and left a stale written extent from 0 to A.

       0  A      B   N
       [WW|WWWWWWWWWW]
       [SS|DDDDDDDDZZ]

Fix this by pass EXT4_EXT_DATA_PARTIAL_VALID1 to ext4_split_extent_at() when splitting at B, don't convert the entire extent to written and left it as unwritten after zeroing out B to N. The remaining work is just like the standard two-part split. ext4_split_extent() will pass the EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2 flag when it calls ext4_split_extent_at() for the second time, allowing it to properly handle the split. If the split is successful, it will keep extent from 0 to A as unwritten.

Message-ID: <[email protected]>

---
 fs/ext4/extents.c | 13 ++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

index 8d5ca450aa5d2..1fee84ea20af1 100644
@@ -3310,6 +3310,15 @@ static struct ext4_ext_path *ext4_split_extent_at(handle_t *handle,
 		}
 
 		if (!err) {
+			/*
+			 * The first half contains partially valid data, the
+			 * splitting of this extent has not been completed, fix
+			 * extent length and ext4_split_extent() split will the
+			 * first half again.
+			 */
+			if (split_flag & EXT4_EXT_DATA_PARTIAL_VALID1)
+				goto fix_extent_len;
+
 			/* update the extent length and mark as initialized */
 			ex->ee_len = cpu_to_le16(ee_len);
 			ext4_ext_try_to_merge(handle, inode, path, ex);

@@ -3379,7 +3388,9 @@ static struct ext4_ext_path *ext4_split_extent(handle_t *handle,
 			split_flag1 |= EXT4_EXT_MARK_UNWRIT1 |
 				       EXT4_EXT_MARK_UNWRIT2;
 		if (split_flag & EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2)
-			split_flag1 |= EXT4_EXT_DATA_ENTIRE_VALID1;
+			split_flag1 |= map->m_lblk > ee_block ?
+				       EXT4_EXT_DATA_PARTIAL_VALID1 :
+				       EXT4_EXT_DATA_ENTIRE_VALID1;
 		path = ext4_split_extent_at(handle, inode, path,
 				map->m_lblk + map->m_len, split_flag1, flags1);
 		if (IS_ERR(path))

2.51.0