Xfs_io (8) Linux Manual Page

xfs_io – debug the I/O path of an XFS filesystem

Synopsis

xfs_io [ -adfimrRstxT ] [ -c cmd ] … [ -p prog ] file
xfs_io -V

Description

xfs_io is a debugging tool like xfs_db(8), but is aimed at examining the regular file I/O paths rather than the raw XFS volume itself. These code paths include not only the obvious read/write/mmap interfaces for manipulating files, but also cover all of the XFS extensions (such as space preallocation, additional inode flags, etc).

Options

-c cmd: xfs_io commands may be run interactively (the default) or as arguments on the command line. Multiple -c arguments may be given. The commands are run in the sequence given, then the program exits.
-p prog: Set the program name for prompts and some error messages, the default value is xfs_io.
-f: Create file if it does not already exist.
-r: Open file read-only, initially. This is required if file is immutable or append-only.
-i: Start an idle thread. The purpose of this idle thread is to test io from a multi threaded process. With single threaded process, the file table is not shared and file structs are not reference counted. Spawning an idle thread can help detecting file struct reference leaks.
-x: Expert mode. Dangerous commands are only available in this mode. These commands also tend to require additional privileges.
-V: Prints the version number and exits.

The other open(2) options described below are also available from the command line.

Concepts

xfs_io maintains a number of open files and memory mappings. Files can be initially opened on the command line (optionally), and additional files can also be opened later.

xfs_io commands can be broken up into three groups. Some commands are aimed at doing regular file I/O – read, write, sync, space preallocation, etc.

The second set of commands exist for manipulating memory mapped regions of a file – mapping, accessing, storing, unmapping, flushing, etc.

The remaining commands are for the navigation and display of data structures relating to the open files, mappings, and the filesystems where they reside.

Many commands have extensive online help. Use the help command for more details on any command.

File I/O Commands

file [ N ]

Display a list of all open files and (optionally) switch to an alternate current open file.

open [[ -acdfrstRT ] path ]

Closes the current file, and opens the file specified by path instead. Without any arguments, displays statistics about the current file – see the stat command.

-a: opens append-only (O_APPEND).
-d: opens for direct I/O (O_DIRECT).
-f: creates the file if it doesn’t already exist (O_CREAT).
-r: opens read-only (O_RDONLY).
-s: opens for synchronous I/O (O_SYNC).
-t: truncates on open (O_TRUNC).
-n: opens in non-blocking mode if possible (O_NONBLOCK).
-T: create a temporary file not linked into the filesystem namespace (O_TMPFILE). The pathname passed must refer to a directory which is treated as virtual parent for the newly created invisible file. Can not be used together with the -r option.
-R: marks the file as a realtime XFS file after opening it, if it is not already marked as such.

o

See the open command.

close

Closes the current open file, marking the next open file as current (if one exists).

c

See the close command.

pread [ -b bsize ] [ -v ] [ -FBR [ -Z seed ] ] [ -V vectors ] offset length

Reads a range of bytes in a specified blocksize from the given offset.

-b: can be used to set the blocksize into which the read(2) requests will be split. The default blocksize is 4096 bytes.
-v: dump the contents of the buffer after reading, by default only the count of bytes actually read is dumped.
-F: read the buffers in a forwards sequential direction.
-B: read the buffers in a reserve sequential direction.
-R: read the buffers in the give range in a random order.
-Z seed: specify the random number seed used for random reads.
-V vectors: Use the vectored IO read syscall preadv(2) with a number of blocksize length iovecs. The number of iovecs is set by the vectors parameter.

r

See the pread command.

pwrite [ -i file ] [ -d ] [ -s skip ] [ -b size ] [ -S seed ] [ -FBR [ -Z zeed ] ] [ -wW ] [ -V vectors ] offset length

Writes a range of bytes in a specified blocksize from the given offset. The bytes written can be either a set pattern or read in from another file before writing.

-i: allows an input file to be specified as the source of the data to be written.
-d: causes direct I/O, rather than the usual buffered I/O, to be used when reading the input file.
-s: specifies the number of bytes to skip from the start of the input file before starting to read.
-b: used to set the blocksize into which the write(2) requests will be split. The default blocksize is 4096 bytes.
-S: used to set the (repeated) fill pattern which is used when the data to write is not coming from a file. The default buffer fill pattern value is 0xcdcdcdcd.
-F: write the buffers in a forwards sequential direction.
-B: write the buffers in a reserve sequential direction.
-R: write the buffers in the give range in a random order.
-Z seed: specify the random number seed used for random write
-w: call fdatasync(2) once all writes are complete (included in timing results)
-W: call fsync(2) once all writes are complete (included in timing results)
-V vectors: Use the vectored IO write syscall pwritev(2) with a number of blocksize length iovecs. The number of iovecs is set by the vectors parameter.

w

See the pwrite command.

bmap [ -acdelpv ] [ -n nx ]

Prints the block mapping for the current open file. Refer to the xfs_bmap(8) manual page for complete documentation.

fiemap [ -alv ] [ -n nx ]

Prints the block mapping for the current open file using the fiemap ioctl. Options behave as described in the xfs_bmap(8) manual page.

extsize [ -R | -D ] [ value ]

Display and/or modify the preferred extent size used when allocating space for the currently open file. If the -R option is specified, a recursive descent is performed for all directory entries below the currently open file (-D can be used to restrict the output to directories only). If the target file is a directory, then the inherited extent size is set for that directory (new files created in that directory inherit that extent size). The value should be specified in bytes, or using one of the usual units suffixes (k, m, g, b, etc). The extent size is always reported in units of bytes.

cowextsize [ -R | -D ] [ value ]

Display and/or modify the preferred copy-on-write extent size used when allocating space for the currently open file. If the -R option is specified, a recursive descent is performed for all directory entries below the currently open file (-D can be used to restrict the output to directories only). If the target file is a directory, then the inherited CoW extent size is set for that directory (new files created in that directory inherit that CoW extent size). The value should be specified in bytes, or using one of the usual units suffixes (k, m, g, b, etc). The extent size is always reported in units of bytes.

allocsp size 0

Sets the size of the file to size and zeroes any additional space allocated using the XFS_IOC_ALLOCSP/XFS_IOC_FREESP system call described in the xfsctl(3) manual page. allocsp and freesp do exactly the same thing.

freesp size 0

See the allocsp command.

fadvise [ -r | -s | [[ -d | -n | -w ] offset length ]]

On platforms which support it, allows hints be given to the system regarding the expected I/O patterns on the file. The range arguments are required by some advise commands ([*] below), and the others must have no range arguments. With no arguments, the POSIX_FADV_NORMAL advice is implied (default readahead).

-d: the data will not be accessed again in the near future (POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED[*]).
-n: data will be accessed once and not be reused (POSIX_FADV_NOREUSE[*]).
-r: expect access to data in random order (POSIX_FADV_RANDOM), which sets readahead to zero.
-s: expect access to data in sequential order (POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL), which doubles the default readahead on the file.
-w: advises the specified data will be needed again (POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED[*]) which forces the maximum readahead.

fdatasync

Calls fdatasync(2) to flush the file’s in-core data to disk.

fsync

Calls fsync(2) to flush all in-core file state to disk.

s

See the fsync command.

sync_range [ -a | -b | -w ] offset length

On platforms which support it, allows control of syncing a range of the file to disk. With no options, SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE is implied on the range supplied.

-a: wait for IO in the given range to finish after writing (SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_AFTER).
-b: wait for IO in the given range to finish before writing (SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WAIT_BEFORE).
-w: start writeback of dirty data in the given range (SYNC_FILE_RANGE_WRITE).

sync

Calls sync(2) to flush all filesystems’ in-core data to disk.

syncfs

Calls syncfs(2) to flush this filesystem’s in-core data to disk.

resvsp offset length

Allocates reserved, unwritten space for part of a file using the XFS_IOC_RESVSP system call described in the xfsctl(3) manual page.

unresvsp offset length

Frees reserved space for part of a file using the XFS_IOC_UNRESVSP system call described in the xfsctl(3) manual page.

falloc [ -k ] offset length

Allocates reserved, unwritten space for part of a file using the fallocate routine as described in the fallocate(2) manual page.

-k: will set the FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE flag as described in fallocate(2).

fcollapse offset length

Call fallocate with FALLOC_FL_COLLAPSE_RANGE flag as described in the fallocate(2) manual page to de-allocates blocks and eliminates the hole created in this process by shifting data blocks into the hole.

finsert offset length

Call fallocate with FALLOC_FL_INSERT_RANGE flag as described in the fallocate(2) manual page to create the hole by shifting data blocks.

fpunch offset length

Punches (de-allocates) blocks in the file by calling fallocate with the FALLOC_FL_PUNCH_HOLE flag as described in the fallocate(2) manual page.

funshare offset length

Call fallocate with FALLOC_FL_UNSHARE_RANGE flag as described in the fallocate(2) manual page to unshare all shared blocks within the range.

fzero offset length

Call fallocate with FALLOC_FL_ZERO_RANGE flag as described in the fallocate(2) manual page to allocate and zero blocks within the range.

zero offset length

Call xfsctl with XFS_IOC_ZERO_RANGE as described in the xfsctl(3) manual page to allocate and zero blocks within the range.

truncate offset

Truncates the current file at the given offset using ftruncate(2).

sendfile -i srcfile | -f N [ offset length ]

On platforms which support it, allows a direct in-kernel copy between two file descriptors. The current open file is the target, the source must be specified as another open file (-f) or by path (-i).

readdir [ -v ] [ -o offset ] [ -l length ]

Read a range of directory entries from a given offset of a directory.

-v: verbose mode – dump dirent content as defined in readdir(3)
-o: specify starting offset
-l: specify total length to read (in bytes)

seek -a | -d | -h [ -r ] [ -s ] offset

On platforms that support the lseek(2) SEEK_DATA and SEEK_HOLE options, display the offsets of the specified segments.

-a: Display both data and hole segments starting at the specified offset.
-d: Display the data segment starting at the specified offset.
-h: Display the hole segment starting at the specified offset.
-r: Recursively display all the specified segments starting at the specified offset.
-s: Display the starting lseek(2) offset. This offset will be a calculated value when both data and holes are displayed together or performing a recusively display.

reflink [ -C ] [ -q ] src_file [src_offset dst_offset length]

On filesystems that support the XFS_IOC_CLONE_RANGE or BTRFS_IOC_CLONE_RANGE ioctls, map length bytes at offset dst_offset in the open file to the same physical blocks that are mapped at offset src_offset in the file src_file , replacing any contents that may already have been there. If a program writes into a reflinked block range of either file, the dirty blocks will be cloned, written to, and remapped ("copy on write") in the affected file, leaving the other file(s) unchanged. If src_offset, dst_offset, and length are omitted, all contents of src_file will be reflinked into the open file.

-C: Print timing statistics in a condensed format.
-q: Do not print timing statistics at all.

dedupe [ -C ] [ -q ] src_file src_offset dst_offset length

On filesystems that support the XFS_IOC_FILE_EXTENT_SAME or BTRFS_IOC_FILE_EXTENT_SAME ioctls, map length bytes at offset dst_offset in the open file to the same physical blocks that are mapped at offset src_offset in the file src_file , but only if the contents of both ranges are identical. This is known as block-based deduplication. If a program writes into a reflinked block range of either file, the dirty blocks will be cloned, written to, and remapped ("copy on write") in the affected file, leaving the other file(s) unchanged.

-C: Print timing statistics in a condensed format.
-q: Do not print timing statistics at all.

copy_range [ -s src_offset ] [ -d dst_offset ] [ -l length ] src_file

On filesystems that support the copy_file_range(2) system call, copies data from the src_file into the open file. If src_offset, dst_offset, and length are omitted the contents of src_file will be copied to the beginning of the open file, overwriting any data already there.

-s: Copy data from src_file beginning from src_offset.
-d: Copy data into the open file beginning at dst_offset.
-l: Copy up to length bytes of data.

Memory Mapped I/O Commands

mmap [ N | [[ -rwx ] [-s size ] offset length ]]

With no arguments, mmap shows the current mappings. Specifying a single numeric argument N sets the current mapping. If two arguments are specified (a range specified by offset and length), a new mapping is created spanning the range, and the protection mode can be given as a combination of PROT_READ (-r), PROT_WRITE (-w), and PROT_EXEC (-x). -s size is used to do a mmap(size) && munmap(size) operation at first, try to reserve some extendible free memory space, if size is bigger than length parameter. But there’s not guarantee that the memory after length ( up to size ) will stay free. e.g. "mmap -rw -s 8192 1024" will mmap 0 ~ 1024 bytes memory, but try to reserve 1024 ~ 8192 free space(no guarantee). This free space will helpful for "mremap 8192" without MREMAP_MAYMOVE flag.

mm

See the mmap command.

mremap [ -f <new_address> ] [ -m ] new_length

Changes the current mapping size to new_length. Whether the mapping may be moved is controlled by the flags passed; MREMAP_FIXED (-f), or MREMAP_MAYMOVE (-m). new_length specifies a page-aligned address to which the mapping must be moved. It can be setted to 139946004389888, 4096k or 1g etc.

mrm

See the mremap command.

munmap

Unmaps the current memory mapping.

mu

See the munmap command.

mread [ -f | -v ] [ -r ] [ offset length ]

Accesses a segment of the current memory mapping, optionally dumping it to the standard output stream (with -v or -f option) for inspection. The accesses are performed sequentially from the start offset by default, but can also be done from the end backwards through the mapping if the -r option in specified. The two verbose modes differ only in the relative offsets they display, the -f option is relative to file start, whereas -v shows offsets relative to the start of the mapping.

mr

See the mread command.

mwrite [ -r ] [ -S seed ] [ offset length ]

Stores a byte into memory for a range within a mapping. The default stored value is ‘X’, repeated to fill the range specified, but this can be changed using the -S option. The memory stores are performed sequentially from the start offset by default, but can also be done from the end backwards through the mapping if the -r option in specified.

mw

See the mwrite command.

msync [ -i ] [ -a | -s ] [ offset length ]

Writes all modified copies of pages over the specified range (or entire mapping if no range specified) to their backing storage locations. Also, optionally invalidates (-i) so that subsequent references to the pages will be obtained from their backing storage locations (instead of cached copies). The flush can be done synchronously (-s) or asynchronously (-a).

ms

See the msync command.

madvise [ -d | -r | -s | -w ] [ offset length ]

Modifies page cache behavior when operating on the current mapping. The range arguments are required by some advise commands ([*] below). With no arguments, the POSIX_MADV_NORMAL advice is implied (default readahead).

-d: the pages will not be needed (POSIX_MADV_DONTNEED[*]).
-r: expect random page references (POSIX_MADV_RANDOM), which sets readahead to zero.
-s: expect sequential page references (POSIX_MADV_SEQUENTIAL), which doubles the default readahead on the file.
-w: advises the specified pages will be needed again (POSIX_MADV_WILLNEED[*]) which forces the maximum readahead.

mincore

Dumps a list of pages or ranges of pages that are currently in core, for the current memory mapping.

Other Commands

help [ command ]

Display a brief description of one or all commands.

print

Display a list of all open files and memory mapped regions. The current file and current mapping are distinguishable from any others.

p

See the print command.

quit

Exit xfs_io.

q

See the quit command.

lsattr [ -R | -D | -a | -v ]

List extended inode flags on the currently open file. If the -R option is specified, a recursive descent is performed for all directory entries below the currently open file (-D can be used to restrict the output to directories only). This is a depth first descent, it does not follow symlinks and it also does not cross mount points.

chattr [ -R | -D ] [ +/-riasAdtPneEfS ]

Change extended inode flags on the currently open file. The -R and -D options have the same meaning as above. The mapping between each letter and the inode flags (refer to xfsctl(3) for the full list) is available via the help command.

freeze

Suspend all write I/O requests to the filesystem of the current file. Only available in expert mode and requires privileges.

thaw

Undo the effects of a filesystem freeze operation. Only available in expert mode and requires privileges.

flink path

Link the currently open file descriptor into the filesystem namespace.

inject [ tag ]

Inject errors into a filesystem to observe filesystem behavior at specific points under adverse conditions. Without the tag argument, displays the list of error tags available. Only available in expert mode and requires privileges.

resblks [ blocks ]

Get and/or set count of reserved filesystem blocks using the XFS_IOC_GET_RESBLKS or XFS_IOC_SET_RESBLKS system calls. Note — this can be useful for exercising out of space behavior. Only available in expert mode and requires privileges.

shutdown [ -f ]

Force the filesystem to shutdown (with or without flushing the log). Only available in expert mode and requires privileges.

stat [ -v ]

Selected statistics from stat(2) and the XFS_IOC_GETXATTR system call on the current file. If the -v option is specified, the atime (last access), mtime (last modify), and ctime (last change) timestamps are also displayed.

statfs

Selected statistics from statfs(2) and the XFS_IOC_FSGEOMETRY system call on the filesystem where the current file resides.

chproj [ -R|-D ]

Modifies the project identifier associated with the current path. The -R option will recursively descend if the current path is a directory. The -D option will also recursively descend, only setting modifying projects on subdirectories. See the xfs_quota(8) manual page for more information about project identifiers.

lsproj [ -R|-D ]

Displays the project identifier associated with the current path. The -R and -D options behave as described above, in chproj.

parent [ -cpv ]

By default this command prints out the parent inode numbers, inode generation numbers and basenames of all the hardlinks which point to the inode of the current file.

-p: the output is similar to the default output except pathnames up to the mount-point are printed out instead of the component name.
-c: the file’s filesystem will check all the parent attributes for consistency.
-v: verbose output will be printed.

[NOTE: Not currently operational on Linux.]

xfs_io (8) Linux Manual Page