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Herein lies my proposed zero whole machine memory copy file i/o and filesystem library for the C++ standard, intended for storage devices with ~1 microsecond 4Kb transfer latencies and those supporting Storage Class Memory (SCM)/Direct Access Storage (DAX). Its i/o overhead, including syscall overhead, has been benchmarked to 100 nanoseconds on Linux which corresponds to a theoretical maximum of 10M IOPS @ QD1, approx 40Gb/sec per thread. It has particularly strong support for writing portable filesystem algorithms which work well with directly mapped non-volatile storage such as Intel Optane.

It is a complete rewrite after a Boost peer review in August 2015. LLFIO is the reference implementation for these C++ standardisations:

• llfio::path_view is expected to enter the C++ 26 standard (P1030).
• llfio::file_handle and llfio::mapped_file_handle are on track for entering the C++ 26 standard (P1883).

Other characteristics:

• Portable to any conforming C++ 14 compiler with a working Filesystem TS in its STL.
  • Note that VS2019 16.3 and libc++ 11 dropped support for Filesystem in C++ 14, so for those LLFIO's cmake forces on C++ 17.
• Fully clean with C++ 20.
  • Will make use of any Coroutines, Concepts, Span, Byte etc if you have them, otherwise swaps in C++ 14 compatible alternatives.
  • NOTE that Ubuntu 18.04's libstdc++ 9 does not currently provide symbols for <codecvt> if you are building in C++ 20, so linking LLFIO programs on libstdc++ on that Linux if in C++ 20 will fail. Either use a different STL, manually rebuild libstdc++, or use C++ 17.
• Aims to support Microsoft Windows, Linux, Android, iOS, Mac OS and FreeBSD.
  • Best effort to support older kernels up to their EOL (as of July 2020: >= Windows 8.1, >= Linux 2.6.32 (RHEL EOL), >= Mac OS 10.13, >= FreeBSD 11).
• Original error code is always preserved, even down to the original NT kernel error code if a NT kernel API was used.
  • Optional configuration based on P1028 SG14 status_code and standard error object for P0709 Zero-overhead deterministic exceptions.
• Race free filesystem design used throughout (i.e. no TOCTOU).
• Zero malloc, zero exception throw and zero whole system memory copy design used throughout, even down to paths (which can hit 64Kb!).
• Comprehensive support for virtual and mapped memory of both SCM/DAX and page cached storage, including large, huge and super pages.
• Happy on the cloud, well tested with AWS Lustre distributed network filing system.

\note Most of this code is mature quality. It has been shipping in production with multiple vendors for some years now, indeed amongst many big data solutions it powers the low level custom database component of the US Security and Exchange Commission's MIDAS solution which ingresses Terabytes of trade data per day. It is considered quite reliable on Windows and Linux (less well tested on Mac OS).

Examples of use (more examples: https://github.com/ned14/llfio/tree/develop/example):

Memory map in a file for read: \snippet example/mapped_file.cpp mapped_file Sparsely stored temporary disposable array: \snippet example/sparse_array.cpp sparse_array

Read metadata about a file and its storage: \snippet example/read_stats.cpp file_read_stats

See https://github.com/ned14/llfio/blob/master/programs/fs-probe/fs_probe_results.yaml for a database of latencies for various previously tested OS, filing systems and storage devices.

Todo list for already implemented parts: https://ned14.github.io/llfio/todo.html

 

[Build instructions can found here](Build.md)

 

v2 architecture and design implemented:

NEW in v2	Boost peer review feedback
✔	✔	Universal native handle/fd abstraction instead of void *.
✔	✔	Perfectly/Ideally low memory (de)allocation per op (usually none).
✔	✔	noexcept API throughout returning error_code for failure instead of throwing exceptions.
✔	✔	LLFIO v1 handle type split into hierarchy of types: handle - provides open, close, get path, clone, set/unset append only, change caching, characteristics fs_handle - handles with an inode number path_handle - a race free anchor to a subset of the filesystem directory_handle - enumerates the filesystem io_handle - adds synchronous scatter-gather i/o, byte range locking file_handle - adds open/create file, get and set maximum extent mapped_file_handle - adds low latency memory mapped scatter-gather i/o
✔	✔	Cancelable i/o (made possible thanks to dropping XP support).
✔	✔	All shared_ptr usage removed as all use of multiple threads removed.
✔	✔	Use of std::vector to transport scatter-gather sequences replaced with C++ 20 span<> borrowed views.
✔	✔	Completion callbacks are now some arbitrary type U&& instead of a future continuation. Type erasure for its storage is bound into the one single memory allocation for everything needed to execute the op, and so therefore overhead is optimal.
✔	✔	Filing system algorithms made generic and broken out into public llfio::algorithms template library (the LLFIO FTL).
✔	✔	Abstraction of native handle management via bitfield specified "characteristics".
✔		Storage profiles, a YAML database of behaviours of hardware, OS and filing system combinations.
✔		Absolute and interval deadline timed i/o throughout (made possible thanks to dropping XP support).
✔		Dependency on ASIO/Networking TS removed completely.
✔		Four choices of algorithm implementing a shared filing system mutex.
✔		Uses CMake, CTest, CDash and CPack with automatic usage of C++ Modules or precompiled headers where available.
✔		Far more comprehensive memory map and virtual memory facilities.
✔		Much more granular, micro level unit testing of individual functions.
✔		Much more granular, micro level internal logging of every code path taken.
✔		Path views used throughout, thus avoiding string copying and allocation in std::filesystem::path.
✔		Paths are equally interpreted as UTF-8 on all platforms.
✔		We never store nor retain a path, as they are inherently racy and are best avoided.
✔	✔	Parent handle caching is hard coded in, it is now an optional user applied templated adapter class.

Todo:

NEW in v2	Boost peer review feedback
✔		clang AST assisted SWIG bindings for other languages.
✔		Statistical tracking of operation latencies so realtime IOPS can be measured.

Planned features implemented:

NEW in v2	Windows	POSIX
✔	✔	✔	Native handle cloning.
✔ (up from four)	✔	✔	Maximum possible (seven) forms of kernel caching.
	✔	✔	Absolute path open.
	✔	✔	Relative "anchored" path open enabling race free file system.
✔	✔		Win32 path support (260 path limit).
	✔		NT kernel path support (32,768 path limit).
✔	✔	✔	Synchronous universal scatter-gather i/o.
✔ (POSIX AIO support)	✔	✔	Asynchronous universal scatter-gather i/o.
✔	✔	✔	i/o deadlines and cancellation.
	✔	✔	Retrieving and setting the current maximum extent (size) of an open file.
	✔	✔	Retrieving the current path of an open file irrespective of where it has been renamed to by third parties.
	✔	✔	statfs_t ported over from LLFIO v1.
	✔	✔	utils namespace ported over from LLFIO v1.
✔	✔	✔	shared_fs_mutex shared/exclusive entities locking based on lock files
✔	✔	✔	Byte range shared/exclusive locking.
✔	✔	✔	shared_fs_mutex shared/exclusive entities locking based on byte ranges
✔	✔	✔	shared_fs_mutex shared/exclusive entities locking based on atomic append
	✔	✔	Memory mapped files and virtual memory management (section_handle, map_handle and mapped_file_handle)
✔	✔	✔	shared_fs_mutex shared/exclusive entities locking based on memory maps
✔	✔	✔	Universal portable UTF-8 path views.
	✔	✔	"Hole punching" and hole enumeration ported over from LLFIO v1.
	✔	✔	Directory handles and very fast directory enumeration ported over from LLFIO v1.
✔	✔	✔	shared_fs_mutex shared/exclusive entities locking based on safe byte ranges
	✔	✔	Set random or sequential i/o (prefetch).
✔	✔	✔	llfio::algorithm::trivial_vector<T> with constant time reallocation if T is trivially copyable.
	✔	✔	symlink_handle.
✔	✔	✔	Large, huge and massive page size support for memory allocation and (POSIX only) file maps.
✔	✔	✔	A mechanism for writing a stat_t onto an inode.
✔	✔	✔	Graph based directory hierarchy traveral algorithm.
✔	✔	✔	Graph based directory hierarchy summary algorithm.
✔	✔	✔	Graph based reliable directory hierarchy deletion algorithm.
✔	✔	✔	Intelligent file contents cloning between file handles.

Todo thereafter in order of priority:

NEW in v2	Windows	POSIX
✔			Page allocator based on an index of linked list of free pages. See notes.
✔			Optionally concurrent B+ tree index based on page allocator for key-value store.
✔			Attributes extending span<buffers_type> with DMA colouring.
✔			Coroutine generator for iterating a file's contents in DMA friendly way.
✔			Ranges & Concurrency based reliable directory hierarchy copy algorithm.
✔			Ranges & Concurrency based reliable directory hierarchy update (two and three way) algorithm.
✔			Linux io_uring support for native non-blocking O_DIRECT i/o
✔			std::pmr::memory_resource adapting a file backing if on C++ 17.
✔			Extended attributes support.
✔			Algorithm to replace all duplicate content with hard links.
✔			Algorithm to figure out all paths for a hard linked inode.
✔			Algorithm to compare two or three directory enumerations and give differences.

Features possibly to be added after a Boost peer review:

• Directory change monitoring.
• Permissions support (ACLs).

Why you might need LLFIO
Manufacturer claimed 4Kb transfer latencies for the physical hardware: - Spinning rust hard drive latency @ QD1: **9000us** - SATA flash drive latency @ QD1: **800us** - NVMe flash drive latency @ QD1: **300us** - RTT UDP packet latency over a LAN: **60us** - NVMe Optane drive latency @ QD1: **60us** - `memcpy(4Kb)` latency: **5us** (main memory) to **1.3us** (L3 cache) - RTT PCIe latency: **0.5us**	100% read QD1 4Kb direct transfer latencies for the software with LLFIO: - < 99% spinning rust hard drive latency: Windows **187,231us** FreeBSD **9,836us** Linux **26,468us** - < 99% SATA flash drive latency: Windows **290us** Linux **158us** - < 99% NVMe drive latency: Windows **37us** FreeBSD **70us** Linux **30us**	75% read 25% write QD4 4Kb direct transfer latencies for the software with LLFIO: - < 99% spinning rust hard drive latency: Windows **48,185us** FreeBSD **61,834us** Linux **104,507us** - < 99% SATA flash drive latency: Windows **1,812us** Linux **1,416us** - < 99% NVMe drive latency: Windows **50us** FreeBSD **143us** Linux **40us**

Max bandwidth for the physical hardware:

• DDR4 2133: 30Gb/sec (main memory)
• x4 PCIe 4.0: 7.5Gb/sec (arrives end of 2017, the 2018 NVMe drives will use PCIe 4.0)
• x4 PCIe 3.0: 3.75Gb/sec (985Mb/sec per PCIe lane)
• 2017 XPoint drive (x4 PCIe 3.0): 2.5Gb/sec
• 2017 NVMe flash drive (x4 PCIe 3.0): 2Gb/sec
• 10Gbit LAN: 1.2Gb/sec