There is a uninitialized goal value being referenced in both ext3 and ext2 find goal block functions (ext3_find_goal() and ext2_find_goal()). In the non-sequential write case, these functions check the goal value(non zero) before calling ext3(2)_find_near() to find the goal block to allocate. Since the goal value is uninitialized(non zero), the ext3(2)_find_near() is never being called in the non-sequential write, thus ext3(2)_find_goal() failed to guide a goal block in the random write case. ext3(2)_new_block() takes the junk goal value and will turn it to goal 0 since it's normally beyond the filesystem block number limit. The fix is trivial. 


---

 src-ming/fs/ext2/inode.c |    1 +
 src-ming/fs/ext3/inode.c |    1 +
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff -puN fs/ext3/inode.c~ext3_find_goal_unintialization_fix fs/ext3/inode.c
--- src/fs/ext3/inode.c~ext3_find_goal_unintialization_fix	2004-05-19 18:30:13.857197080 -0700
+++ src-ming/fs/ext3/inode.c	2004-05-19 18:45:31.689665336 -0700
@@ -748,6 +748,7 @@ out:
 	if (err == -EAGAIN)
 		goto changed;
 
+	goal = 0;
 	down(&ei->truncate_sem);
 	if (ext3_find_goal(inode, iblock, chain, partial, &goal) < 0) {
 		up(&ei->truncate_sem);
diff -puN fs/ext2/inode.c~ext3_find_goal_unintialization_fix fs/ext2/inode.c
--- src/fs/ext2/inode.c~ext3_find_goal_unintialization_fix	2004-05-19 18:30:13.861196472 -0700
+++ src-ming/fs/ext2/inode.c	2004-05-19 18:45:40.586312840 -0700
@@ -584,6 +584,7 @@ out:
 	if (err == -EAGAIN)
 		goto changed;
 
+	goal = 0;
 	if (ext2_find_goal(inode, iblock, chain, partial, &goal) < 0)
 		goto changed;
 

_