Description:
                The maximum number of megabytes the writeback code will
                try to write out before move on to another inode.
+
+What:          /sys/fs/ext4/<disk>/extent_max_zeroout_kb
+Date:          August 2012
+Contact:       "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>
+Description:
+               The maximum number of kilobytes which will be zeroed
+               out in preference to creating a new uninitialized
+               extent when manipulating an inode's extent tree.  Note
+               that using a larger value will increase the
+               variability of time necessary to complete a random
+               write operation (since a 4k random write might turn
+               into a much larger write due to the zeroout
+               operation).
 
        return err ? err : map->m_len;
 }
 
-#define EXT4_EXT_ZERO_LEN 7
 /*
  * This function is called by ext4_ext_map_blocks() if someone tries to write
  * to an uninitialized extent. It may result in splitting the uninitialized
                                           struct ext4_map_blocks *map,
                                           struct ext4_ext_path *path)
 {
+       struct ext4_sb_info *sbi;
        struct ext4_extent_header *eh;
        struct ext4_map_blocks split_map;
        struct ext4_extent zero_ex;
        struct ext4_extent *ex;
        ext4_lblk_t ee_block, eof_block;
        unsigned int ee_len, depth;
-       int allocated;
+       int allocated, max_zeroout = 0;
        int err = 0;
        int split_flag = 0;
 
                "block %llu, max_blocks %u\n", inode->i_ino,
                (unsigned long long)map->m_lblk, map->m_len);
 
+       sbi = EXT4_SB(inode->i_sb);
        eof_block = (inode->i_size + inode->i_sb->s_blocksize - 1) >>
                inode->i_sb->s_blocksize_bits;
        if (eof_block < map->m_lblk + map->m_len)
         */
        split_flag |= ee_block + ee_len <= eof_block ? EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT : 0;
 
-       /* If extent has less than 2*EXT4_EXT_ZERO_LEN zerout directly */
-       if (ee_len <= 2*EXT4_EXT_ZERO_LEN &&
-           (EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT & split_flag)) {
+       if (EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT & split_flag)
+               max_zeroout = sbi->s_extent_max_zeroout_kb >>
+                       inode->i_sb->s_blocksize_bits;
+
+       /* If extent is less than s_max_zeroout_kb, zeroout directly */
+       if (max_zeroout && (ee_len <= max_zeroout)) {
                err = ext4_ext_zeroout(inode, ex);
                if (err)
                        goto out;
        split_map.m_lblk = map->m_lblk;
        split_map.m_len = map->m_len;
 
-       if (allocated > map->m_len) {
-               if (allocated <= EXT4_EXT_ZERO_LEN &&
-                   (EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT & split_flag)) {
+       if (max_zeroout && (allocated > map->m_len)) {
+               if (allocated <= max_zeroout) {
                        /* case 3 */
                        zero_ex.ee_block =
                                         cpu_to_le32(map->m_lblk);
                                goto out;
                        split_map.m_lblk = map->m_lblk;
                        split_map.m_len = allocated;
-               } else if ((map->m_lblk - ee_block + map->m_len <
-                          EXT4_EXT_ZERO_LEN) &&
-                          (EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT & split_flag)) {
+               } else if (map->m_lblk - ee_block + map->m_len < max_zeroout) {
                        /* case 2 */
                        if (map->m_lblk != ee_block) {
                                zero_ex.ee_block = ex->ee_block;
        }
 
        allocated = ext4_split_extent(handle, inode, path,
-                                      &split_map, split_flag, 0);
+                                     &split_map, split_flag, 0);
        if (allocated < 0)
                err = allocated;
 
 
 EXT4_RW_ATTR_SBI_UI(mb_stream_req, s_mb_stream_request);
 EXT4_RW_ATTR_SBI_UI(mb_group_prealloc, s_mb_group_prealloc);
 EXT4_RW_ATTR_SBI_UI(max_writeback_mb_bump, s_max_writeback_mb_bump);
+EXT4_RW_ATTR_SBI_UI(extent_max_zeroout_kb, s_extent_max_zeroout_kb);
 EXT4_ATTR(trigger_fs_error, 0200, NULL, trigger_test_error);
 
 static struct attribute *ext4_attrs[] = {
        ATTR_LIST(mb_stream_req),
        ATTR_LIST(mb_group_prealloc),
        ATTR_LIST(max_writeback_mb_bump),
+       ATTR_LIST(extent_max_zeroout_kb),
        ATTR_LIST(trigger_fs_error),
        NULL,
 };
 
        sbi->s_stripe = ext4_get_stripe_size(sbi);
        sbi->s_max_writeback_mb_bump = 128;
+       sbi->s_extent_max_zeroout_kb = 32;
 
        /*
         * set up enough so that it can read an inode