Re: [PATCH] per-backing dev unplugging #2

From: Jens Axboe
Date: Sun Mar 14 2004 - 16:11:06 EST


On Sun, Mar 14 2004, Andrew Morton wrote:
> Jens Axboe <axboe@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > > I reproduced on 2.6.4-mm1 + backing dev, but 2.6.4-mm1 alone ran fine.
> > > To make a long story short, the swap address space and backing dev don't
> > > define an unplug_io_fn. I was able to reproduce quickly with a swap
> > > heavy workload. The patch below should fix the oops, but probably isn't
> > > correct solution since no queues will get unplugged while waiting on
> > > swap pages.
> >
> > Duh of course, that's pretty silly actually. So the question is if we
> > want to keep assigning a dummy unplug_io_fn (default_backing_dev already
> > has it), or just keep the check. I propose to check like Chris added,
> > and just kill the default_unplug_io_fn() from readahead.c
> >
>
> I'd be inclined to leave that as-is actually. I'll run with Chris's patch
> temporarily, but we need a real unplug function for swapper_space. Which
> will leave default_backing_dev_info unique.

We were just discussing this on irc, btw. :-)

> I'll do swap_unplug_io_fn(). swap implements a poor-man's raid0. What are
> the locking rules for the unplug function btw? It can sleep, yes?

There are no locking rules for bdi->unplug_io_fn(). You can sleep if the
caller can sleep.

--
Jens Axboe

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