Re: Patch for inconsistent recording of block device statistics

[Jens Axboe]

On Wed, Mar 23 2005, Mark Seger wrote:
> 
> >I don't like this patch, it adds 4 * sizeof(unsigned long) to struct
> >request when it can be solved without adding anything. The idea is
> >sound, though, the current way the stats are done isn't very
> >interesting.
> > 
> >
> Actually I wasn't all that excited about using the extra variable 
> myself.  However, I wasn't entirely sure what was going on and this at 
> least allowed me to test the concept without doing anything harmful. 
> 
> >How about accounting merges the way we currently do it, since that piece
> >of the stats _is_ interesting at queueing time. And then account
> >completion in __end_that_request_first(). Untested patch attached.
> > 
> >
> I also agree with your suggestion about keeping the merged counts where 
> they are and am copying the author of iostat to suggest the man page be 
> updated to reflect the fact that merges are counts for requests queued 
> rather than 'issued to the device' as it currently states.
> 
> re: your patch - I did try it on both an Operton and Xeon box.  It 
> worked find on the Opeteron and reported 0 for all the sectors on the 
> Xeon.  If nothing immediately jumps to your mind could it have been 
> something I did wrong?  I'll try another build after I send this along, 
> but I don't see how that will help as I did the first one from a brand 
> new source kit.

Sounds very strange, it is generic code so should work for all.
Different storage?

> The one thing that still jumps out at me about this patch is that the 
> sectors are being counted in one routine and the number of I/Os in 
> another.  If the best place to update the sector counts is indeed where 
> you suggest doing it, is there any reason not to move the update code 
> for all the disk stats from end_that_request_last() to that same place 
> as well for consistency and for better assurances that they are updated 
> as close to the same point in time as possible?

The reason that the sector counting is done in end_that_request_first()
is that it may not be valid in end_that_request_last().
end_that_request_first() may be invoked several times for a single
request, so I did not move the 'number of io count' there as well as
that would require additional tracking in the request. But
end_that_request_last() will in 99.9% of the cases be called _right_
after end_that_request_first(), so I think it should work fine. The
cases where that doesn't happen is for partial io completions.

-- 
Jens Axboe

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