Re: [PATCH 8/8] vm: Add an tuning knob for vm.max_writeback_mb

[Jan Kara]

> writeback: let balance_dirty_pages() wait on background writeback
> 
> CC: Chris Mason <chris.mason@xxxxxxxxxx> 
> CC: Dave Chinner <david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
> CC: Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx> 
> CC: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@xxxxxxxxx> 
> CC: Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@xxxxxxxxxx> 
> Signed-off-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
>  fs/fs-writeback.c           |   89 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
>  include/linux/backing-dev.h |   15 +++++
>  mm/backing-dev.c            |    4 +
>  mm/page-writeback.c         |   43 ++--------------
>  4 files changed, 109 insertions(+), 42 deletions(-)
> 
> --- linux.orig/mm/page-writeback.c	2009-09-28 19:01:40.000000000 +0800
> +++ linux/mm/page-writeback.c	2009-09-28 19:02:48.000000000 +0800
> @@ -218,6 +218,10 @@ static inline void __bdi_writeout_inc(st
>  {
>  	__prop_inc_percpu_max(&vm_completions, &bdi->completions,
>  			      bdi->max_prop_frac);
> +
> +	if (atomic_read(&bdi->throttle_pages) < DIRTY_THROTTLE_PAGES_STOP &&
> +	    atomic_dec_and_test(&bdi->throttle_pages))
> +		bdi_writeback_wakeup(bdi);
>  }
>  
>  void bdi_writeout_inc(struct backing_dev_info *bdi)
> @@ -458,20 +462,10 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a
>  	unsigned long background_thresh;
>  	unsigned long dirty_thresh;
>  	unsigned long bdi_thresh;
> -	unsigned long pages_written = 0;
> -	unsigned long pause = 1;
>  	int dirty_exceeded;
>  	struct backing_dev_info *bdi = mapping->backing_dev_info;
>  
>  	for (;;) {
> -		struct writeback_control wbc = {
> -			.bdi		= bdi,
> -			.sync_mode	= WB_SYNC_NONE,
> -			.older_than_this = NULL,
> -			.nr_to_write	= write_chunk,
> -			.range_cyclic	= 1,
> -		};
> -
>  		nr_reclaimable = global_page_state(NR_FILE_DIRTY) +
>  				 global_page_state(NR_UNSTABLE_NFS);
>  		nr_writeback = global_page_state(NR_WRITEBACK) +
> @@ -518,31 +512,7 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a
>  		if (!bdi->dirty_exceeded)
>  			bdi->dirty_exceeded = 1;
>  
> -		/* Note: nr_reclaimable denotes nr_dirty + nr_unstable.
> -		 * Unstable writes are a feature of certain networked
> -		 * filesystems (i.e. NFS) in which data may have been
> -		 * written to the server's write cache, but has not yet
> -		 * been flushed to permanent storage.
> -		 * Only move pages to writeback if this bdi is over its
> -		 * threshold otherwise wait until the disk writes catch
> -		 * up.
> -		 */
> -		if (bdi_nr_reclaimable > bdi_thresh) {
> -			writeback_inodes_wbc(&wbc);
> -			pages_written += write_chunk - wbc.nr_to_write;
> -			/* don't wait if we've done enough */
> -			if (pages_written >= write_chunk)
> -				break;
> -		}
> -		schedule_timeout_interruptible(pause);
> -
> -		/*
> -		 * Increase the delay for each loop, up to our previous
> -		 * default of taking a 100ms nap.
> -		 */
> -		pause <<= 1;
> -		if (pause > HZ / 10)
> -			pause = HZ / 10;
> +		bdi_writeback_wait(bdi, write_chunk);
>  	}
>  
>  	if (!dirty_exceeded && bdi->dirty_exceeded)
> @@ -559,8 +529,7 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a
>  	 * In normal mode, we start background writeout at the lower
>  	 * background_thresh, to keep the amount of dirty memory low.
>  	 */
> -	if ((laptop_mode && pages_written) ||
> -	    (!laptop_mode && (nr_reclaimable > background_thresh)))
> +	if (!laptop_mode && (nr_reclaimable > background_thresh))
>  		bdi_start_writeback(bdi, NULL, 0);
>  }
>  
> --- linux.orig/include/linux/backing-dev.h	2009-09-28 18:52:51.000000000 +0800
> +++ linux/include/linux/backing-dev.h	2009-09-28 19:02:45.000000000 +0800
> @@ -86,6 +86,13 @@ struct backing_dev_info {
>  
>  	struct list_head work_list;
>  
> +	/*
> +	 * dirtier process throttling
> +	 */
> +	spinlock_t		throttle_lock;
> +	struct list_head	throttle_list;	/* nr to sync for each task */
> +	atomic_t		throttle_pages; /* nr to sync for head task */
> +
>  	struct device *dev;
>  
>  #ifdef CONFIG_DEBUG_FS
> @@ -94,6 +101,12 @@ struct backing_dev_info {
>  #endif
>  };
>  
> +/*
> + * when no task is throttled, set throttle_pages to larger than this,
> + * to avoid unnecessary atomic decreases.
> + */
> +#define DIRTY_THROTTLE_PAGES_STOP	(1 << 22)
> +
>  int bdi_init(struct backing_dev_info *bdi);
>  void bdi_destroy(struct backing_dev_info *bdi);
>  
> @@ -105,6 +118,8 @@ void bdi_start_writeback(struct backing_
>  				long nr_pages);
>  int bdi_writeback_task(struct bdi_writeback *wb);
>  int bdi_has_dirty_io(struct backing_dev_info *bdi);
> +int bdi_writeback_wakeup(struct backing_dev_info *bdi);
> +void bdi_writeback_wait(struct backing_dev_info *bdi, long nr_pages);
>  
>  extern spinlock_t bdi_lock;
>  extern struct list_head bdi_list;
> --- linux.orig/fs/fs-writeback.c	2009-09-28 18:57:51.000000000 +0800
> +++ linux/fs/fs-writeback.c	2009-09-28 19:02:45.000000000 +0800
> @@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
>  #include <linux/blkdev.h>
>  #include <linux/backing-dev.h>
>  #include <linux/buffer_head.h>
> +#include <linux/completion.h>
>  #include "internal.h"
>  
>  #define inode_to_bdi(inode)	((inode)->i_mapping->backing_dev_info)
> @@ -136,14 +137,14 @@ static void wb_work_complete(struct bdi_
>  		call_rcu(&work->rcu_head, bdi_work_free);
>  }
>  
> -static void wb_clear_pending(struct bdi_writeback *wb, struct bdi_work *work)
> +static void wb_clear_pending(struct backing_dev_info *bdi,
> +			     struct bdi_work *work)
>  {
>  	/*
>  	 * The caller has retrieved the work arguments from this work,
>  	 * drop our reference. If this is the last ref, delete and free it
>  	 */
>  	if (atomic_dec_and_test(&work->pending)) {
> -		struct backing_dev_info *bdi = wb->bdi;
>  
>  		spin_lock(&bdi->wb_lock);
>  		list_del_rcu(&work->list);
> @@ -275,6 +276,81 @@ void bdi_start_writeback(struct backing_
>  	bdi_alloc_queue_work(bdi, &args);
>  }
>  
> +struct dirty_throttle_task {
> +	long			nr_pages;
> +	struct list_head	list;
> +	struct completion	complete;
> +};
> +
> +void bdi_writeback_wait(struct backing_dev_info *bdi, long nr_pages)
> +{
> +	struct dirty_throttle_task tt = {
> +		.nr_pages = nr_pages,
> +		.complete = COMPLETION_INITIALIZER_ONSTACK(tt.complete),
> +	};
> +	struct wb_writeback_args args = {
> +		.sync_mode	= WB_SYNC_NONE,
> +		.nr_pages	= LONG_MAX,
> +		.range_cyclic	= 1,
> +		.for_background	= 1,
> +	};
> +	struct bdi_work work;
> +
> +	bdi_work_init(&work, &args);
> +	work.state |= WS_ONSTACK;
> +
> +	/*
> +	 * make sure we will be waken up by someone
> +	 */
> +	bdi_queue_work(bdi, &work);
  This is wrong, you shouldn't submit the work like this because you'll
have to wait for completion (wb_clear_pending below is just bogus). You
should rather do bdi_start_writeback(bdi, NULL, 0).

> +
> +	/*
> +	 * register throttle pages
> +	 */
> +	spin_lock(&bdi->throttle_lock);
> +	if (list_empty(&bdi->throttle_list))
> +		atomic_set(&bdi->throttle_pages, nr_pages);
> +	list_add(&tt.list, &bdi->throttle_list);
> +	spin_unlock(&bdi->throttle_lock);
> +
> +	wait_for_completion(&tt.complete);
> +
> +	wb_clear_pending(bdi, &work); /* XXX */
> +}
> +
> +/*
> + * return 1 if there are more waiting tasks.
> + */
> +int bdi_writeback_wakeup(struct backing_dev_info *bdi)
> +{
> +	struct dirty_throttle_task *tt;
> +
> +	spin_lock(&bdi->throttle_lock);
> +	/*
> +	 * remove and wakeup head task
> +	 */
> +	if (!list_empty(&bdi->throttle_list)) {
> +		tt = list_entry(bdi->throttle_list.prev,
> +				struct dirty_throttle_task, list);
> +		list_del(&tt->list);
> +		complete(&tt->complete);
> +	}
> +	/*
> +	 * update throttle pages
> +	 */
> +	if (!list_empty(&bdi->throttle_list)) {
> +		tt = list_entry(bdi->throttle_list.prev,
> +				struct dirty_throttle_task, list);
> +		atomic_set(&bdi->throttle_pages, tt->nr_pages);
> +	} else {
> +		tt = NULL;
> +		atomic_set(&bdi->throttle_pages, DIRTY_THROTTLE_PAGES_STOP * 2);
  Why is here * 2?

> +	}
> +	spin_unlock(&bdi->throttle_lock);
> +
> +	return tt != NULL;
> +}
> +
>  /*
>   * Redirty an inode: set its when-it-was dirtied timestamp and move it to the
>   * furthest end of its superblock's dirty-inode list.
> @@ -788,8 +864,11 @@ static long wb_writeback(struct bdi_writ
>  		 * For background writeout, stop when we are below the
>  		 * background dirty threshold
>  		 */
> -		if (args->for_background && !over_bground_thresh())
> +		if (args->for_background && !over_bground_thresh()) {
> +			while (bdi_writeback_wakeup(wb->bdi))
> +				;  /* unthrottle all tasks */
>  			break;
> +		}
  You probably didn't understand my comment in the previous email. This is
too late to wakeup all the tasks. There are two limits - background_limit
(set to 5%) and dirty_limit (set to 10%). When amount of dirty data is
above background_limit, we start the writeback but we don't throttle tasks
yet. We start throttling tasks only when amount of dirty data on the bdi
exceeds the part of the dirty limit belonging to the bdi. In case of a
single bdi, this means we start throttling threads only when 10% of memory
is dirty. To keep this behavior, we have to wakeup waiting threads as soon
as their BDI gets below the dirty limit or when global number of dirty
pages gets below (background_limit + dirty_limit) / 2.

>  
>  		wbc.more_io = 0;
>  		wbc.encountered_congestion = 0;
> @@ -911,7 +990,7 @@ long wb_do_writeback(struct bdi_writebac
>  		 * that we have seen this work and we are now starting it.
>  		 */
>  		if (args.sync_mode == WB_SYNC_NONE)
> -			wb_clear_pending(wb, work);
> +			wb_clear_pending(bdi, work);
>  
>  		wrote += wb_writeback(wb, &args);
>  
> @@ -920,7 +999,7 @@ long wb_do_writeback(struct bdi_writebac
>  		 * notification when we have completed the work.
>  		 */
>  		if (args.sync_mode == WB_SYNC_ALL)
> -			wb_clear_pending(wb, work);
> +			wb_clear_pending(bdi, work);
>  	}
>  
>  	/*
> --- linux.orig/mm/backing-dev.c	2009-09-28 18:52:18.000000000 +0800
> +++ linux/mm/backing-dev.c	2009-09-28 19:02:45.000000000 +0800
> @@ -645,6 +645,10 @@ int bdi_init(struct backing_dev_info *bd
>  	bdi->wb_mask = 1;
>  	bdi->wb_cnt = 1;
>  
> +	spin_lock_init(&bdi->throttle_lock);
> +	INIT_LIST_HEAD(&bdi->throttle_list);
> +	atomic_set(&bdi->throttle_pages, DIRTY_THROTTLE_PAGES_STOP * 2);
> +
  Again, why is * 2 here? I'd just set DIRTY_THROTTLE_PAGES_STOP to some
magic value (like ~0) and use it directly...

>  	for (i = 0; i < NR_BDI_STAT_ITEMS; i++) {
>  		err = percpu_counter_init(&bdi->bdi_stat[i], 0);
>  		if (err)

								Honza
-- 
Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx>
SUSE Labs, CR
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