Re: [PATCH] mm: readahead: remove redundant ra_pages in file_ra_state

From: Ni zhan Chen
Date: Thu Oct 25 2012 - 22:30:09 EST


On 10/26/2012 09:27 AM, Fengguang Wu wrote:
On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 11:25:44AM +1100, Dave Chinner wrote:
On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 10:58:26AM +0800, Fengguang Wu wrote:
Hi Chen,

But how can bdi related ra_pages reflect different files' readahead
window? Maybe these different files are sequential read, random read
and so on.
It's simple: sequential reads will get ra_pages readahead size while
random reads will not get readahead at all.

Talking about the below chunk, it might hurt someone that explicitly
takes advantage of the behavior, however the ra_pages*2 seems more
like a hack than general solution to me: if the user will need
POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL to double the max readahead window size for
improving IO performance, then why not just increase bdi->ra_pages and
benefit all reads? One may argue that it offers some differential
behavior to specific applications, however it may also present as a
counter-optimization: if the root already tuned bdi->ra_pages to the
optimal size, the doubled readahead size will only cost more memory
and perhaps IO latency.

--- a/mm/fadvise.c
+++ b/mm/fadvise.c
@@ -87,7 +86,6 @@ SYSCALL_DEFINE(fadvise64_64)(int fd, loff_t offset, loff_t len, int advice)
spin_unlock(&file->f_lock);
break;
case POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL:
- file->f_ra.ra_pages = bdi->ra_pages * 2;
I think we really have to reset file->f_ra.ra_pages here as it is
not a set-and-forget value. e.g. shrink_readahead_size_eio() can
reduce ra_pages as a result of IO errors. Hence if you have had io
errors, telling the kernel that you are now going to do sequential
IO should reset the readahead to the maximum ra_pages value
supported....
Good point!

.... but wait .... this patch removes file->f_ra.ra_pages in all other
places too, so there will be no file->f_ra.ra_pages to be reset here...

In his patch,

static void shrink_readahead_size_eio(struct file *filp,
struct file_ra_state *ra)
{
- ra->ra_pages /= 4;
+ spin_lock(&filp->f_lock);
+ filp->f_mode |= FMODE_RANDOM;
+ spin_unlock(&filp->f_lock);

As the example in comment above this function, the read maybe still sequential, and it will waste IO bandwith if modify to FMODE_RANDOM directly.


Thanks,
Fengguang


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