Re: about definition of iowait

From: Cao jin
Date: Wed Jun 08 2016 - 03:09:12 EST




On 06/07/2016 08:01 PM, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
On Tue, Jun 07, 2016 at 07:24:46PM +0800, Cao jin wrote:
Hi,

I noticed some problems about iowait entry of /proc/stat: it seems not
accurate, and sometimes will decrease in SMP.

For UP, we have a simple definition about iowait, which is:
The time that the processor is idle, during which there is a task waiting
for I/O.

This definition seems don't fit well when step into SMP era, so I think
maybe it can be extended like:
For a given CPU, the I/O wait time is the time during which that CPU was
idle, and there is at least one outstanding disk I/O operation requested by
a task scheduled on that CPU.

But tasks can migrate among cpus, so this definition maybe not accurate.

I also saw some suggestions that it should be a global value, not per cpu,
but don`t see clear definition, so anyone have suggestions about it?
(personally guessing, maybe: there is task waiting for outstanding I/O while
all cpus are idle? But I don't think it is good...)

It is possible to come up with definition for a single global number;
per-cpu iowait numbers are doomed.

But I don't see it matters one way or the other. Personally I would just
make the kernel return 0 and be done with it.


I see. Thanks peter

--
Yours Sincerely,

Cao jin