2006-05-24 11:23:20

by Wu Fengguang

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: [PATCH 23/33] readahead: backward prefetching method

Readahead policy for reading backward.

Signed-off-by: Wu Fengguang <[email protected]>
---

mm/readahead.c | 40 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
1 files changed, 40 insertions(+)

--- linux-2.6.17-rc4-mm3.orig/mm/readahead.c
+++ linux-2.6.17-rc4-mm3/mm/readahead.c
@@ -1574,6 +1574,46 @@ initial_readahead(struct address_space *
}

/*
+ * Backward prefetching.
+ *
+ * No look-ahead and thrashing safety guard: should be unnecessary.
+ */
+static int
+try_read_backward(struct file_ra_state *ra, pgoff_t begin_index,
+ unsigned long ra_size, unsigned long ra_max)
+{
+ pgoff_t end_index;
+
+ /* Are we reading backward? */
+ if (begin_index > ra->prev_page)
+ return 0;
+
+ if ((ra->flags & RA_CLASS_MASK) == RA_CLASS_BACKWARD &&
+ ra_has_index(ra, ra->prev_page)) {
+ ra_size += 2 * ra_cache_hit(ra, 0);
+ end_index = ra->la_index;
+ } else {
+ ra_size += ra_size + ra_size * (readahead_hit_rate - 1) / 2;
+ end_index = ra->prev_page;
+ }
+
+ if (ra_size > ra_max)
+ ra_size = ra_max;
+
+ /* Read traces close enough to be covered by the prefetching? */
+ if (end_index > begin_index + ra_size)
+ return 0;
+
+ begin_index = end_index - ra_size;
+
+ ra_set_class(ra, RA_CLASS_BACKWARD);
+ ra_set_index(ra, begin_index, begin_index);
+ ra_set_size(ra, ra_size, 0);
+
+ return 1;
+}
+
+/*
* ra_min is mainly determined by the size of cache memory. Reasonable?
*
* Table of concrete numbers for 4KB page size:

--


2006-05-26 17:38:30

by Nate Diller

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH 23/33] readahead: backward prefetching method

On 5/24/06, Wu Fengguang <[email protected]> wrote:
> Readahead policy for reading backward.

Just curious, who actually does this? I noticed you submitted patches
to do profiling of actual read loads, so this must be based on data
you've seen. Could you include a comment in the actual code relating
to the loads that it affects?

thanks

NATE

2006-05-26 19:23:15

by Nathan Scott

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Subject: Re: [PATCH 23/33] readahead: backward prefetching method

On Fri, May 26, 2006 at 10:37:56AM -0700, Nate Diller wrote:
> On 5/24/06, Wu Fengguang <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Readahead policy for reading backward.
>
> Just curious, who actually does this? I noticed you submitted patches

Nastran does this, and probably other FEA codes. IIRC, iozone
will measure this too - it is very important to some people in
certain scientific arenas.

cheers.

--
Nathan

2006-05-28 12:30:08

by Wu Fengguang

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: [PATCH 23/33] readahead: backward prefetching method

On Sat, May 27, 2006 at 05:22:43AM +1000, Nathan Scott wrote:
> On Fri, May 26, 2006 at 10:37:56AM -0700, Nate Diller wrote:
> > On 5/24/06, Wu Fengguang <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > Readahead policy for reading backward.
> >
> > Just curious, who actually does this? I noticed you submitted patches
>
> Nastran does this, and probably other FEA codes. IIRC, iozone
> will measure this too - it is very important to some people in
> certain scientific arenas.

Thanks.

It makes sense to have a list of use cases for the
less-common-but-still-important access patterns.

Cheers,
Wu