Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1756042Ab2JZDiN (ORCPT ); Thu, 25 Oct 2012 23:38:13 -0400 Received: from mail-ie0-f174.google.com ([209.85.223.174]:52093 "EHLO mail-ie0-f174.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755886Ab2JZDiM (ORCPT ); Thu, 25 Oct 2012 23:38:12 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <20121026002544.GI29378@dastard> References: <1350996411-5425-1-git-send-email-casualfisher@gmail.com> <20121023224706.GR4291@dastard> <20121024201921.GX4291@dastard> <20121025015014.GC29378@dastard> <50889FF1.9030107@gmail.com> <20121025025826.GB23462@localhost> <20121026002544.GI29378@dastard> Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2012 11:38:11 +0800 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [PATCH] mm: readahead: remove redundant ra_pages in file_ra_state From: YingHang Zhu To: Dave Chinner Cc: akpm@linux-foundation.org, Fengguang Wu , linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-mm@kvack.org, Ni zhan Chen Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2332 Lines: 55 On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 8:25 AM, 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.... If we unify file->f_ra.ra_pages and its' bdi->ra_pages, then the error-prone device's readahead can be directly tuned or turned off with blockdev thus affect all files using the device and without bring more complexity... Thanks, Ying Zhu > > Cheers, > > Dave. > -- > Dave Chinner > david@fromorbit.com -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/