From: Lukas Czerner Subject: Re: [PATCH 2/2] Add batched discard support for ext4. Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:14:34 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: References: <1271674527-2977-2-git-send-email-lczerner@redhat.com> <1271674527-2977-3-git-send-email-lczerner@redhat.com> <4BCE6243.5010209@teksavvy.com> <4BCE66C5.3060906@redhat.com> <4BCF4C53.3010608@redhat.com> <20100426165527.GB21179@atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz> <4BD5D2EA.1070008@redhat.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Cc: Lukas Czerner , Jan Kara , Greg Freemyer , Jeff Moyer , Eric Sandeen , Mark Lord , linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org, Edward Shishkin , Eric Sandeen , Christoph Hellwig To: Ric Wheeler Return-path: Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([209.132.183.28]:16407 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751434Ab0DZSOk (ORCPT ); Mon, 26 Apr 2010 14:14:40 -0400 In-Reply-To: <4BD5D2EA.1070008@redhat.com> Sender: linux-ext4-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Mon, 26 Apr 2010, Ric Wheeler wrote: > On 04/26/2010 01:46 PM, Lukas Czerner wrote: > > On Mon, 26 Apr 2010, Jan Kara wrote: > > > > > > On Wed, 21 Apr 2010, Greg Freemyer wrote: > > > > And also, currently I am rewriting the patch do use rbtree instead of > > > > the > > > > bitmap, because there were some concerns of memory consumption. It is a > > > > question whether or not the rbtree will be more memory friendly. > > > > Generally I think that in most "normal" cases it will, but there are > > > > some > > > > extreme scenarios, where the rbtree will be much worse. Any comment on > > > > this ? > > > I see two possible improvements here: > > > a) At a cost of some code complexity, you can bound the worst case by > > > combining > > > RB-trees with bitmaps. The basic idea is that when space to TRIM gets too > > > fragmented (memory to keep to-TRIM blocks in RB-tree for a given group > > > exceeds > > > the memory needed to keep it in a bitmap), you convert RB-tree for a > > > problematic group to a bitmap and attach it to an appropriate RB-node. If > > > you > > > track with a bitmap also a number of to-TRIM extents in the bitmap, you > > > can > > > also decide whether it's benefitial to switch back to an RB-tree. > > > > This sounds like a good idea, but I wonder if it is worth it : > > 1. The tree will have very short life, because with next ioctl all > > stored deleted extents will be trimmed and removed from the tree. > > 2. Also note, that the longer it lives the less fragmented it possibly > > became. > > 3. I do not expect, that deleted ranges can be too fragmented, and > > even if it is, it will be probably merged into one big extent very > > soon. > > > > > > > > b) Another idea might be: When to-TRIM space is fragmented (again, let's > > > say > > > in some block group), there's not much point in sending tiny trim commands > > > anyway (at least that's what I've understood from this discussion). So you > > > might as well stop maintaining information which blocks we need to trim > > > for that group. When the situation gets better, you can always walk block > > > bitmap and issue trim commands. You might even trigger this rescan from > > > kernel - if you'd maintain number of free block extents for each block > > > group > > > (which is rather easy), you could trigger the bitmap rescan and trim as > > > soon > > > as ratio number of free blocks / number of extents gets above a reasonable > > > threshold. > > > > > > Honza > > > > > > > In what I am preparing now, I simple ignore small extents, which would > > be created by splitting the deleted extent into smaller pieces by chunks > > of used blocks. This, in my opinion, will prevent the fragmentation, > > which otherwise may occur in the longer term (between ioctl calls). > > > > Thanks for suggestions. > > -Lukas > > I am not convinced that ignoring small extents is a good idea. Remember that > for SSD's specifically, they remap *everything* internally so our > "fragmentation" set of small spaces could be useful for them. > > That does not mean that we should not try to send larger requests down to the > target device which is always a good idea I think :-) > > ric > That's right, so the other approach would be probably better. Merge small extents together into one, but there must be some limit, because I do not want two little extents at the beginning and the end of the group to force trimming whole group. The whole rbtree thing gets a little complicated :) -Lukas