[PATCH 2/4] writeback: 3-queue based writeback schedule

From: Fengguang Wu
Date: Fri Aug 10 2007 - 02:36:13 EST


Properly manage the 3 queues of sb->s_dirty/s_io/s_more_io so that
- time-ordering of dirtied_when can be easily maintained
- writeback can continue from where previous run left out

The majority work has been done by Andrew Morton and Ken Chen,
this patch just clarifies the roles of the 3 queues:
- s_dirty for io delay(up to dirty_expire_interval)
- s_io for io run(a full scan of s_io may involve multiple runs)
- s_more_io for io continuation

The following paradigm shows the data flow.

requeue on new scan(empty s_io)
+-----------------------------+
| |
dirty old | |
inodes enough V |
======> s_dirty ======> s_io |
^ | requeue io |
| +---------------------> s_more_io
| hold back |
+----------------+----------> disk write requests

sb->s_dirty: a FIFO queue
- s_dirty hosts not-yet-expired(recently dirtied) dirty inodes
- once expired, inodes will be moved out of s_dirty and *never put back*
(unless for some reason we have to hold on the inode for some time)

sb->s_io and sb->s_more_io: a cyclic queue scanned for io
- on each run of generic_sync_sb_inodes(), some more s_dirty inodes may be
appended to s_io
- on each full scan of s_io, all s_more_io inodes will be moved back to s_io
- large files that cannot be synced in one run will be moved to s_more_io for
retry on next full scan

inode->dirtied_when
- inode->dirtied_when is updated to the *current* jiffies on pushing into
s_dirty, and is never changed in other cases.
- time-ordering thus can be simply ensured while moving inodes between lists,
since (time order == enqueue order)

Cc: Ken Chen <kenchen@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Fengguang Wu <wfg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/fs-writeback.c | 106 +++++++++++++++++++++-----------------------
1 file changed, 52 insertions(+), 54 deletions(-)

--- linux-2.6.23-rc1-mm2.orig/fs/fs-writeback.c
+++ linux-2.6.23-rc1-mm2/fs/fs-writeback.c
@@ -93,6 +93,15 @@ static void __check_dirty_inode_list(str
__FILE__, __LINE__); \
} while (0)

+
+int sb_has_dirty_inodes(struct super_block *sb)
+{
+ return !list_empty(&sb->s_dirty) ||
+ !list_empty(&sb->s_io) ||
+ !list_empty(&sb->s_more_io);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(sb_has_dirty_inodes);
+
/**
* __mark_inode_dirty - internal function
* @inode: inode to mark
@@ -187,7 +196,7 @@ void __mark_inode_dirty(struct inode *in
goto out;

/*
- * If the inode was already on s_dirty or s_io, don't
+ * If the inode was already on s_dirty/s_io/s_more_io, don't
* reposition it (that would break s_dirty time-ordering).
*/
if (!was_dirty) {
@@ -211,33 +220,20 @@ static int write_inode(struct inode *ino
}

/*
- * Redirty an inode: set its when-it-was dirtied timestamp and move it to the
- * furthest end of its superblock's dirty-inode list.
- *
- * Before stamping the inode's ->dirtied_when, we check to see whether it is
- * already the most-recently-dirtied inode on the s_dirty list. If that is
- * the case then the inode must have been redirtied while it was being written
- * out and we don't reset its dirtied_when.
+ * Enqueue a newly dirtied inode:
+ * - set its when-it-was dirtied timestamp
+ * - move it to the furthest end of its superblock's dirty-inode list
*/
static void redirty_tail(struct inode *inode)
{
- struct super_block *sb = inode->i_sb;
-
check_dirty_inode(inode);
- if (!list_empty(&sb->s_dirty)) {
- struct inode *tail_inode;
-
- tail_inode = list_entry(sb->s_dirty.next, struct inode, i_list);
- if (!time_after_eq(inode->dirtied_when,
- tail_inode->dirtied_when))
- inode->dirtied_when = jiffies;
- }
- list_move(&inode->i_list, &sb->s_dirty);
+ inode->dirtied_when = jiffies;
+ list_move(&inode->i_list, &inode->i_sb->s_dirty);
check_dirty_inode(inode);
}

/*
- * requeue inode for re-scanning after sb->s_io list is exhausted.
+ * Queue an inode for more io in the next full scan of s_io.
*/
static void requeue_io(struct inode *inode)
{
@@ -246,6 +242,32 @@ static void requeue_io(struct inode *ino
check_dirty_inode(inode);
}

+/*
+ * Queue all possible inodes for a run of io.
+ * The resulting s_io is in order of:
+ * - inodes queued for more io from s_more_io(once for a full scan of s_io)
+ * - possible remaining inodes in s_io(was a partial scan)
+ * - dirty inodes (old enough) from s_dirty
+ */
+static void queue_inodes_for_io(struct super_block *sb,
+ unsigned long *older_than_this)
+{
+ check_dirty_inode_list(sb);
+ if (list_empty(&sb->s_io))
+ list_splice_init(&sb->s_more_io, &sb->s_io); /* eldest first */
+ check_dirty_inode_list(sb);
+ while (!list_empty(&sb->s_dirty)) {
+ struct inode *inode = list_entry(sb->s_dirty.prev,
+ struct inode, i_list);
+ /* Was this inode dirtied too recently? */
+ if (older_than_this &&
+ time_after(inode->dirtied_when, *older_than_this))
+ break;
+ list_move(&inode->i_list, &sb->s_io);
+ }
+ check_dirty_inode_list(sb);
+}
+
static void inode_sync_complete(struct inode *inode)
{
/*
@@ -305,7 +327,7 @@ __sync_single_inode(struct inode *inode,
/*
* We didn't write back all the pages. nfs_writepages()
* sometimes bales out without doing anything. Redirty
- * the inode. It is moved from s_io onto s_dirty.
+ * the inode; Move it from s_io onto s_more_io/s_dirty.
*/
/*
* akpm: if the caller was the kupdate function we put
@@ -318,10 +340,9 @@ __sync_single_inode(struct inode *inode,
*/
if (wbc->for_kupdate) {
/*
- * For the kupdate function we leave the inode
- * at the head of sb_dirty so it will get more
- * writeout as soon as the queue becomes
- * uncongested.
+ * For the kupdate function we move the inode
+ * to s_more_io so it will get more writeout as
+ * soon as the queue becomes uncongested.
*/
inode->i_state |= I_DIRTY_PAGES;
requeue_io(inode);
@@ -380,9 +401,9 @@ __writeback_single_inode(struct inode *i
/*
* We're skipping this inode because it's locked, and we're not
* doing writeback-for-data-integrity. Move it to the head of
- * s_dirty so that writeback can proceed with the other inodes
+ * s_more_io so that writeback can proceed with the other inodes
* on s_io. We'll have another go at writing back this inode
- * when the s_dirty iodes get moved back onto s_io.
+ * when we completed a full scan of s_io.
*/
requeue_io(inode);

@@ -444,16 +465,12 @@ __writeback_single_inode(struct inode *i
int generic_sync_sb_inodes(struct super_block *sb,
struct writeback_control *wbc)
{
- const unsigned long start = jiffies; /* livelock avoidance */
int ret = 0;

spin_lock(&inode_lock);

- if (!wbc->for_kupdate || list_empty(&sb->s_io)) {
- check_dirty_inode_list(sb);
- list_splice_init(&sb->s_dirty, &sb->s_io);
- check_dirty_inode_list(sb);
- }
+ if (!wbc->for_kupdate || list_empty(&sb->s_io))
+ queue_inodes_for_io(sb, wbc->older_than_this);

while (!list_empty(&sb->s_io)) {
int err;
@@ -496,19 +513,6 @@ int generic_sync_sb_inodes(struct super_
continue; /* blockdev has wrong queue */
}

- /* Was this inode dirtied after sync_sb_inodes was called? */
- if (time_after(inode->dirtied_when, start))
- break;
-
- /* Was this inode dirtied too recently? */
- if (wbc->older_than_this && time_after(inode->dirtied_when,
- *wbc->older_than_this)) {
- check_dirty_inode_list(sb);
- list_splice_init(&sb->s_io, sb->s_dirty.prev);
- check_dirty_inode_list(sb);
- break;
- }
-
/* Is another pdflush already flushing this queue? */
if (current_is_pdflush() && !writeback_acquire(bdi))
break;
@@ -541,12 +545,6 @@ int generic_sync_sb_inodes(struct super_
if (wbc->nr_to_write <= 0)
break;
}
-
- if (list_empty(&sb->s_io)) {
- check_dirty_inode_list(sb);
- list_splice_init(&sb->s_more_io, &sb->s_io);
- check_dirty_inode_list(sb);
- }
spin_unlock(&inode_lock);
return ret; /* Leave any unwritten inodes on s_io */
}
@@ -566,7 +564,7 @@ static int sync_sb_inodes(struct super_b
* Note:
* We don't need to grab a reference to superblock here. If it has non-empty
* ->s_dirty it's hadn't been killed yet and kill_super() won't proceed
- * past sync_inodes_sb() until both the ->s_dirty and ->s_io lists are
+ * past sync_inodes_sb() until the ->s_dirty/s_io/s_more_io lists are all
* empty. Since __sync_single_inode() regains inode_lock before it finally moves
* inode from superblock lists we are OK.
*
@@ -589,7 +587,7 @@ int writeback_inodes(struct writeback_co
restart:
sb = sb_entry(super_blocks.prev);
for (; sb != sb_entry(&super_blocks); sb = sb_entry(sb->s_list.prev)) {
- if (!list_empty(&sb->s_dirty) || !list_empty(&sb->s_io)) {
+ if (sb_has_dirty_inodes(sb)) {
/* we're making our own get_super here */
sb->s_count++;
spin_unlock(&sb_lock);

--
-
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