[PATCHv4 17/17] writeback: lessen sync_supers wakeup count

From: Artem Bityutskiy
Date: Tue May 25 2010 - 09:53:42 EST


From: Artem Bityutskiy <Artem.Bityutskiy@xxxxxxxxx>

The 'sync_supers' thread wakes up every 5 seconds (by default) and
writes back all super blocks. It keeps waking up even if there
are no dirty super-blocks. For many file-systems the superblock
becomes dirty very rarely, if ever, so 'sync_supers' does not do
anything most of the time.

This patch improves 'sync_supers' and makes sleep if all superblocks
are clean and there is nothing to do. This helps saving the power.
This optimization is important for small battery-powered devices.

Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy <Artem.Bityutskiy@xxxxxxxxx>
---
include/linux/fs.h | 5 +----
mm/backing-dev.c | 36 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++-
2 files changed, 36 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/include/linux/fs.h b/include/linux/fs.h
index c2ddeee..2d2560b 100644
--- a/include/linux/fs.h
+++ b/include/linux/fs.h
@@ -1786,10 +1786,7 @@ extern void simple_set_mnt(struct vfsmount *mnt, struct super_block *sb);
* Note, VFS does not provide any serialization for the super block clean/dirty
* state changes, file-systems should take care of this.
*/
-static inline void mark_sb_dirty(struct super_block *sb)
-{
- sb->s_dirty = 1;
-}
+void mark_sb_dirty(struct super_block *sb);
static inline void mark_sb_clean(struct super_block *sb)
{
sb->s_dirty = 0;
diff --git a/mm/backing-dev.c b/mm/backing-dev.c
index 660a87a..14f3eb7 100644
--- a/mm/backing-dev.c
+++ b/mm/backing-dev.c
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ LIST_HEAD(bdi_pending_list);

static struct task_struct *sync_supers_tsk;
static struct timer_list sync_supers_timer;
+static int supers_timer_armed;
+static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(supers_timer_lock);

static int bdi_sync_supers(void *);
static void sync_supers_timer_fn(unsigned long);
@@ -355,6 +357,11 @@ static void bdi_flush_io(struct backing_dev_info *bdi)
* or we risk deadlocking on ->s_umount. The longer term solution would be
* to implement sync_supers_bdi() or similar and simply do it from the
* bdi writeback tasks individually.
+ *
+ * Historically this thread woke up periodically, regardless of whether
+ * there was any dirty superblock. However, nowadays it is optimized to
+ * wake up only when there is something to synchronize - this helps to save
+ * power.
*/
static int bdi_sync_supers(void *unused)
{
@@ -364,10 +371,24 @@ static int bdi_sync_supers(void *unused)
set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
schedule();

+ spin_lock(&supers_timer_lock);
+ /* Indicate that 'sync_supers' is in progress */
+ supers_timer_armed = -1;
+ spin_unlock(&supers_timer_lock);
+
/*
* Do this periodically, like kupdated() did before.
*/
sync_supers();
+
+ spin_lock(&supers_timer_lock);
+ if (supers_timer_armed == 1)
+ /* A super block was marked as dirty meanwhile */
+ bdi_arm_supers_timer();
+ else
+ /* No more dirty superblocks - we've synced'em all */
+ supers_timer_armed = 0;
+ spin_unlock(&supers_timer_lock);
}

return 0;
@@ -387,9 +408,22 @@ void bdi_arm_supers_timer(void)
static void sync_supers_timer_fn(unsigned long unused)
{
wake_up_process(sync_supers_tsk);
- bdi_arm_supers_timer();
}

+void mark_sb_dirty(struct super_block *sb)
+{
+ sb->s_dirty = 1;
+
+ spin_lock(&supers_timer_lock);
+ if (!supers_timer_armed) {
+ bdi_arm_supers_timer();
+ supers_timer_armed = 1;
+ } else if (supers_timer_armed == -1)
+ supers_timer_armed = 1;
+ spin_unlock(&supers_timer_lock);
+}
+EXPORT_SYMBOL(mark_sb_dirty);
+
static int bdi_forker_task(void *ptr)
{
struct bdi_writeback *me = ptr;
--
1.6.6.1

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