[PATCH 07/17] writeback: add trace event for balance_dirty_pages()

From: Wu Fengguang
Date: Sun Sep 12 2010 - 11:56:35 EST


Here is an interesting test to verify the theory with balance_dirty_pages()
tracing. On a partition that can do ~60MB/s, a sparse file is created and
4 rsync tasks with different write bandwidth started:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/1T bs=1M count=1 seek=1024000
echo 1 > /debug/tracing/events/writeback/balance_dirty_pages/enable

rsync localhost:/mnt/1T /mnt/a --bwlimit 10000&
rsync localhost:/mnt/1T /mnt/A --bwlimit 10000&
rsync localhost:/mnt/1T /mnt/b --bwlimit 20000&
rsync localhost:/mnt/1T /mnt/c --bwlimit 30000&

(btw, is there a dd that can do --bwlimit?
it's a bit twisted to use rsync, or lftp net:limit-rate)

Trace outputs within 0.1 second, grouped by tasks:

rsync-3824 [004] 15002.076447: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=15% thresh=130876 gap=5340 dirtied=192 pause=20 bw=34855512

rsync-3822 [003] 15002.091701: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=15% thresh=130777 gap=5113 dirtied=192 pause=20 bw=33419085

rsync-3821 [006] 15002.004667: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=30% thresh=129570 gap=3714 dirtied=64 pause=8 bw=24541625
rsync-3821 [006] 15002.012654: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=30% thresh=129589 gap=3733 dirtied=64 pause=8 bw=24651878
rsync-3821 [006] 15002.021838: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=30% thresh=129604 gap=3748 dirtied=64 pause=8 bw=24768628
rsync-3821 [004] 15002.091193: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=29% thresh=129583 gap=3983 dirtied=64 pause=8 bw=26274370
rsync-3821 [004] 15002.102729: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=29% thresh=129594 gap=3802 dirtied=64 pause=8 bw=25015422
rsync-3821 [000] 15002.109252: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=29% thresh=129619 gap=3827 dirtied=64 pause=8 bw=25179342

rsync-3823 [002] 15002.009029: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=39% thresh=128762 gap=2842 dirtied=64 pause=12 bw=18885024
rsync-3823 [002] 15002.021598: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=39% thresh=128813 gap=3021 dirtied=64 pause=12 bw=20088241
rsync-3823 [003] 15002.032973: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=39% thresh=128805 gap=2885 dirtied=64 pause=12 bw=19146453
rsync-3823 [003] 15002.048800: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=39% thresh=128823 gap=2967 dirtied=64 pause=12 bw=19673334
rsync-3823 [003] 15002.060728: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=39% thresh=128821 gap=3221 dirtied=64 pause=12 bw=21362280
rsync-3823 [000] 15002.073152: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=39% thresh=128825 gap=3225 dirtied=64 pause=12 bw=21385010
rsync-3823 [005] 15002.090111: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=39% thresh=128782 gap=3214 dirtied=64 pause=12 bw=21333266
rsync-3823 [004] 15002.102520: balance_dirty_pages: bdi=btrfs-2 weight=39% thresh=128764 gap=3036 dirtied=64 pause=12 bw=20104559

The data vividly show that
- the heaviest writer is throttled a bit (weight=39%)
- the lighter writers run at full speed (weight=15%,15%,30%)
rsync is smart enough to compensate for the in-kernel pause time

Don't be confused by the 'bw=' field. It does not take user space
think time into account.

Signed-off-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@xxxxxxxxx>
---
include/trace/events/writeback.h | 47 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
mm/page-writeback.c | 5 +++
2 files changed, 49 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

--- linux-next.orig/include/trace/events/writeback.h 2010-09-07 23:16:28.000000000 +0800
+++ linux-next/include/trace/events/writeback.h 2010-09-07 23:20:17.000000000 +0800
@@ -148,11 +148,52 @@ DEFINE_EVENT(wbc_class, name, \
DEFINE_WBC_EVENT(wbc_writeback_start);
DEFINE_WBC_EVENT(wbc_writeback_written);
DEFINE_WBC_EVENT(wbc_writeback_wait);
-DEFINE_WBC_EVENT(wbc_balance_dirty_start);
-DEFINE_WBC_EVENT(wbc_balance_dirty_written);
-DEFINE_WBC_EVENT(wbc_balance_dirty_wait);
DEFINE_WBC_EVENT(wbc_writepage);

+TRACE_EVENT(balance_dirty_pages,
+
+ TP_PROTO(struct backing_dev_info *bdi,
+ unsigned long task_weight,
+ unsigned long bdi_thresh,
+ unsigned long gap,
+ unsigned long bw,
+ unsigned long pages_dirtied,
+ unsigned long pause),
+
+ TP_ARGS(bdi, task_weight, bdi_thresh, gap, bw, pages_dirtied, pause),
+
+ TP_STRUCT__entry(
+ __array(char, bdi, 32)
+ __field(unsigned long, task_weight)
+ __field(unsigned long, bdi_thresh)
+ __field(unsigned long, gap)
+ __field(unsigned long, bw)
+ __field(unsigned long, pages_dirtied)
+ __field(unsigned long, pause)
+ ),
+
+ TP_fast_assign(
+ strlcpy(__entry->bdi, dev_name(bdi->dev), 32);
+ __entry->task_weight = task_weight;
+ __entry->bdi_thresh = bdi_thresh;
+ __entry->gap = gap;
+ __entry->bw = bw;
+ __entry->pages_dirtied = pages_dirtied;
+ __entry->pause = pause * 1000 / HZ;
+ ),
+
+ TP_printk("bdi=%s weight=%lu%% "
+ "thresh=%lu gap=%lu dirtied=%lu pause=%lu bw=%lu",
+ __entry->bdi,
+ __entry->task_weight,
+ __entry->bdi_thresh,
+ __entry->gap,
+ __entry->pages_dirtied,
+ __entry->pause,
+ __entry->bw
+ )
+);
+
#endif /* _TRACE_WRITEBACK_H */

/* This part must be outside protection */
--- linux-next.orig/mm/page-writeback.c 2010-09-07 23:20:02.000000000 +0800
+++ linux-next/mm/page-writeback.c 2010-09-07 23:21:58.000000000 +0800
@@ -536,6 +536,11 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a
} else if (pause < HZ/100)
current->nr_dirtied_pause++;

+ trace_balance_dirty_pages(bdi,
+ 100 * numerator / denominator,
+ bdi_thresh, gap, bw,
+ pages_dirtied, pause);
+
__set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
io_schedule_timeout(pause);



--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/