Re: [PATCH 3/3] writeback: avoid extra sync work at enqueue time

From: Jan Kara
Date: Thu May 05 2011 - 10:01:40 EST


On Thu 05-05-11 20:27:32, Wu Fengguang wrote:
> On Thu, May 05, 2011 at 05:24:27AM +0800, Jan Kara wrote:
> > On Mon 02-05-11 11:17:53, Wu Fengguang wrote:
> > > This removes writeback_control.wb_start and does more straightforward
> > > sync livelock prevention by setting .older_than_this to prevent extra
> > > inodes from being enqueued in the first place.
> > >
> > > --- linux-next.orig/fs/fs-writeback.c 2011-05-02 11:17:24.000000000 +0800
> > > +++ linux-next/fs/fs-writeback.c 2011-05-02 11:17:27.000000000 +0800
> > > @@ -683,10 +672,12 @@ static long wb_writeback(struct bdi_writ
> > > * (quickly) tag currently dirty pages
> > > * (maybe slowly) sync all tagged pages
> > > */
> > > - if (wbc.sync_mode == WB_SYNC_ALL || wbc.tagged_sync)
> > > + if (wbc.sync_mode == WB_SYNC_ALL || wbc.tagged_sync) {
> > > write_chunk = LONG_MAX;
> > > + oldest_jif = jiffies;
> > > + wbc.older_than_this = &oldest_jif;
> > > + }
> > What are the implications of not doing dirty-time livelock avoidance for
> > other types of writeback? Is that a mistake? I'd prefer to have in
> > wb_writeback():
> > if (wbc.for_kupdate)
> > oldest_jif = jiffies - msecs_to_jiffies(dirty_expire_interval * 10);
> > else
> > oldest_jif = jiffies;
> > wbc.older_than_this = &oldest_jif;
> >
> > And when you have this, you can make wbc.older_than_this just a plain
> > number and remove all those checks for wbc.older_than_this == NULL.
>
> Good point. Here is the fixed patch. Will you send the patch to change
> the type when the current patches are settled down?
OK, I will do that.

> @@ -686,7 +674,9 @@ static long wb_writeback(struct bdi_writ
> if (wbc.sync_mode == WB_SYNC_ALL || wbc.tagged_sync)
> write_chunk = LONG_MAX;
>
> - wbc.wb_start = jiffies; /* livelock avoidance */
> + oldest_jif = jiffies;
> + wbc.older_than_this = &oldest_jif;
> +
I might be already confused with all the code moving around but won't
this overwrite the value set for the for_kupdate case?

Honza
--
Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx>
SUSE Labs, CR
--
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/