linux-kernel - Re: [RFC][PATCH 7/7] writeback: balance_dirty_pages() shall write more than dirtied pages

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Date:	Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:14:58 +0800
From:	Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@...el.com>
To:	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>
Cc:	Chris Mason <chris.mason@...cle.com>, Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@...cle.com>,
	Dave Chinner <david@...morbit.com>,
	Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>,
	Artem Bityutskiy <dedekind1@...il.com>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	"linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [RFC][PATCH 7/7] writeback: balance_dirty_pages() shall write
	more than dirtied pages

On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 10:56:04PM +0800, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-09-10 at 21:21 +0800, Wu Fengguang wrote:
> > On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 08:57:42PM +0800, Chris Mason wrote:
> > > On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 09:42:01AM +0800, Wu Fengguang wrote:
> > > > On Wed, Sep 09, 2009 at 11:44:13PM +0800, Jan Kara wrote:
> > > > > On Wed 09-09-09 22:51:48, Wu Fengguang wrote:
> > > > > > Some filesystem may choose to write much more than ratelimit_pages
> > > > > > before calling balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr(). So it is safer to
> > > > > > determine number to write based on real number of dirtied pages.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > The increased write_chunk may make the dirtier more bumpy.  This is
> > > > > > filesystem writers' duty not to dirty too much at a time without
> > > > > > checking the ratelimit.
> > > > >   I don't get this. balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr() is called when we
> > > > > dirty the page, not when we write it out. So a problem would only happen if
> > > > > filesystem dirties pages by set_page_dirty() and won't call
> > > > > balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr(). But e.g. generic_perform_write()
> > > > > and do_wp_page() takes care of that. So where's the problem?
> > > > 
> > > > It seems that btrfs_file_write() is writing in chunks of up to 1024-pages
> > > > (1024 is the computed nrptrs value in a 32bit kernel). And it calls
> > > > balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr() each time it dirtied such a chunk.
> > > 
> > > I can easily change this to call more often, but we do always call
> > > balance_dirty_pages to reflect how much ram we've really sent down.
> > 
> > Btrfs is doing OK. 2MB/4MB looks like reasonable chunk sizes. The
> > need-change part is balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr(), hence this
> > patch :)
> 
> I'm not getting it, it calls set_page_dirty() for each page, right? and
> then it calls into balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr(), that sounds
> right. What is the problem with that?

It looks like btrfs_file_write() eventually calls
__set_page_dirty_buffers() which in turn won't call
balance_dirty_pages*(). This is why do_wp_page() calls
set_page_dirty_balance() to do balance_dirty_pages*().

So btrfs_file_write() explicitly calls
balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr() to get throttled.

Thanks,
Fengguang
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