netdev - Re: [PATCH v2 15/21] xen-blkfront: Make use of the new sg

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Date:   Thu, 27 Apr 2017 15:53:37 -0600
From:   Logan Gunthorpe <logang@...tatee.com>
To:     Jason Gunthorpe <jgunthorpe@...idianresearch.com>
Cc:     Roger Pau Monné <roger.pau@...rix.com>,
        linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-crypto@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-media@...r.kernel.org, dri-devel@...ts.freedesktop.org,
        intel-gfx@...ts.freedesktop.org, linux-raid@...r.kernel.org,
        linux-mmc@...r.kernel.org, linux-nvdimm@...1.01.org,
        linux-scsi@...r.kernel.org, open-iscsi@...glegroups.com,
        megaraidlinux.pdl@...adcom.com, sparmaintainer@...sys.com,
        devel@...verdev.osuosl.org, target-devel@...r.kernel.org,
        netdev@...r.kernel.org, linux-rdma@...r.kernel.org,
        dm-devel@...hat.com, Christoph Hellwig <hch@....de>,
        "Martin K. Petersen" <martin.petersen@...cle.com>,
        "James E.J. Bottomley" <jejb@...ux.vnet.ibm.com>,
        Jens Axboe <axboe@...nel.dk>,
        Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@...uxfoundation.org>,
        Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@...el.com>,
        Ross Zwisler <ross.zwisler@...ux.intel.com>,
        Matthew Wilcox <mawilcox@...rosoft.com>,
        Sumit Semwal <sumit.semwal@...aro.org>,
        Stephen Bates <sbates@...thlin.com>,
        Boris Ostrovsky <boris.ostrovsky@...cle.com>,
        Juergen Gross <jgross@...e.com>,
        Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@...cle.com>,
        Julien Grall <julien.grall@....com>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v2 15/21] xen-blkfront: Make use of the new sg_map helper
 function

On 27/04/17 02:53 PM, Jason Gunthorpe wrote:
> blkfront is one of the drivers I looked at, and it appears to only be
> memcpying with the bvec_data pointer, so I wonder why it does not use
> sg_copy_X_buffer instead..

Yes, sort of...

But you'd potentially end up calling sg_copy_to_buffer multiple times
per page within the sg (given that gnttab_foreach_grant_in_range might
call blkif_copy_from_grant/blkif_setup_rw_req_grant multiple times).
Even calling sg_copy_to_buffer once per page seems rather inefficient as
it uses sg_miter internally.

Switching the for_each_sg to sg_miter is probably the nicer solution as
it takes care of the mapping and the offset/length accounting for you
and will have similar performance.

But, yes, if performance is not an issue, switching it to
sg_copy_to_buffer would be a less invasive change than sg_miter. Which
the same might be said about a lot of these cases.

Unfortunately, changing from kmap_atomic (which is a null operation in a
lot of cases) to sg_copy_X_buffer is a pretty big performance hit.

Logan