linux-ext4 - Re: write() hangs during flush

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Date:   Wed, 19 Jul 2017 23:22:12 -0700
From:   "Darrick J. Wong" <darrick.wong@...cle.com>
To:     Brian Malehorn <bmalehorn@...il.com>
Cc:     linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: write() hangs during flush

On Wed, Jul 19, 2017 at 11:07:08PM -0700, Brian Malehorn wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm debugging an issue where write() can sometimes take several
> seconds to complete. I'm looking for general guidance on why this
> might happen, and what I can do about it.
> 
> While I originally encountered the problem on an embedded device
> writing to an MMC, I can also reproduce it on my laptop (Ubuntu
> 16.04):
> 
>     pv -L 100m /dev/zero |
>       strace -s 8 -T -e trace=write dd bs=32k of=./zero 2>&1 |
>       awk 'substr($NF, 2, length($NF)-2) + 0 > 0.1'
> 
>     write(1, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 32768) = 32768 <0.145895>
>     write(1, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 32768) = 32768 <0.673575>
>     write(1, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 32768) = 32768 <0.126722>
>     write(1, "\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0"..., 32768) = 32768 <1.284791>
> 
> In the above example, I write 100 MiB / second, and print out any
> write() that took over 100 ms. In the output, the slowest write was
> 1.28 seconds. I can provide more details about the setup if needed.
> 
> I believe this is happening:
> 
>   1. accumulate lots of data in cache
>   2. filesystem decides to flush
>   3. nobody can write during flush
>   4. flush flushes "a lot" of data - maybe everything
> 
> Do my guesses align with reality, or is there another explanation?
> 
> Does anybody have ideas on how to make this more "smooth"? Ideally,
> I'd like each write() to be slowed down a little bit, rather than
> 99.99% of writes completing instantly and 0.01% taking over a second.

/proc/sys/vm/dirty* knobs?

--D

> 
> Thanks,
> Brian