linux-kernel - Re: [ext3][kernels >= 2.6.20.7 at least] KDE going comatose when FS is under heavy write load (massive starvation)

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Message-ID: <4632527C.6090509@gmx.net>
Date:	Fri, 27 Apr 2007 21:43:56 +0200
From:	Marko Macek <marko.macek@....net>
To:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
CC:	"John Anthony Kazos Jr." <jakj@...-k-j.com>,
	Mike Galbraith <efault@....de>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@...cle.com>
Subject: Re: [ext3][kernels >= 2.6.20.7 at least] KDE going comatose when
 FS is under heavy write load (massive starvation)

Linus Torvalds wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 27 Apr 2007, John Anthony Kazos Jr. wrote:
>> Could[/should] this stuff be changed from ratios to amounts? Or a quick 
>> boot-time test to use a ratio if the memory is small and an amount (like 
>> tax brackets, I would expect) if it's great?
> 
> Yes, the "percentage" thing was likely wrong. That said, there *is* some 
> correlation between "lots of memory" and "high-end machine", and that in 
> turn tends to correlate with "fast disk", so I don't think the percentage 
> approach is really *horribly* wrong.
> 
> The main issue with the percentage is that we do export them as such 
> through the /proc/ interface, and they are easy to change and understand. 
> So changing them to amounts is non-trivial if you also want to support the 
> old interfaces - and the advantage isn't obvious enough that it's a 
> clear-cut case.

I wonder if it would be useful if the limit was 'data we can write out 
in 1 (configurable) second. This would typically mean either one 50mb 
(depending on disk) contigous block or 100-200 scattered blocks (since 
the typical disk latency is about 5-10ms).

Has anyone tried something like this?

Mark
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