linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH 1/6] writeback: balance_dirty_pages() shall write more than dirtied pages

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Message-ID: <20090923125338.GA32347@localhost>
Date:	Wed, 23 Sep 2009 20:53:38 +0800
From:	Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@...el.com>
To:	Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>
Cc:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@...cle.com>, Jan Kara <jack@...e.cz>,
	Theodore Ts'o <tytso@....edu>,
	Dave Chinner <david@...morbit.com>,
	Chris Mason <chris.mason@...cle.com>,
	Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@...llo.nl>,
	"linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org" <linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org>,
	LKML <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH 1/6] writeback: balance_dirty_pages() shall write more
	than dirtied pages

On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 08:45:29PM +0800, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 08:33:39PM +0800, 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.
> 
> For some reason the filesystems tricking around
> balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited's semantics seem to get much better
> buffered write performance.

Yes, I would expect enlarged ratelimit numbers to benefit performance.

> Are you sure this is not going to destroy that benefit?  (But yes,
> we should make sure it behaves the same for all filesystems)

If filesystem chooses to use a larger ratelimit number, then this
patch will also enlarge the write chunk size (which is now computed
based on the enlarged ratelimit number), which I believe will be
beneficial, too.

Thanks,
Fengguang

> > Signed-off-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@...el.com>
> > ---
> >  mm/page-writeback.c |   13 +++++++------
> >  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)
> > 
> > --- linux.orig/mm/page-writeback.c	2009-09-23 16:31:46.000000000 +0800
> > +++ linux/mm/page-writeback.c	2009-09-23 16:33:19.000000000 +0800
> > @@ -44,12 +44,12 @@ static long ratelimit_pages = 32;
> >  /*
> >   * When balance_dirty_pages decides that the caller needs to perform some
> >   * non-background writeback, this is how many pages it will attempt to write.
> > - * It should be somewhat larger than RATELIMIT_PAGES to ensure that reasonably
> > + * It should be somewhat larger than dirtied pages to ensure that reasonably
> >   * large amounts of I/O are submitted.
> >   */
> > -static inline long sync_writeback_pages(void)
> > +static inline long sync_writeback_pages(unsigned long dirtied)
> >  {
> > -	return ratelimit_pages + ratelimit_pages / 2;
> > +	return dirtied + dirtied / 2;
> >  }
> >  
> >  /* The following parameters are exported via /proc/sys/vm */
> > @@ -476,7 +476,8 @@ get_dirty_limits(unsigned long *pbackgro
> >   * If we're over `background_thresh' then pdflush is woken to perform some
> >   * writeout.
> >   */
> > -static void balance_dirty_pages(struct address_space *mapping)
> > +static void balance_dirty_pages(struct address_space *mapping,
> > +				unsigned long write_chunk)
> >  {
> >  	long nr_reclaimable, bdi_nr_reclaimable;
> >  	long nr_writeback, bdi_nr_writeback;
> > @@ -484,7 +485,6 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a
> >  	unsigned long dirty_thresh;
> >  	unsigned long bdi_thresh;
> >  	unsigned long pages_written = 0;
> > -	unsigned long write_chunk = sync_writeback_pages();
> >  	unsigned long pause = 1;
> >  
> >  	struct backing_dev_info *bdi = mapping->backing_dev_info;
> > @@ -640,9 +640,10 @@ void balance_dirty_pages_ratelimited_nr(
> >  	p =  &__get_cpu_var(bdp_ratelimits);
> >  	*p += nr_pages_dirtied;
> >  	if (unlikely(*p >= ratelimit)) {
> > +		ratelimit = sync_writeback_pages(*p);
> >  		*p = 0;
> >  		preempt_enable();
> > -		balance_dirty_pages(mapping);
> > +		balance_dirty_pages(mapping, ratelimit);
> >  		return;
> >  	}
> >  	preempt_enable();
> > 
> > 
> ---end quoted text---
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