linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] fs: add fincore(2) (mincore(2) for file descriptors)

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Message-ID: <k2xe94e14cd1005071546i2806354dm55ad7ae89e46e5f5@mail.gmail.com>
Date:	Sat, 8 May 2010 00:46:37 +0200
From:	Cédric Villemain 
	<cedric.villemain.debian@...il.com>
To:	Andy Isaacson <adi@...apodia.org>
Cc:	Chris Frost <chris@...stnet.net>, Andi Kleen <andi@...stfloor.org>,
	Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@...el.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Heiko Carstens <heiko.carstens@...ibm.com>,
	Alexander Viro <viro@...iv.linux.org.uk>,
	Benny Halevy <bhalevy@...asas.com>, Andrew@...stfloor.org,
	linux-mm@...ck.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Steve VanDeBogart <vandebo-lkml@...dbox.net>,
	linux-fsdevel@...r.kernel.org, Matt Mackall <mpm@...enic.com>,
	Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] fs: add fincore(2) (mincore(2) for file descriptors)

2010/2/21 Andy Isaacson <adi@...apodia.org>:
> On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 10:13:12AM -0800, Chris Frost wrote:
>> Add the fincore() system call. fincore() is mincore() for file descriptors.
>>
>> The functionality of fincore() can be emulated with an mmap(), mincore(),
>> and munmap(), but this emulation requires more system calls and requires
>> page table modifications. fincore() can provide a significant performance
>> improvement for non-sequential in-core queries.
>
> In addition to being expensive, mmap/mincore/munmap perturb the VM's
> eviction algorithm -- a page is less likely to be evicted if it's
> mmapped when being considered for eviction.
>
> I frequently see this happen when using mincore(1) from
> http://bitbucket.org/radii/mincore/ -- "watch mincore -v *.big" while
> *.big are being sequentially read results in a significant number of
> pages remaining in-core, whereas if I only run mincore after the
> sequential read is complete, the large files will be nearly-completely
> out of core (except for the tail of the last file, of course).
>
> It's very interesting to watch
> % watch --interval=.5 mincore -v *
>
> while an IO-intensive process is happening, such as mke2fs on a
> filesystem image.
>
> So, I support the addition of fincore(2) and would use it if it were
> merged.

I wonder what the actual state is for this proposition?
I'd like to see fincore(2) added too...

>
> -andy
> --
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-- 
Cédric Villemain
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