From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Jens Axboe Subject: Re: [PATCH] remove use_sg_chaining Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:31:13 +0100 Message-ID: <20080121093112.GG6258@kernel.dk> References: <1200419579.9273.39.camel@localhost.localdomain> <47939E9B.9020906@panasas.com> <1200857062.3105.15.camel@localhost.localdomain> <20080120192942.GW6258@kernel.dk> <4793A78A.6000604@panasas.com> <20080120195956.GY6258@kernel.dk> <20080120200117.GZ6258@kernel.dk> <1200862756.3105.26.camel@localhost.localdomain> <479458A1.90009@panasas.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Return-path: Received: from brick.kernel.dk ([87.55.233.238]:1289 "EHLO kernel.dk" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1757691AbYAUJbQ (ORCPT ); Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:31:16 -0500 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <479458A1.90009@panasas.com> Sender: linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org To: Boaz Harrosh Cc: James Bottomley , linux-scsi On Mon, Jan 21 2008, Boaz Harrosh wrote: > On Sun, Jan 20 2008 at 22:59 +0200, James Bottomley wrote: > > On Sun, 2008-01-20 at 21:01 +0100, Jens Axboe wrote: > >> On Sun, Jan 20 2008, Jens Axboe wrote: > >>> On Sun, Jan 20 2008, Boaz Harrosh wrote: > >>>> On Sun, Jan 20 2008 at 21:29 +0200, Jens Axboe wrote: > >>>>> On Sun, Jan 20 2008, James Bottomley wrote: > >>>>>> On Sun, 2008-01-20 at 21:18 +0200, Boaz Harrosh wrote: > >>>>>>> On Tue, Jan 15 2008 at 19:52 +0200, James Bottomley wrote: > >>>>>>>> this patch depends on the sg branch of the block tree > >>>>>>>> > >>>>>>>> James > >>>>>>>> > >>>>>>>> --- > >>>>>>>> From: James Bottomley > >>>>>>>> Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:11:46 -0600 > >>>>>>>> Subject: remove use_sg_chaining > >>>>>>>> > >>>>>>>> With the sg table code, every SCSI driver is now either chain capable > >>>>>>>> or broken, so there's no need to have a check in the host template. > >>>>>>>> > >>>>>>>> Also tidy up the code by moving the scatterlist size defines into the > >>>>>>>> SCSI includes and permit the last entry of the scatterlist pools not > >>>>>>>> to be a power of two. > >>>>>>>> --- > >>>>>>> I have a theoretical problem that BUGed me from the beginning. > >>>>>>> > >>>>>>> Could it happen that a memory critical IO, (that is needed to free > >>>>>>> memory), be collected into an sg-chained large IO, and the allocation > >>>>>>> of the multiple sg-pool-allocations fail, thous dead locking on > >>>>>>> out-of-memory? Is there a mechanism in place that will split large IO's > >>>>>>> into smaller chunks in the event of out-of-memory condition in prep_fn? > >>>>>>> > >>>>>>> Is it possible to call blk_rq_map_sg() with less then what is present > >>>>>>> at request to only map the starting portion? > >>>>>> Obviously, that's why I was worrying about mempool size and default > >>>>>> blocks a while ago. > >>>>>> > >>>>>> However, the deadlock only occurs if the device is swap or backing a > >>>>>> filesystem with memory mapped files. The use cases for this are really > >>>>>> tapes and other entities that need huge buffers. That's why we're > >>>>>> keeping the system sector size at 1024 unless you alter it through sysfs > >>>>>> (here gun, there foot ...) > >>>>> Alternatively (and much safer, imho), we allow blk_rq_map_sg() return > >>>>> smaller than nr_phys_segments and just ensure that the request is > >>>>> continued nicely through the normal 'request if residual' logic. > >>>>> > >>>> Thats a grate Idea. I will Q it on my todo list. Thanks > >>> ok good, thanks :-) > >> btw, the above is full of typos, my apologies. it should read "requeue > >> if residual", but I guess you already guessed as much. > > > > Something like ... > > > > It looks to me like it would make sense to have something like a > > BLKPREP_SGALLOCFAIL return so the block layer can do this for us ... > > Alternatively, we'll have to find a way of adjusting the sector count as > > it goes into the ULD prep functions. > > > > James > > By luck this is no problem because it happens exactly before the ULD > actually prepares the command. sd and sr are already doing these > adjustments based on bufflen. For BLOCK_PC we will need to fail with > perhaps a new BLKPREP_SGALLOCFAIL, like you said, and let the > initiator take care of it. Right, the scsi_init_io() takes care of it and adjusts the buflen as needed, no need to pass this "erro"r back. As far as I'm concerned, blocking for BLOCK_PC requests should be fine (is anyone using these for swap?). -- Jens Axboe