[PATCH 9/9] readahead: basic support for backwards prefetching

[Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@intel.com>]

[-- Attachment #1: readahead-backwards.patch --]
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Add the backwards prefetching feature. It's pretty simple if we don't
support async prefetching and interleaved reads.

tail and tac are observed to have the reverse read pattern:

tail-3501  [006]   111.881191: readahead: readahead-random(bdi=0:16, ino=1548450, req=750+1, ra=750+1-0, async=0) = 1
tail-3501  [006]   111.881506: readahead: readahead-backwards(bdi=0:16, ino=1548450, req=748+2, ra=746+5-0, async=0) = 4
tail-3501  [006]   111.882021: readahead: readahead-backwards(bdi=0:16, ino=1548450, req=744+2, ra=726+25-0, async=0) = 20
tail-3501  [006]   111.883713: readahead: readahead-backwards(bdi=0:16, ino=1548450, req=724+2, ra=626+125-0, async=0) = 100

 tac-3528  [001]   118.671924: readahead: readahead-random(bdi=0:16, ino=1548445, req=750+1, ra=750+1-0, async=0) = 1
 tac-3528  [001]   118.672371: readahead: readahead-backwards(bdi=0:16, ino=1548445, req=748+2, ra=746+5-0, async=0) = 4
 tac-3528  [001]   118.673039: readahead: readahead-backwards(bdi=0:16, ino=1548445, req=744+2, ra=726+25-0, async=0) = 20

Here is the behavior with an 8-page read sequence from 10000 down to 0.
(The readahead size is a bit large since it's an NFS mount.)

readahead-random(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=10000+8, ra=10000+8-0, async=0) = 8
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9992+8, ra=9968+32-0, async=0) = 32
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9960+8, ra=9840+128-0, async=0) = 128
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9832+8, ra=9584+256-0, async=0) = 256
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9576+8, ra=9072+512-0, async=0) = 512
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9064+8, ra=8048+1024-0, async=0) = 1024
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=8040+8, ra=6128+1920-0, async=0) = 1920
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=6120+8, ra=4208+1920-0, async=0) = 1920
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=4200+8, ra=2288+1920-0, async=0) = 1920
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=2280+8, ra=368+1920-0, async=0) = 1920
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=360+8, ra=0+368-0, async=0) = 368

And a simple 1-page read sequence from 10000 down to 0.

readahead-random(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=10000+1, ra=10000+1-0, async=0) = 1
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9999+1, ra=9996+4-0, async=0) = 4
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9995+1, ra=9980+16-0, async=0) = 16
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9979+1, ra=9916+64-0, async=0) = 64
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9915+1, ra=9660+256-0, async=0) = 256
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9659+1, ra=9148+512-0, async=0) = 512
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=9147+1, ra=8124+1024-0, async=0) = 1024
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=8123+1, ra=6204+1920-0, async=0) = 1920
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=6203+1, ra=4284+1920-0, async=0) = 1920
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=4283+1, ra=2364+1920-0, async=0) = 1920
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=2363+1, ra=444+1920-0, async=0) = 1920
readahead-backwards(dev=0:16, ino=3948605, req=443+1, ra=0+444-0, async=0) = 444

CC: Andi Kleen <andi@firstfloor.org>
CC: Li Shaohua <shaohua.li@intel.com>
Acked-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Signed-off-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@intel.com>
---
 include/linux/fs.h         |    2 ++
 include/trace/events/vfs.h |    1 +
 mm/readahead.c             |   20 ++++++++++++++++++++
 3 files changed, 23 insertions(+)

--- linux-next.orig/include/linux/fs.h	2012-02-11 12:31:05.000000000 +0800
+++ linux-next/include/linux/fs.h	2012-02-11 12:31:11.000000000 +0800
@@ -976,6 +976,7 @@ struct file_ra_state {
  *				streams.
  * RA_PATTERN_MMAP_AROUND	read-around on mmap page faults
  *				(w/o any sequential/random hints)
+ * RA_PATTERN_BACKWARDS		reverse reading detected
  * RA_PATTERN_FADVISE		triggered by POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED or FMODE_RANDOM
  * RA_PATTERN_OVERSIZE		a random read larger than max readahead size,
  *				do max readahead to break down the read size
@@ -986,6 +987,7 @@ enum readahead_pattern {
 	RA_PATTERN_SUBSEQUENT,
 	RA_PATTERN_CONTEXT,
 	RA_PATTERN_MMAP_AROUND,
+	RA_PATTERN_BACKWARDS,
 	RA_PATTERN_FADVISE,
 	RA_PATTERN_OVERSIZE,
 	RA_PATTERN_RANDOM,
--- linux-next.orig/mm/readahead.c	2012-02-11 12:31:09.000000000 +0800
+++ linux-next/mm/readahead.c	2012-02-11 12:31:11.000000000 +0800
@@ -719,6 +719,26 @@ ondemand_readahead(struct address_space 
 	}
 
 	/*
+	 * backwards reading
+	 */
+	if (offset < ra->start && offset + req_size >= ra->start) {
+		ra->pattern = RA_PATTERN_BACKWARDS;
+		ra->size = get_next_ra_size(ra, max);
+		if (ra->size > ra->start) {
+			/*
+			 * ra->start may be concurrently set to some huge
+			 * value, the min() at least avoids submitting huge IO
+			 * in this race condition
+			 */
+			ra->size = min(ra->start, max);
+			ra->start = 0;
+		} else
+			ra->start -= ra->size;
+		ra->async_size = 0;
+		goto readit;
+	}
+
+	/*
 	 * Query the page cache and look for the traces(cached history pages)
 	 * that a sequential stream would leave behind.
 	 */
--- linux-next.orig/include/trace/events/vfs.h	2012-02-11 12:30:59.000000000 +0800
+++ linux-next/include/trace/events/vfs.h	2012-02-11 12:31:11.000000000 +0800
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 			{ RA_PATTERN_SUBSEQUENT,	"subsequent"	}, \
 			{ RA_PATTERN_CONTEXT,		"context"	}, \
 			{ RA_PATTERN_MMAP_AROUND,	"around"	}, \
+			{ RA_PATTERN_BACKWARDS,		"backwards"	}, \
 			{ RA_PATTERN_FADVISE,		"fadvise"	}, \
 			{ RA_PATTERN_OVERSIZE,		"oversize"	}, \
 			{ RA_PATTERN_RANDOM,		"random"	}, \


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