Re: [RFC PATCH v4 4/5] mm/readahead: Store folio order in struct file_ra_state

Ryan Roberts
2025-05-06T18:56:13Z

On 06/05/2025 15:24, David Hildenbrand wrote:
> On 06.05.25 12:03, Ryan Roberts wrote:
>> On 05/05/2025 11:08, David Hildenbrand wrote:
>>> On 30.04.25 16:59, Ryan Roberts wrote:
>>>> Previously the folio order of the previous readahead request was
>>>> inferred from the folio who's readahead marker was hit. But due to the
>>>> way we have to round to non-natural boundaries sometimes, this first
>>>> folio in the readahead block is often smaller than the preferred order
>>>> for that request. This means that for cases where the initial sync
>>>> readahead is poorly aligned, the folio order will ramp up much more
>>>> slowly.
>>>>
>>>> So instead, let's store the order in struct file_ra_state so we are not
>>>> affected by any required alignment. We previously made enough room in
>>>> the struct for a 16 order field. This should be plenty big enough since
>>>> we are limited to MAX_PAGECACHE_ORDER anyway, which is certainly never
>>>> larger than ~20.
>>>>
>>>> Since we now pass order in struct file_ra_state, page_cache_ra_order()
>>>> no longer needs it's new_order parameter, so let's remove that.
>>>>
>>>> Worked example:
>>>>
>>>> Here we are touching pages 17-256 sequentially just as we did in the
>>>> previous commit, but now that we are remembering the preferred order
>>>> explicitly, we no longer have the slow ramp up problem. Note
>>>> specifically that we no longer have 2 rounds (2x ~128K) of order-2
>>>> folios:
>>>>
>>>> TYPE    STARTOFFS     ENDOFFS        SIZE  STARTPG    ENDPG   NRPG  ORDER  RA
>>>> -----  ----------  ----------  ----------  -------  -------  -----  -----  --
>>>> HOLE   0x00000000  0x00001000        4096        0        1      1
>>>> FOLIO  0x00001000  0x00002000        4096        1        2      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00002000  0x00003000        4096        2        3      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00003000  0x00004000        4096        3        4      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00004000  0x00005000        4096        4        5      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00005000  0x00006000        4096        5        6      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00006000  0x00007000        4096        6        7      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00007000  0x00008000        4096        7        8      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00008000  0x00009000        4096        8        9      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00009000  0x0000a000        4096        9       10      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0000a000  0x0000b000        4096       10       11      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0000b000  0x0000c000        4096       11       12      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0000c000  0x0000d000        4096       12       13      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0000d000  0x0000e000        4096       13       14      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0000e000  0x0000f000        4096       14       15      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0000f000  0x00010000        4096       15       16      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00010000  0x00011000        4096       16       17      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00011000  0x00012000        4096       17       18      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00012000  0x00013000        4096       18       19      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00013000  0x00014000        4096       19       20      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00014000  0x00015000        4096       20       21      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00015000  0x00016000        4096       21       22      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00016000  0x00017000        4096       22       23      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00017000  0x00018000        4096       23       24      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00018000  0x00019000        4096       24       25      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00019000  0x0001a000        4096       25       26      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0001a000  0x0001b000        4096       26       27      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0001b000  0x0001c000        4096       27       28      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0001c000  0x0001d000        4096       28       29      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0001d000  0x0001e000        4096       29       30      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0001e000  0x0001f000        4096       30       31      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x0001f000  0x00020000        4096       31       32      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00020000  0x00021000        4096       32       33      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00021000  0x00022000        4096       33       34      1      0
>>>> FOLIO  0x00022000  0x00024000        8192       34       36      2      1
>>>> FOLIO  0x00024000  0x00028000       16384       36       40      4      2
>>>> FOLIO  0x00028000  0x0002c000       16384       40       44      4      2
>>>> FOLIO  0x0002c000  0x00030000       16384       44       48      4      2
>>>> FOLIO  0x00030000  0x00034000       16384       48       52      4      2
>>>> FOLIO  0x00034000  0x00038000       16384       52       56      4      2
>>>> FOLIO  0x00038000  0x0003c000       16384       56       60      4      2
>>>> FOLIO  0x0003c000  0x00040000       16384       60       64      4      2
>>>> FOLIO  0x00040000  0x00050000       65536       64       80     16      4
>>>> FOLIO  0x00050000  0x00060000       65536       80       96     16      4
>>>> FOLIO  0x00060000  0x00080000      131072       96      128     32      5
>>>> FOLIO  0x00080000  0x000a0000      131072      128      160     32      5
>>>> FOLIO  0x000a0000  0x000c0000      131072      160      192     32      5
>>>> FOLIO  0x000c0000  0x000e0000      131072      192      224     32      5
>>>> FOLIO  0x000e0000  0x00100000      131072      224      256     32      5
>>>> FOLIO  0x00100000  0x00120000      131072      256      288     32      5
>>>> FOLIO  0x00120000  0x00140000      131072      288      320     32      5  Y
>>>> HOLE   0x00140000  0x00800000     7077888      320     2048   1728
>>>>
>>>> Signed-off-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
>>>> ---
>>>>    include/linux/fs.h |  2 ++
>>>>    mm/filemap.c       |  6 ++++--
>>>>    mm/internal.h      |  3 +--
>>>>    mm/readahead.c     | 18 +++++++++++-------
>>>>    4 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)
>>>>
>>>> diff --git a/include/linux/fs.h b/include/linux/fs.h
>>>> index 44362bef0010..cde482a7270a 100644
>>>> --- a/include/linux/fs.h
>>>> +++ b/include/linux/fs.h
>>>> @@ -1031,6 +1031,7 @@ struct fown_struct {
>>>>     *      and so were/are genuinely "ahead".  Start next readahead when
>>>>     *      the first of these pages is accessed.
>>>>     * @ra_pages: Maximum size of a readahead request, copied from the bdi.
>>>> + * @order: Preferred folio order used for most recent readahead.
>>>
>>> Looking at other members, and how it relates to the other members, should we
>>> call this something like "ra_prev_order" / "prev_ra_order" to distinguish it
>>> from !ra members and indicate the "most recent" semantics similar to "prev_pos"?
>>
>> As you know, I'm crap at naming, but...
>>
>> start, size, async_size and order make up the parameters for the "most recent"
>> readahead request. Where "most recent" includes "current" once passed into
>> page_cache_ra_order(). The others don't include "ra" or "prev" in their name so
>> wasn't sure it was necessary here.
>>
>> ra_pages is a bit different; that's not part of the request, it's a (dynamic)
>> ceiling to use when creating requests.
>>
>> Personally I'd leave it as is, but no strong opinion.
>
> I'm fine with it staying that way; I was merely trying to make sense of it all ...
>
>
> ... maybe a better description of the parameters might make the semantics easier
> to grasp.
>
> ""most recent" includes "current" once passed into page_cache_ra_order()"
>
> is *really* hard to digest :)
>
>>
>>>
>>> Just a thought while digging through this patch ...
>>>
>>> ...
>>>
>>>> --- a/mm/filemap.c
>>>> +++ b/mm/filemap.c
>>>> @@ -3222,7 +3222,8 @@ static struct file *do_sync_mmap_readahead(struct
>>>> vm_fault *vmf)
>>>>            if (!(vm_flags & VM_RAND_READ))
>>>>                ra->size *= 2;
>>>>            ra->async_size = HPAGE_PMD_NR;
>>>> -        page_cache_ra_order(&ractl, ra, HPAGE_PMD_ORDER);
>>>> +        ra->order = HPAGE_PMD_ORDER;
>>>> +        page_cache_ra_order(&ractl, ra);
>>>>            return fpin;
>>>>        }
>>>>    #endif
>>>> @@ -3258,8 +3259,9 @@ static struct file *do_sync_mmap_readahead(struct
>>>> vm_fault *vmf)
>>>>        ra->start = max_t(long, 0, vmf->pgoff - ra->ra_pages / 2);
>>>>        ra->size = ra->ra_pages;
>>>>        ra->async_size = ra->ra_pages / 4;
>>>> +    ra->order = 0;
>>>>        ractl._index = ra->start;
>>>> -    page_cache_ra_order(&ractl, ra, 0);
>>>> +    page_cache_ra_order(&ractl, ra);
>>>>        return fpin;
>>>>    }
>>>
>>> Why not let page_cache_ra_order() consume the order and update ra->order (or
>>> however it will be called :) ) internally?
>>
>> You mean continue to pass new_order as a parameter to page_cache_ra_order()? The
>> reason I did it the way I'm doing it is because I thought it would be weird for
>> the caller of page_cache_ra_order() to set up all the parameters (start, size,
>> async_size) of the request except for order...
>
> Agreed. As above, I think we might do better with the description of these
> parameters in general ...
>
> or even document how page_cache_ra_order() acts on these inputs?

OK let me try to work something up for the next version...