[PATCH 01/13] writeback: reduce calls to global_page_state in balance_dirty_pages()

Wu Fengguang
2010-08-05T16:10:52Z

[-- Attachment #1: writeback-less-balance-calc.patch --]
[-- Type: text/plain, Size: 7893 bytes --]

Reducing the number of times balance_dirty_pages calls global_page_state
reduces the cache references and so improves write performance on a
variety of workloads.

'perf stats' of simple fio write tests shows the reduction in cache
access. Where the test is fio 'write,mmap,600Mb,pre_read' on AMD
AthlonX2 with 3Gb memory (dirty_threshold approx 600 Mb) running each
test 10 times, dropping the fasted & slowest values then taking the
average & standard deviation

average (s.d.) in millions (10^6)
2.6.31-rc8 648.6 (14.6)
+patch 620.1 (16.5)

Achieving this reduction is by dropping clip_bdi_dirty_limit as it
rereads the counters to apply the dirty_threshold and moving this check
up into balance_dirty_pages where it has already read the counters.

Also by rearrange the for loop to only contain one copy of the limit
tests allows the pdflush test after the loop to use the local copies of
the counters rather than rereading them.

In the common case with no throttling it now calls global_page_state 5
fewer times and bdi_stat 2 fewer.

Fengguang:

This patch slightly changes behavior by replacing clip_bdi_dirty_limit()
with the explicit check (nr_reclaimable + nr_writeback >= dirty_thresh)
to avoid exceeding the dirty limit. Since the bdi dirty limit is mostly
accurate we don't need to do routinely clip. A simple dirty limit check
would be enough.

The check is necessary because, in principle we should throttle
everything calling balance_dirty_pages() when we're over the total
limit, as said by Peter.

We now set and clear dirty_exceeded not only based on bdi dirty limits,
but also on the global dirty limit. The global limit check is added in
place of clip_bdi_dirty_limit() for safety and not intended as a
behavior change. The bdi limits should be tight enough to keep all dirty
pages under the global limit at most time; occasional small exceeding
should be OK though. The change makes the logic more obvious: the global
limit is the ultimate goal and shall be always imposed.

We may now start background writeback work based on outdated conditions.
That's safe because the bdi flush thread will (and have to) double check
the states. It reduces overall overheads because the test based on old
states still have good chance to be right.

[akpm@linux-foundation.org] fix uninitialized dirty_exceeded

CC: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
CC: Jens Axboe <axboe@kernel.dk>
Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@chello.nl>
Signed-off-by: Richard Kennedy <richard@rsk.demon.co.uk>
Signed-off-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@intel.com>
---
mm/page-writeback.c | 95 ++++++++++++++----------------------------
1 file changed, 33 insertions(+), 62 deletions(-)

--- linux-next.orig/mm/page-writeback.c 2010-07-20 12:53:17.000000000 +0800
+++ linux-next/mm/page-writeback.c 2010-07-20 12:54:58.000000000 +0800
@@ -253,32 +253,6 @@ static void bdi_writeout_fraction(struct
}
}

-/*
- * Clip the earned share of dirty pages to that which is actually available.
- * This avoids exceeding the total dirty_limit when the floating averages
- * fluctuate too quickly.
- */
-static void clip_bdi_dirty_limit(struct backing_dev_info *bdi,
- unsigned long dirty, unsigned long *pbdi_dirty)
-{
- unsigned long avail_dirty;
-
- avail_dirty = global_page_state(NR_FILE_DIRTY) +
- global_page_state(NR_WRITEBACK) +
- global_page_state(NR_UNSTABLE_NFS) +
- global_page_state(NR_WRITEBACK_TEMP);
-
- if (avail_dirty < dirty)
- avail_dirty = dirty - avail_dirty;
- else
- avail_dirty = 0;
-
- avail_dirty += bdi_stat(bdi, BDI_RECLAIMABLE) +
- bdi_stat(bdi, BDI_WRITEBACK);
-
- *pbdi_dirty = min(*pbdi_dirty, avail_dirty);
-}
-
static inline void task_dirties_fraction(struct task_struct *tsk,
long *numerator, long *denominator)
{
@@ -469,7 +443,6 @@ get_dirty_limits(unsigned long *pbackgro
bdi_dirty = dirty * bdi->max_ratio / 100;

*pbdi_dirty = bdi_dirty;
- clip_bdi_dirty_limit(bdi, dirty, pbdi_dirty);
task_dirty_limit(current, pbdi_dirty);
}
}
@@ -491,7 +464,7 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a
unsigned long bdi_thresh;
unsigned long pages_written = 0;
unsigned long pause = 1;
-
+ bool dirty_exceeded = false;
struct backing_dev_info *bdi = mapping->backing_dev_info;

for (;;) {
@@ -509,10 +482,35 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a
global_page_state(NR_UNSTABLE_NFS);
nr_writeback = global_page_state(NR_WRITEBACK);

- bdi_nr_reclaimable = bdi_stat(bdi, BDI_RECLAIMABLE);
- bdi_nr_writeback = bdi_stat(bdi, BDI_WRITEBACK);
+ /*
+ * In order to avoid the stacked BDI deadlock we need
+ * to ensure we accurately count the 'dirty' pages when
+ * the threshold is low.
+ *
+ * Otherwise it would be possible to get thresh+n pages
+ * reported dirty, even though there are thresh-m pages
+ * actually dirty; with m+n sitting in the percpu
+ * deltas.
+ */
+ if (bdi_thresh < 2*bdi_stat_error(bdi)) {
+ bdi_nr_reclaimable = bdi_stat_sum(bdi, BDI_RECLAIMABLE);
+ bdi_nr_writeback = bdi_stat_sum(bdi, BDI_WRITEBACK);
+ } else {
+ bdi_nr_reclaimable = bdi_stat(bdi, BDI_RECLAIMABLE);
+ bdi_nr_writeback = bdi_stat(bdi, BDI_WRITEBACK);
+ }
+
+ /*
+ * The bdi thresh is somehow "soft" limit derived from the
+ * global "hard" limit. The former helps to prevent heavy IO
+ * bdi or process from holding back light ones; The latter is
+ * the last resort safeguard.
+ */
+ dirty_exceeded =
+ (bdi_nr_reclaimable + bdi_nr_writeback >= bdi_thresh)
+ || (nr_reclaimable + nr_writeback >= dirty_thresh);

- if (bdi_nr_reclaimable + bdi_nr_writeback <= bdi_thresh)
+ if (!dirty_exceeded)
break;

/*
@@ -540,34 +538,10 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a
if (bdi_nr_reclaimable > bdi_thresh) {
writeback_inodes_wb(&bdi->wb, &wbc);
pages_written += write_chunk - wbc.nr_to_write;
- get_dirty_limits(&background_thresh, &dirty_thresh,
- &bdi_thresh, bdi);
trace_wbc_balance_dirty_written(&wbc, bdi);
+ if (pages_written >= write_chunk)
+ break; /* We've done our duty */
}
-
- /*
- * In order to avoid the stacked BDI deadlock we need
- * to ensure we accurately count the 'dirty' pages when
- * the threshold is low.
- *
- * Otherwise it would be possible to get thresh+n pages
- * reported dirty, even though there are thresh-m pages
- * actually dirty; with m+n sitting in the percpu
- * deltas.
- */
- if (bdi_thresh < 2*bdi_stat_error(bdi)) {
- bdi_nr_reclaimable = bdi_stat_sum(bdi, BDI_RECLAIMABLE);
- bdi_nr_writeback = bdi_stat_sum(bdi, BDI_WRITEBACK);
- } else if (bdi_nr_reclaimable) {
- bdi_nr_reclaimable = bdi_stat(bdi, BDI_RECLAIMABLE);
- bdi_nr_writeback = bdi_stat(bdi, BDI_WRITEBACK);
- }
-
- if (bdi_nr_reclaimable + bdi_nr_writeback <= bdi_thresh)
- break;
- if (pages_written >= write_chunk)
- break; /* We've done our duty */
-
trace_wbc_balance_dirty_wait(&wbc, bdi);
__set_current_state(TASK_INTERRUPTIBLE);
io_schedule_timeout(pause);
@@ -581,8 +555,7 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a
pause = HZ / 10;
}

- if (bdi_nr_reclaimable + bdi_nr_writeback < bdi_thresh &&
- bdi->dirty_exceeded)
+ if (!dirty_exceeded && bdi->dirty_exceeded)
bdi->dirty_exceeded = 0;

if (writeback_in_progress(bdi))
@@ -597,9 +570,7 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a
* background_thresh, to keep the amount of dirty memory low.
*/
if ((laptop_mode && pages_written) ||
- (!laptop_mode && ((global_page_state(NR_FILE_DIRTY)
- + global_page_state(NR_UNSTABLE_NFS))
- > background_thresh)))
+ (!laptop_mode && (nr_reclaimable > background_thresh)))
bdi_start_background_writeback(bdi);
}