The Linux Kernel Mailing List
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: "Jeffrey W. Baker" <jwbaker@acm.org>
To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: 2.4.17: pwrite destroys block I/O throughput
Date: 30 Jan 2002 14:55:00 -0800	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <1012431302.17074.10.camel@heat> (raw)

Hi there,

I've never heard of pwrite and pread before, but htdig apparently makes
very heavy use of it.  On my 2.4.17 SMP 2GB HIGHMEM + ext3 system,
running htdig destroys input rates for every other process.  htdig's
output proceeds at approximately 2MB/s, but input for the entire system
runs only at about 4KB/s (YES, KB!).  If I suspend htdig, system block
input increases to the normal rate of 10-50MB/s.  Output still works, as
a dd from /dev/zero to a 400MB file runs at about 25MB/s.

Is linux's pwrite() just horribly broken?  Is htdig the only program 
that uses it?

Here's a little snapshot of htdig's syscalls, strace -s 0:

pwrite(6, ""..., 8192, 20717568)        = 8192
pread(6, ""..., 8192, 138395648)        = 8192
pwrite(6, ""..., 8192, 127918080)       = 8192
pread(6, ""..., 8192, 179281920)        = 8192
pwrite(6, ""..., 8192, 79732736)        = 8192
pread(6, ""..., 8192, 137633792)        = 8192
pwrite(6, ""..., 8192, 28409856)        = 8192
pread(6, ""..., 8192, 157958144)        = 8192
pwrite(6, ""..., 8192, 96583680)        = 8192
pread(6, ""..., 8192, 141254656)        = 8192
pwrite(6, ""..., 8192, 131031040)       = 8192
pread(6, ""..., 8192, 19095552)         = 8192
pwrite(6, ""..., 8192, 82698240)        = 8192
pread(6, ""..., 8192, 170573824)        = 8192
pwrite(6, ""..., 8192, 152616960)       = 8192
pread(6, ""..., 8192, 207298560)        = 8192
pwrite(6, ""..., 8192, 148635648)       = 8192
pread(6, ""..., 8192, 202768384)        = 8192
pwrite(6, ""..., 8192, 174055424)       = 8192

It's seeking all over the place.  Maybe pwrite/pread bypass the elevator
and proper I/O scheduling.

-jwb


             reply	other threads:[~2002-01-30 22:57 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 4+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2002-01-30 22:55 Jeffrey W. Baker [this message]
2002-01-30 23:24 ` 2.4.17: pwrite destroys block I/O throughput Andreas Dilger
2002-01-30 23:27 ` Andrew Morton
2002-01-30 23:35 ` Jeffrey W. Baker

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=1012431302.17074.10.camel@heat \
    --to=jwbaker@acm.org \
    --cc=linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox