From: Wenchao Xia <xiawenc@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
To: Michael Roth <mdroth@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
Cc: Kevin Wolf <kwolf@redhat.com>,
Anthony Liguori <aliguori@us.ibm.com>,
Ping Fan Liu <pingfank@linux.vnet.ibm.com>,
Stefan Hajnoczi <stefanha@gmail.com>,
qemu-devel <qemu-devel@nongnu.org>,
Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC] Convert AioContext to Gsource sub classes
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2013 16:12:06 +0800 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <520DDED6.2060401@linux.vnet.ibm.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <520DD198.60708@linux.vnet.ibm.com>
于 2013-8-16 15:15, Wenchao Xia 写道:
> 于 2013-8-16 0:32, Michael Roth 写道:
>> Quoting Michael Roth (2013-08-15 10:23:20)
>>> Quoting Wenchao Xia (2013-08-13 03:44:39)
>>>> 于 2013-8-13 1:01, Michael Roth 写道:
>>>>> Quoting Paolo Bonzini (2013-08-12 02:30:28)
>>>>>>> 1) rename AioContext to AioSource.
>>>>>>> This is my major purpose, which declare it is not a "context"
>>>>>>> concept,
>>>>>>> and GMainContext is the entity represent the thread's activity.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Note that the nested event loops in QEMU are _very_ different from
>>>>>> glib nested event loops. In QEMU, nested event loops only run block
>>>>>> layer events. In glib, they run all events. That's why you need
>>>>>> AioContext.
>>>>>
>>>>> Would it be possible to use glib for our nested loops as well by just
>>>>> setting a higher priority for the AioContext GSource?
>>>>>
>>>>> Stefan and I were considering how we could make use of his "drop
>>>>> ioflush" patches to use a common mechanism to register fd events, but
>>>>> still allow us to distinguish between AioContext and non-AioContext
>>>>> for nested loops. I was originally thinking of using prepare()
>>>>> functions
>>>>> to filter out non-AioContext events, but that requires we implement
>>>>> on GSource's with that in mind, and non make use of pre-baked ones
>>>>> like GIOChannel's, and bakes block stuff into every event source
>>>>> implementation.
>>>>>
>>>> Besides priority, also g_source_set_can_recurse() can help.
>>>> With a deeper think, I found a harder problem:
>>>> g_main_context_acquire() and g_main_context_release(). In release,
>>>> pending BH/IO call back need to be cleared, but this action can't
>>>> be triggered automatically when user call g_main_context_release().
>>>
>>> I don't understand why this is a requirement, gmctx_acquire/release
>>> ensure
>>> that only one thread attempts to iterate the main loop at a time. this
>>> isn't currently an issue in qemu, and if we re-implemented
>>> qemu_aio_wait()
>>> to use the same glib interfaces, the tracking of in-flight requests
>>> would
>>> be moved to the block layer via Stefan's 'drop io_flush' patches, which
>>> moves that block-specific logic out of the main loop/AioContext GSource
>>> by design. Are there other areas where you see this as a problem?
>>
>> I think I understand better what you're referring to, you mean that
>> if qemu_aio_wait was called, and was implementated to essentially call
>> g_main_context_iterate(), that after, say, 1 iteration, the
>> iothread/dataplane thread might acquire the main loop and dispatch
>> block/non-block events between qemu_aio_wait() returned? The simple
>> approach would be to have qemu_aio_wait() call
>> g_main_context_acquire/release
>> at the start end of the function, which would ensure that this never
>> happens.
>>
> qemu_aio_wait() is relative simple to resolve by
> g_main_context_acquire(), but also shows additional code needed
> for a thread switch:
> (guess following is the plan to implement qemu_aio_wait())
> qemu_aio_wait(GMainContext *ctx)
> {
> return g_main_context(ctx, PRI_BLOCK);
> }
> at caller:
> {
> while (qemu_aio_wait(ctx) {
> ;
> }
> g_main_context_release(ctx);
> }
> The above code shows that, in *ctx switch operation, there is
> more than glib's own event loop API envolved, qemu_aio_wait(). So
> it referenced to a question: what data structure
> should be used to represent context concept and control the thread
> switching behavior? It is better to have a clear layer, GMainContext or
> GlibQContext, instead of GMainContext plus custom function. The caller
> reference to at least two: nested user block layer, flat user above
> block layer.
> In my opinion, this problem is brought by Gsource AioContext, Take
> the call path of bdrv_aio_readv(*bdrv_cb) on raw linux file as
> an example, there are aync following operations involved for AioContext:
> 1 the bdrv_cb() will be executed in bdrv_co_em_bh().
> 2 bdrv_co_io_em_complete() will be executed in event_notfier_ready().
> 3 aio_worker() will be executed in worker_thread().
> Operation 2 and 3 are tracked by block layer's queue after Stefan's
> dropping io_flush() series.
> Now if we stick to GMainContext to represent context concept,
> then when thread B want to aquire GMainContext used by thread A,
> all works setupped by A should be finished before B aquire it,
> otherwise B will execute some function supposed to work in A. The
> work refers to the three kind of aync functions above.
> For this issue, we can solve it by different means:
> 1 the event loop API doesn't guarentee work setupped by thread A
> will always be finished in A. This put a limitation to caller to
> consider thread switching. I talked on IRC with Stefan, and thinks
> it is possible for the nested user block layer, but I still want to
> avoid this to the flat user above block layer.
> 2 ask caller to finish all pending operations.
> 2.1 glib GMainContext API plus custom API such as aio_wait(). This is
> bad that detail under GMainContext is exposed to caller. Since
> operation 1 mentioned before is not tracked yet, to make sure bdrv_cb()
> is called in thread setupped it, 1 need to be added in the track
> queue, or in the call chain of aio_wait(), check the queue plus check
> operation 1. Perhaps add a custom function ask caller to call as
> context_work_flush()?
If a well named API do the flush work present, using Glib API plus
it seems also OK, and can avoid wrapper. I guess
bdrv_drain_all(GMainContext *ctx, ...) can do it.
> 2.2 Use GlibQContext API. In this way all operation is hidden,
> in whose release() the pending work will be finished. In this way
> a clear layer represent event loop can be exposed.
>
> A clear layer represent event loop will make caller code clean,
> especially helpful when try to expose block layer with AIO as a
> public library.
> Personally I hope not to use AioContext as context concept, add
> iterate APIs around it will be tricky, since actually it is a GSource,
> it will bring troubles to integrate with glib's event loop from my
> intuition. So I hope to rename AioContext to AioSource, or break it
> as a common case in QContext. Then I got bdrv_read(GlibQContext ctx*).
>
> With a talk with Stefan, I plan to read gstream doc to see how it
> deal with such problem.
>
>>>
>>>> For the above reason, I tend to think, maybe we should t wrap
>>>> all of
>>>> Glib's mainloop into custom encapsulation, such as QContext, Add the
>>>> aio poll logic in q_context_release(). Use QContext * in every caller
>>>> to hide GMainContext *, so QContext layer play the role of clear
>>>> event loop API.
>>>>
>>>>> Priorities didn't cross my mind though, but it seems pretty
>>>>> straightfoward...
>>>>>
>>>>> AioContext could then just be a container of sorts for managing
>>>>> bottom-halves and AioContext FDs and binding them to the proper
>>>>> GMainContext/MainLoop, but the underlying GSources could
>>>>> still be driven by a normal glib-based mainloop, just with a specific
>>>>> priority in the nested case.
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 2) Break AioSource into FdSource and BhSource.
>>>>>>> This make custom code less and simpler, one Gsource for one
>>>>>>> kind of
>>>>>>> job. It is not necessary but IMHO it will make things clear when add
>>>>>>> more things into main loop: add a new Gsource sub class, avoid to
>>>>>>> always have relationship with AioContext.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> But this is only complicating things work since users rely on both
>>>>>> file-
>>>>>> descriptor APIs and bottom half APIs.
>>>>>
>>>>> Taking things a step further, maybe AioContext can stop being a
>>>>> block-specific construct, but actually be the "QContext" we've
>>>>> discussed in the past for managing multiple event loops. All
>>>>> the block stuff would be hidden away in the GSource priority.
>>>>>
>>>>> For instance,
>>>>>
>>>>> #ifndef _WIN32
>>>>>
>>>>> qemu_aio_set_fd_handler(fd, ...):
>>>>> aio_set_fd_handler(qemu_aio_context, fd, ...,
>>>>> QEMU_PRIORITY_BLOCK)
>>>>>
>>>>> qemu_set_fd_handler(fd, ...):
>>>>> aio_set_fd_handler(qemu_aio_context, fd, ...,
>>>>> G_PRIORITY_DEFAULT)
>>>>>
>>>>> #else
>>>>>
>>>>> qemu_add_wait_object(fd, ...):
>>>>> add_wait_object(qemu_aio_context, fd, ...)
>>>>>
>>>>> qemu_set_fd_handler(fd, ...):
>>>>> set_socket_handler(qemu_aio_context, fd, ...,
>>>>> G_PRIORITY_DEFAULT)
>>>>>
>>>>> #endif
>>>>>
>>>>> qemu_bh_schedule:
>>>>> bh_schedule(qemu_aio_context, ...)
>>>>>
>>>>> etc...
>>>>>
>>>>> I'll be sending patches this week for moving
>>>>> add_wait_object/qemu_set_fd_handler to GSources, the non-global
>>>>> ones use
>>>>> GMainContext * to specify a non-default thread/context, but can be
>>>>> easily
>>>>> changed, or we can just do aioctx->g_main_context at the call sites.
>>>>> There's some nice possibilities in using the former though: avoiding
>>>>> O(n) lookups for stuff like finding the GSource for a particular
>>>>> event/event type, for instance, by storing pointers to the GSource or
>>>>> some kind of hashmap lookup. But probably better to discuss that
>>>>> aspect
>>>>> with some context so I'll try to get those patches out soon.
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> More reasons:
>>>>>>>>> When I thinking how to bind library code to a thread
>>>>>>>>> context, it may
>>>>>>>>> need to add Context's concept into API of block.c. If I use
>>>>>>>>> AioContext,
>>>>>>>>> there will need a wrapper API to run the event loop. But If I got
>>>>>>>>> glib's GmainContext, things become simple.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> You already have it because AioContext is a GSource. You do not need
>>>>>> to expose the AioContext, except as a GSource.
>>>>>>
>>>> I think expose GmainContext * or QContext *, is better than
>>>> GSource *.
>>>>
>>>> int bdrv_read(GMainContext *ctx,
>>>> BlockDriverState *bs,
>>>> int64_t sector_num,
>>>> uint8_t *buf,
>>>> int nb_sectors)
>>>>
>>>>>> Paolo
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Best Regards
>>>>
>>>> Wenchao Xia
>>
>
>
--
Best Regards
Wenchao Xia
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2013-08-16 8:12 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 17+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2013-08-10 3:24 [Qemu-devel] [RFC] Convert AioContext to Gsource sub classes Wenchao Xia
2013-08-10 8:03 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-08-12 6:46 ` Wenchao Xia
2013-08-12 7:30 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-08-12 17:01 ` Michael Roth
2013-08-13 8:44 ` Wenchao Xia
2013-08-15 15:23 ` Michael Roth
2013-08-15 16:32 ` Michael Roth
2013-08-16 7:15 ` Wenchao Xia
2013-08-16 8:12 ` Wenchao Xia [this message]
2013-08-20 9:59 ` Wenchao Xia
2013-08-20 17:54 ` Alex Bligh
2013-08-21 8:45 ` Stefan Hajnoczi
2013-08-21 9:33 ` Wenchao Xia
2013-08-22 11:40 ` Stefan Hajnoczi
2013-08-21 10:06 ` Alex Bligh
2013-08-10 10:15 ` Alex Bligh
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