linux-toradex.git/include/linux/backing-dev.h, branch v2.6.36-rc7

mm: fix writeback_in_progress()

2010-08-12T15:43:30+00:00

Commit 83ba7b071f3 ("writeback: simplify the write back thread queue")
broke writeback_in_progress() as in that commit we started to remove work
items from the list at the moment we start working on them and not at the
moment they are finished.  Thus if the flusher thread was doing some work
but there was no other work queued, writeback_in_progress() returned
false.  This could in particular cause unnecessary queueing of background
writeback from balance_dirty_pages() or writeout work from
writeback_sb_if_idle().

This patch fixes the problem by introducing a bit in the bdi state which
indicates that the flusher thread is processing some work and uses this
bit for writeback_in_progress() test.

NOTE: Both callsites of writeback_in_progress() (namely,
writeback_inodes_sb_if_idle() and balance_dirty_pages()) would actually
need a different information than what writeback_in_progress() provides.
They would need to know whether *the kind of writeback they are going to
submit* is already queued.  But this information isn't that simple to
provide so let's fix writeback_in_progress() for the time being.

Signed-off-by: Jan Kara 
Cc: Christoph Hellwig 
Cc: Wu Fengguang 
Acked-by: Jens Axboe 
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton 
Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds

writeback: optimize periodic bdi thread wakeups

2010-08-07T16:53:56+00:00

Whe the first inode for a bdi is marked dirty, we wake up the bdi thread which
should take care of the periodic background write-out. However, the write-out
will actually start only 'dirty_writeback_interval' centisecs later, so we can
delay the wake-up.

This change was requested by Nick Piggin who pointed out that if we delay the
wake-up, we weed out 2 unnecessary contex switches, which matters because
'__mark_inode_dirty()' is a hot-path function.

This patch introduces a new function - 'bdi_wakeup_thread_delayed()', which
sets up a timer to wake-up the bdi thread and returns. So the wake-up is
delayed.

We also delete the timer in bdi threads just before writing-back. And
synchronously delete it when unregistering bdi. At the unregister point the bdi
does not have any users, so no one can arm it again.

Since now we take 'bdi->wb_lock' in the timer, which can execute in softirq
context, we have to use 'spin_lock_bh()' for 'bdi->wb_lock'. This patch makes
this change as well.

This patch also moves the 'bdi_wb_init()' function down in the file to avoid
forward-declaration of 'bdi_wakeup_thread_delayed()'.

Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy 
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

writeback: move last_active to bdi

2010-08-07T16:53:56+00:00

Currently bdi threads use local variable 'last_active' which stores last time
when the bdi thread did some useful work. Move this local variable to 'struct
bdi_writeback'. This is just a preparation for the further patches which will
make the forker thread decide when bdi threads should be killed.

Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy 
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig 
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

writeback: simplify bdi code a little

2010-08-07T16:53:56+00:00

This patch simplifies bdi code a little by removing the 'pending_list' which is
redundant. Indeed, currently the forker thread ('bdi_forker_thread()') is
working like this:

1. In a loop, fetch all bdi's which have works but have no writeback thread and
   move them to the 'pending_list'.
2. If the list is empty, sleep for 5 sec.
3. Otherwise, take one bdi from the list, fork the writeback thread for this
   bdi, and repeat the loop.

IOW, it first moves everything to the 'pending_list', then process only one
element, and so on. This patch simplifies the algorithm, which is now as
follows.

1. Find the first bdi which has a work and remove it from the global list of
   bdi's (bdi_list).
2. If there was not such bdi, sleep 5 sec.
3. Fork the writeback thread for this bdi and repeat the loop.

IOW, now we find the first bdi to process, process it, and so on. This is
simpler and involves less lists.

The bonus now is that we can get rid of a couple of functions, as well as
remove complications which involve 'rcu_call()' and 'bdi->rcu_head'.

This patch also makes sure we use 'list_add_tail_rcu()', instead of plain
'list_add_tail()', but this piece of code is going to be removed in the next
patch anyway.

Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy 
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig 
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

writeback: harmonize writeback threads naming

2010-08-07T16:53:16+00:00

The write-back code mixes words "thread" and "task" for the same things. This
is not a big deal, but still an inconsistency.

hch: a convention I tend to use and I've seen in various places
is to always use _task for the storage of the task_struct pointer,
and thread everywhere else.  This especially helps with having
foo_thread for the actual thread and foo_task for a global
variable keeping the task_struct pointer

This patch renames:
* 'bdi_add_default_flusher_task()' -> 'bdi_add_default_flusher_thread()'
* 'bdi_forker_task()'              -> 'bdi_forker_thread()'

because bdi threads are 'bdi_writeback_thread()', so these names are more
consistent.

This patch also amends commentaries and makes them refer the forker and bdi
threads as "thread", not "task".

Also, while on it, make 'bdi_add_default_flusher_thread()' declaration use
'static void' instead of 'void static' and make checkpatch.pl happy.

Signed-off-by: Artem Bityutskiy 
Reviewed-by: Christoph Hellwig 
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

writeback: merge bdi_writeback_task and bdi_start_fn

2010-08-07T16:23:06+00:00

Move all code for the writeback thread into fs/fs-writeback.c instead of
splitting it over two functions in two files.

Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig 
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

writeback: remove wb_list

2010-08-07T16:23:03+00:00

The wb_list member of struct backing_device_info always has exactly one
element.  Just use the direct bdi->wb pointer instead and simplify some
code.

Also remove bdi_task_init which is now trivial to prepare for the next
patch.

Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig 
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

writeback: simplify the write back thread queue

2010-07-06T06:59:53+00:00

First remove items from work_list as soon as we start working on them.  This
means we don't have to track any pending or visited state and can get
rid of all the RCU magic freeing the work items - we can simply free
them once the operation has finished.  Second use a real completion for
tracking synchronous requests - if the caller sets the completion pointer
we complete it, otherwise use it as a boolean indicator that we can free
the work item directly.  Third unify struct wb_writeback_args and struct
bdi_work into a single data structure, wb_writeback_work.  Previous we
set all parameters into a struct wb_writeback_args, copied it into
struct bdi_work, copied it again on the stack to use it there.  Instead
of just allocate one structure dynamically or on the stack and use it
all the way through the stack.

Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig 
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

writeback: simplify and split bdi_start_writeback

2010-06-11T10:58:08+00:00

bdi_start_writeback now never gets a superblock passed, so we can just remove
that case.  And to further untangle the code and flatten the call stack
split it into two trivial helpers for it's two callers.

Signed-off-by: Christoph Hellwig 
Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe

Revert "writeback: fix WB_SYNC_NONE writeback from umount"

2010-06-01T09:08:43+00:00

This reverts commit e913fc825dc685a444cb4c1d0f9d32f372f59861.

We are investigating a hang associated with the WB_SYNC_NONE changes,
so revert them for now.

Conflicts:

	fs/fs-writeback.c
	mm/page-writeback.c

Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe