On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 11:53:53AM +0100, Jan Kara wrote:
> On Tue 31-01-12 11:14:15, Dave Chinner wrote:
> > I also found this oddity on both XFS and ext4:
> >
> > flush-253:32-3400 [001] 1936151.384563: writeback_start: bdi 253:32: sb_dev 0:0 nr_pages=-898403 sync_mode=0 kupdate=0 range_cyclic=1 background=1 reason=background
> > flush-253:32-3400 [005] 1936151.455845: writeback_start: bdi 253:32: sb_dev 0:0 nr_pages=-911663 sync_mode=0 kupdate=0 range_cyclic=1 background=1 reason=background
> > flush-253:32-3400 [006] 1936151.596298: writeback_start: bdi 253:32: sb_dev 0:0 nr_pages=-931332 sync_mode=0 kupdate=0 range_cyclic=1 background=1 reason=background
> > flush-253:32-3400 [006] 1936151.719074: writeback_start: bdi 253:32: sb_dev 0:0 nr_pages=-951001 sync_mode=0 kupdate=0 range_cyclic=1 background=1 reason=background
> >
> > That's indicating the work->nr_pages is starting extremely negative,
> > which should not be the case. The highest I saw was around -2m.
> > Something is not working right there, as writeback is supposed to
> > terminate if work->nr_pages < 0....
> Ugh, what kernel is this? The tracepoint is just a couple of lines after
> if (work->nr_pages <= 0)
> break;
> so I really don't see how that could happen.
It should be a recent kernel judging from the "reason=background"
field.
I cannot find such "writeback_start.*nr_pages=-" pattern at all in my
huge pile of saved tracing logs. Since the background work is only
started by wb_check_background_flush() with .nr_pages = LONG_MAX,
I can only find such patterns:
flush-0:27-5216 [005] .... 472.119012: writeback_start: bdi 0:27: sb_dev 0:0 nr_pages=9223372036854775807 sync_mode=0 kupdate=0 range_cyclic=1 background=1 reason=background
flush-0:27-5216 [005] .... 472.119076: writeback_start: bdi 0:27: sb_dev 0:0 nr_pages=9223372036854775803 sync_mode=0 kupdate=0 range_cyclic=1 background=1 reason=background
flush-9:0-5176 [025] .... 475.578426: writeback_start: bdi 9:0: sb_dev 0:0 nr_pages=361160 sync_mode=0 kupdate=1 range_cyclic=1 background=0 reason=periodic
flush-9:0-5176 [025] .... 475.710138: writeback_start: bdi 9:0: sb_dev 0:0 nr_pages=328392 sync_mode=0 kupdate=1 range_cyclic=1 background=0 reason=periodic
Thanks,
Fengguang
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