On Tue, Sep 19, 2017 at 10:53 PM, Jens Axboe <axboe@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> A few callers pass in nr_pages == 0 when they wakeup the flusher
> threads, which means that the flusher should just flush everything
> that was currently dirty. If we are tight on memory, we can get
> tons of these queued from kswapd/vmscan. This causes (at least)
> two problems:
>
> 1) We consume a ton of memory just allocating writeback work items.
> 2) We spend so much time processing these work items, that we
> introduce a softlockup in writeback processing.
>
> Fix this by adding a 'zero_pages' bit to the writeback structure,
> and set that when someone queues a nr_pages==0 flusher thread
> wakeup. The bit is cleared when we start writeback on that work
> item. If the bit is already set when we attempt to queue !nr_pages
> writeback, then we simply ignore it.
>
> This provides us one of full flush in flight, with one pending as
> well, and makes for more efficient handling of this type of
> writeback.
>
> Signed-off-by: Jens Axboe <axboe@xxxxxxxxx>
> ---
> fs/fs-writeback.c | 30 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++--
> include/linux/backing-dev-defs.h | 1 +
> 2 files changed, 29 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
>
> diff --git a/fs/fs-writeback.c b/fs/fs-writeback.c
> index a9a86644cb9f..e0240110b36f 100644
> --- a/fs/fs-writeback.c
> +++ b/fs/fs-writeback.c
> @@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ struct wb_writeback_work {
> unsigned int for_background:1;
> unsigned int for_sync:1; /* sync(2) WB_SYNC_ALL writeback */
> unsigned int auto_free:1; /* free on completion */
> + unsigned int zero_pages:1; /* nr_pages == 0 writeback */
Suggest: use a name that describes the intention (e.g. WB_everything)
> enum wb_reason reason; /* why was writeback initiated? */
>
> struct list_head list; /* pending work list */
> @@ -948,15 +949,25 @@ static void wb_start_writeback(struct bdi_writeback *wb, long nr_pages,
> bool range_cyclic, enum wb_reason reason)
> {
> struct wb_writeback_work *work;
> + bool zero_pages = false;
>
> if (!wb_has_dirty_io(wb))
> return;
>
> /*
> - * If someone asked for zero pages, we write out the WORLD
> + * If someone asked for zero pages, we write out the WORLD.
> + * Places like vmscan and laptop mode want to queue a wakeup to
> + * the flusher threads to clean out everything. To avoid potentially
> + * having tons of these pending, ensure that we only allow one of
> + * them pending and inflight at the time
> */
> - if (!nr_pages)
> + if (!nr_pages) {
> + if (test_bit(WB_zero_pages, &wb->state))
> + return;
> + set_bit(WB_zero_pages, &wb->state);
Shouldn't this be test_and_set? not the worst outcome if you have more
than one pending work item, but still.
> nr_pages = get_nr_dirty_pages();
> + zero_pages = true;
> + }
>
> /*
> * This is WB_SYNC_NONE writeback, so if allocation fails just
> @@ -975,6 +986,7 @@ static void wb_start_writeback(struct bdi_writeback *wb, long nr_pages,
> work->range_cyclic = range_cyclic;
> work->reason = reason;
> work->auto_free = 1;
> + work->zero_pages = zero_pages;
>
> wb_queue_work(wb, work);
> }
> @@ -1828,6 +1840,14 @@ static struct wb_writeback_work *get_next_work_item(struct bdi_writeback *wb)
> list_del_init(&work->list);
> }
> spin_unlock_bh(&wb->work_lock);
> +
> + /*
> + * Once we start processing a work item that had !nr_pages,
> + * clear the wb state bit for that so we can allow more.
> + */
> + if (work && work->zero_pages && test_bit(WB_zero_pages, &wb->state))
> + clear_bit(WB_zero_pages, &wb->state);
nit: should not need to test_bit
> +
> return work;
> }
>
> @@ -1896,6 +1916,12 @@ static long wb_do_writeback(struct bdi_writeback *wb)
> trace_writeback_exec(wb, work);
> wrote += wb_writeback(wb, work);
> finish_writeback_work(wb, work);
> +
> + /*
> + * If we have a lot of pending work, make sure we take
> + * an occasional breather, if needed.
> + */
> + cond_resched();
Probably ought to be in a separate patch.
> }
>
> /*
> diff --git a/include/linux/backing-dev-defs.h b/include/linux/backing-dev-defs.h
> index 866c433e7d32..7494f6a75458 100644
> --- a/include/linux/backing-dev-defs.h
> +++ b/include/linux/backing-dev-defs.h
> @@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ enum wb_state {
> WB_shutting_down, /* wb_shutdown() in progress */
> WB_writeback_running, /* Writeback is in progress */
> WB_has_dirty_io, /* Dirty inodes on ->b_{dirty|io|more_io} */
> + WB_zero_pages, /* nr_pages == 0 flush pending */
same suggestion: WB_everything
Cheers,
Amir.
