On Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 12:56:56AM +0800, Peter Zijlstra wrote: > On Sat, 2011-08-06 at 16:44 +0800, Wu Fengguang wrote: > > bdi->dirty_ratelimit = (bw * 3 + ref_bw) / 4; > > I can't actually find this low-pass filter in the code.. could be I'm > blind from staring at it too long though.. Sorry, it's implemented in another patch (attached). I've also removed it from _this_ changelog. Here you can find all the other patches in addition to the core bits. http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/wfg/writeback.git;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/dirty-throttling-v8%2B Thanks, Fengguang
Subject: writeback: make dirty_ratelimit stable/smooth Date: Thu Aug 04 22:05:05 CST 2011 Half the dirty_ratelimit update step size to avoid overshooting, and further slow down the updates when the tracking error is smaller than (base_rate / 8). It's desirable to have a _constant_ dirty_ratelimit given a stable workload. Because each jolt of dirty_ratelimit will directly show up in all the bdi tasks' dirty rate. The cost will be slightly increased dirty position error, which is pretty acceptable. Signed-off-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@xxxxxxxxx> --- mm/page-writeback.c | 24 +++++++++++++++++++++--- 1 file changed, 21 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-) --- linux-next.orig/mm/page-writeback.c 2011-08-10 21:35:11.000000000 +0800 +++ linux-next/mm/page-writeback.c 2011-08-10 21:35:31.000000000 +0800 @@ -741,6 +741,7 @@ static void bdi_update_dirty_ratelimit(s unsigned long dirty_rate; unsigned long pos_rate; unsigned long balanced_rate; + unsigned long delta; unsigned long long pos_ratio; /* @@ -755,7 +756,6 @@ static void bdi_update_dirty_ratelimit(s * pos_rate reflects each dd's dirty rate enforced for the past 200ms. */ pos_rate = base_rate * pos_ratio >> BANDWIDTH_CALC_SHIFT; - pos_rate++; /* this avoids bdi->dirty_ratelimit get stuck in 0 */ /* * balanced_rate = pos_rate * write_bw / dirty_rate @@ -777,14 +777,32 @@ static void bdi_update_dirty_ratelimit(s * makes it more stable, but also is essential for preventing it being * driven away by possible systematic errors in balanced_rate. */ + delta = 0; if (base_rate > pos_rate) { if (base_rate > balanced_rate) - base_rate = max(balanced_rate, pos_rate); + delta = base_rate - max(balanced_rate, pos_rate); } else { if (base_rate < balanced_rate) - base_rate = min(balanced_rate, pos_rate); + delta = min(balanced_rate, pos_rate) - base_rate; } + /* + * Don't pursue 100% rate matching. It's impossible since the balanced + * rate itself is constantly fluctuating. So decrease the track speed + * when it gets close to the target. Eliminates unnecessary jolting. + */ + delta >>= base_rate / (8 * delta + 1); + /* + * Limit the step size to avoid overshooting. It also implicitly + * prevents dirty_ratelimit from dropping to 0. + */ + delta >>= 2; + + if (base_rate < pos_rate) + base_rate += delta; + else + base_rate -= delta; + bdi->dirty_ratelimit = base_rate; trace_dirty_ratelimit(bdi, dirty_rate, pos_rate, balanced_rate);