hi, I was analyzing the IDE i/o mechanism in linux kernel 2.4.32.I observed following sequence of read requests to read a particular file with size around 13kb. 1) block no=9706 number of sectors=20 2) block no=9723 number of sectors=4 3) block no=9725 number of sectors=2 4) block no=9726 number of sectors=2 As u can see 4 different requests were made to read blocks 9706 to 9715 , 9723 to 9724 , 9725 , 9726. The function __make_request ensures that requests are rearranged and merged so that consective blocks are read in one request.So please tell me why separete requests were made for reading blocks 9723 to 9724 , 9725 , 9726 ,when requests from 9724 to 9726 can be merged into one. Is it suitable that instead of generating separte requests for reading 9706 to 9715 and 9723 to 9726 blocks ,just one request for reading 9706 to 9726 blocks is issued.This will cause irrelevant blocks (9716 to 9722) to be read as well but they can be discarded. If all data blocks of that particular file are read in one request,will it increase the speed of read operation on that file. shahzad
