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Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/vm/cleancache.txt | 105 |
1 files changed, 62 insertions, 43 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/vm/cleancache.txt b/Documentation/vm/cleancache.txt index e4b49df7a048..68cba9131c31 100644 --- a/Documentation/vm/cleancache.txt +++ b/Documentation/vm/cleancache.txt @@ -1,4 +1,11 @@ -MOTIVATION +.. _cleancache: + +========== +Cleancache +========== + +Motivation +========== Cleancache is a new optional feature provided by the VFS layer that potentially dramatically increases page cache effectiveness for @@ -21,9 +28,10 @@ Transcendent memory "drivers" for cleancache are currently implemented in Xen (using hypervisor memory) and zcache (using in-kernel compressed memory) and other implementations are in development. -FAQs are included below. +:ref:`FAQs <faq>` are included below. -IMPLEMENTATION OVERVIEW +Implementation Overview +======================= A cleancache "backend" that provides transcendent memory registers itself to the kernel's cleancache "frontend" by calling cleancache_register_ops, @@ -80,22 +88,33 @@ different Linux threads are simultaneously putting and invalidating a page with the same handle, the results are indeterminate. Callers must lock the page to ensure serial behavior. -CLEANCACHE PERFORMANCE METRICS +Cleancache Performance Metrics +============================== If properly configured, monitoring of cleancache is done via debugfs in -the /sys/kernel/debug/cleancache directory. The effectiveness of cleancache +the `/sys/kernel/debug/cleancache` directory. The effectiveness of cleancache can be measured (across all filesystems) with: -succ_gets - number of gets that were successful -failed_gets - number of gets that failed -puts - number of puts attempted (all "succeed") -invalidates - number of invalidates attempted +``succ_gets`` + number of gets that were successful + +``failed_gets`` + number of gets that failed + +``puts`` + number of puts attempted (all "succeed") + +``invalidates`` + number of invalidates attempted A backend implementation may provide additional metrics. +.. _faq: + FAQ +=== -1) Where's the value? (Andrew Morton) +* Where's the value? (Andrew Morton) Cleancache provides a significant performance benefit to many workloads in many environments with negligible overhead by improving the @@ -137,8 +156,8 @@ device that stores pages of data in a compressed state. And the proposed "RAMster" driver shares RAM across multiple physical systems. -2) Why does cleancache have its sticky fingers so deep inside the - filesystems and VFS? (Andrew Morton and Christoph Hellwig) +* Why does cleancache have its sticky fingers so deep inside the + filesystems and VFS? (Andrew Morton and Christoph Hellwig) The core hooks for cleancache in VFS are in most cases a single line and the minimum set are placed precisely where needed to maintain @@ -168,9 +187,9 @@ filesystems in the future. The total impact of the hooks to existing fs and mm files is only about 40 lines added (not counting comments and blank lines). -3) Why not make cleancache asynchronous and batched so it can - more easily interface with real devices with DMA instead - of copying each individual page? (Minchan Kim) +* Why not make cleancache asynchronous and batched so it can more + easily interface with real devices with DMA instead of copying each + individual page? (Minchan Kim) The one-page-at-a-time copy semantics simplifies the implementation on both the frontend and backend and also allows the backend to @@ -182,8 +201,8 @@ are avoided. While the interface seems odd for a "real device" or for real kernel-addressable RAM, it makes perfect sense for transcendent memory. -4) Why is non-shared cleancache "exclusive"? And where is the - page "invalidated" after a "get"? (Minchan Kim) +* Why is non-shared cleancache "exclusive"? And where is the + page "invalidated" after a "get"? (Minchan Kim) The main reason is to free up space in transcendent memory and to avoid unnecessary cleancache_invalidate calls. If you want inclusive, @@ -193,7 +212,7 @@ be easily extended to add a "get_no_invalidate" call. The invalidate is done by the cleancache backend implementation. -5) What's the performance impact? +* What's the performance impact? Performance analysis has been presented at OLS'09 and LCA'10. Briefly, performance gains can be significant on most workloads, @@ -206,7 +225,7 @@ single-core systems with slow memory-copy speeds, cleancache has little value, but in newer multicore machines, especially consolidated/virtualized machines, it has great value. -6) How do I add cleancache support for filesystem X? (Boaz Harrash) +* How do I add cleancache support for filesystem X? (Boaz Harrash) Filesystems that are well-behaved and conform to certain restrictions can utilize cleancache simply by making a call to @@ -217,26 +236,26 @@ not enable the optional cleancache. Some points for a filesystem to consider: -- The FS should be block-device-based (e.g. a ram-based FS such - as tmpfs should not enable cleancache) -- To ensure coherency/correctness, the FS must ensure that all - file removal or truncation operations either go through VFS or - add hooks to do the equivalent cleancache "invalidate" operations -- To ensure coherency/correctness, either inode numbers must - be unique across the lifetime of the on-disk file OR the - FS must provide an "encode_fh" function. -- The FS must call the VFS superblock alloc and deactivate routines - or add hooks to do the equivalent cleancache calls done there. -- To maximize performance, all pages fetched from the FS should - go through the do_mpag_readpage routine or the FS should add - hooks to do the equivalent (cf. btrfs) -- Currently, the FS blocksize must be the same as PAGESIZE. This - is not an architectural restriction, but no backends currently - support anything different. -- A clustered FS should invoke the "shared_init_fs" cleancache - hook to get best performance for some backends. - -7) Why not use the KVA of the inode as the key? (Christoph Hellwig) + - The FS should be block-device-based (e.g. a ram-based FS such + as tmpfs should not enable cleancache) + - To ensure coherency/correctness, the FS must ensure that all + file removal or truncation operations either go through VFS or + add hooks to do the equivalent cleancache "invalidate" operations + - To ensure coherency/correctness, either inode numbers must + be unique across the lifetime of the on-disk file OR the + FS must provide an "encode_fh" function. + - The FS must call the VFS superblock alloc and deactivate routines + or add hooks to do the equivalent cleancache calls done there. + - To maximize performance, all pages fetched from the FS should + go through the do_mpag_readpage routine or the FS should add + hooks to do the equivalent (cf. btrfs) + - Currently, the FS blocksize must be the same as PAGESIZE. This + is not an architectural restriction, but no backends currently + support anything different. + - A clustered FS should invoke the "shared_init_fs" cleancache + hook to get best performance for some backends. + +* Why not use the KVA of the inode as the key? (Christoph Hellwig) If cleancache would use the inode virtual address instead of inode/filehandle, the pool id could be eliminated. But, this @@ -251,7 +270,7 @@ of cleancache would be lost because the cache of pages in cleanache is potentially much larger than the kernel pagecache and is most useful if the pages survive inode cache removal. -8) Why is a global variable required? +* Why is a global variable required? The cleancache_enabled flag is checked in all of the frequently-used cleancache hooks. The alternative is a function call to check a static @@ -262,14 +281,14 @@ global variable allows cleancache to be enabled by default at compile time, but have insignificant performance impact when cleancache remains disabled at runtime. -9) Does cleanache work with KVM? +* Does cleanache work with KVM? The memory model of KVM is sufficiently different that a cleancache backend may have less value for KVM. This remains to be tested, especially in an overcommitted system. -10) Does cleancache work in userspace? It sounds useful for - memory hungry caches like web browsers. (Jamie Lokier) +* Does cleancache work in userspace? It sounds useful for + memory hungry caches like web browsers. (Jamie Lokier) No plans yet, though we agree it sounds useful, at least for apps that bypass the page cache (e.g. O_DIRECT). |