Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > linux.kernel > #1270539

Re: [PATCH v2 03/11] pmem: enable REQ_FUA/REQ_FLUSH handling

Show all headers | View raw

On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 06:32:40PM -0800, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 4:43 PM, Andreas Dilger <adilger@dilger.ca> wrote:
> > On Nov 13, 2015, at 5:20 PM, Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 4:06 PM, Ross Zwisler
> >> <ross.zwisler@linux.intel.com> wrote:
> >>> Currently the PMEM driver doesn't accept REQ_FLUSH or REQ_FUA bios.  These
> >>> are sent down via blkdev_issue_flush() in response to a fsync() or msync()
> >>> and are used by filesystems to order their metadata, among other things.
> >>>
> >>> When we get an msync() or fsync() it is the responsibility of the DAX code
> >>> to flush all dirty pages to media.  The PMEM driver then just has issue a
> >>> wmb_pmem() in response to the REQ_FLUSH to ensure that before we return all
> >>> the flushed data has been durably stored on the media.
> >>>
> >>> Signed-off-by: Ross Zwisler <ross.zwisler@linux.intel.com>
> >>
> >> Hmm, I'm not seeing why we need this patch.  If the actual flushing of
> >> the cache is done by the core why does the driver need support
> >> REQ_FLUSH?  Especially since it's just a couple instructions.  REQ_FUA
> >> only makes sense if individual writes can bypass the "drive" cache,
> >> but no I/O submitted to the driver proper is ever cached we always
> >> flush it through to media.
> >
> > If the upper level filesystem gets an error when submitting a flush
> > request, then it assumes the underlying hardware is broken and cannot
> > be as aggressive in IO submission, but instead has to wait for in-flight
> > IO to complete.
> 
> Upper level filesystems won't get errors when the driver does not
> support flush.  Those requests are ended cleanly in
> generic_make_request_checks().  Yes, the fs still needs to wait for
> outstanding I/O to complete but in the case of pmem all I/O is
> synchronous.  There's never anything to await when flushing at the
> pmem driver level.
> 
> > Since FUA/FLUSH is basically a no-op for pmem devices,
> > it doesn't make sense _not_ to support this functionality.
> 
> Seems to be a nop either way.  Given that DAX may lead to dirty data
> pending to the device in the cpu cache that a REQ_FLUSH request will
> not touch, its better to leave it all to the mm core to handle.  I.e.
> it doesn't make sense to call the driver just for two instructions
> (sfence + pcommit) when the mm core is taking on the cache flushing.
> Either handle it all in the mm or the driver, not a mixture.

Does anyone know if ext4 and/or XFS alter their algorithms based on whether
the driver supports REQ_FLUSH/REQ_FUA?  Will the filesystem behave more
efficiently with respect to their internal I/O ordering, etc., if PMEM
advertises REQ_FLUSH/REQ_FUA support, even though we could do the same thing
at the DAX layer?
--
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/

Back to linux.kernel | Previous | Next — Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Re: [PATCH v2 03/11] pmem: enable REQ_FUA/REQ_FLUSH handling Ross Zwisler <ross.zwisler@linux.intel.com> - 2015-11-16 21:10 +0100
  Re: [PATCH v2 03/11] pmem: enable REQ_FUA/REQ_FLUSH handling Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz> - 2015-11-18 11:50 +0100
    Re: [PATCH v2 03/11] pmem: enable REQ_FUA/REQ_FLUSH handling Ross Zwisler <ross.zwisler@linux.intel.com> - 2015-11-18 17:20 +0100

csiph-web