ra->prev_pos tracks the last visited byte in the previous read request.
It is used to check whether it is sequential read in ondemand_readahead
and thus affects the readahead window.
After commit 06c0444290 ("mm/filemap.c: generic_file_buffered_read() now
uses find_get_pages_contig"), update logic of prev_pos is changed. It
updates prev_pos after each return from filemap_get_pages(). But the read
request from user may be not fully completed at this point. The updated
prev_pos impacts the subsequent readahead window.
The real problem is performance drop of fsck_msdos between linux-5.4 and
linux-5.15(also linux-6.4). Comparing to linux-5.4,It spends about 110%
time and read 140% pages. The read pattern of fsck_msdos is not fully
sequential.
Simplified read pattern of fsck_msdos likes below:
1.read at page offset 0xa,size 0x1000
2.read at other page offset like 0x20,size 0x1000
3.read at page offset 0xa,size 0x4000
4.read at page offset 0xe,size 0x1000
Here is the read status on linux-6.4:
1.after read at page offset 0xa,size 0x1000
->page ofs 0xa go into pagecache
2.after read at page offset 0x20,size 0x1000
->page ofs 0x20 go into pagecache
3.read at page offset 0xa,size 0x4000
->filemap_get_pages read ofs 0xa from pagecache and returns
->prev_pos is updated to 0xb and goto next loop
->filemap_get_pages tends to read ofs 0xb,size 0x3000
->initial_readahead case in ondemand_readahead since prev_pos is
the same as request ofs.
->read 8 pages while async size is 5 pages
(PageReadahead flag at page 0xe)
4.read at page offset 0xe,size 0x1000
->hit page 0xe with PageReadahead flag set,double the ra_size.
read 16 pages while async size is 16 pages
Now it reads 24 pages while actually uses 5 pages
on linux-5.4:
1.the same as 6.4
2.the same as 6.4
3.read at page offset 0xa,size 0x4000
->read ofs 0xa from pagecache
->read ofs 0xb,size 0x3000 using page_cache_sync_readahead
read 3 pages
->prev_pos is updated to 0xd before generic_file_buffered_read
returns
4.read at page offset 0xe,size 0x1000
->initial_readahead case in ondemand_readahead since
request ofs-prev_pos==1
->read 4 pages while async size is 3 pages
Now it reads 7 pages while actually uses 5 pages.
In above demo, the initial_readahead case is triggered by offset of user
request on linux-5.4. While it may be triggered by update logic of
prev_pos on linux-6.4.
To fix the performance drop, update prev_pos after finishing one read
request.
Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20230628110220.120134-1-haibo.li@mediatek.com
Signed-off-by: Haibo Li <haibo.li@mediatek.com>
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Cc: AngeloGioacchino Del Regno <angelogioacchino.delregno@collabora.com>
Cc: Matthew Wilcox <willy@infradead.org>
Cc: Matthias Brugger <matthias.bgg@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
f04d16ee3a