bfqd->queue_weights_tree.rb_node->rb_right)
#ifdef CONFIG_BFQ_GROUP_IOSCHED
) ||
- (bfqd->num_active_groups > 0
+ (bfqd->num_groups_with_pending_reqs > 0
#endif
);
}
*/
break;
}
- bfqd->num_active_groups--;
+
+ /*
+ * The decrement of num_groups_with_pending_reqs is
+ * not performed immediately upon the deactivation of
+ * entity, but it is delayed to when it also happens
+ * that the first leaf descendant bfqq of entity gets
+ * all its pending requests completed. The following
+ * instructions perform this delayed decrement, if
+ * needed. See the comments on
+ * num_groups_with_pending_reqs for details.
+ */
+ if (entity->in_groups_with_pending_reqs) {
+ entity->in_groups_with_pending_reqs = false;
+ bfqd->num_groups_with_pending_reqs--;
+ }
}
}
* fact, if there are active groups, then, for condition (i)
* to become false, it is enough that an active group contains
* more active processes or sub-groups than some other active
- * group. We address this issue with the following bi-modal
- * behavior, implemented in the function
+ * group. More precisely, for condition (i) to hold because of
+ * such a group, it is not even necessary that the group is
+ * (still) active: it is sufficient that, even if the group
+ * has become inactive, some of its descendant processes still
+ * have some request already dispatched but still waiting for
+ * completion. In fact, requests have still to be guaranteed
+ * their share of the throughput even after being
+ * dispatched. In this respect, it is easy to show that, if a
+ * group frequently becomes inactive while still having
+ * in-flight requests, and if, when this happens, the group is
+ * not considered in the calculation of whether the scenario
+ * is asymmetric, then the group may fail to be guaranteed its
+ * fair share of the throughput (basically because idling may
+ * not be performed for the descendant processes of the group,
+ * but it had to be). We address this issue with the
+ * following bi-modal behavior, implemented in the function
* bfq_symmetric_scenario().
*
- * If there are active groups, then the scenario is tagged as
+ * If there are groups with requests waiting for completion
+ * (as commented above, some of these groups may even be
+ * already inactive), then the scenario is tagged as
* asymmetric, conservatively, without checking any of the
* conditions (i) and (ii). So the device is idled for bfqq.
* This behavior matches also the fact that groups are created
- * exactly if controlling I/O (to preserve bandwidth and
- * latency guarantees) is a primary concern.
+ * exactly if controlling I/O is a primary concern (to
+ * preserve bandwidth and latency guarantees).
*
- * On the opposite end, if there are no active groups, then
- * only condition (i) is actually controlled, i.e., provided
- * that condition (i) holds, idling is not performed,
- * regardless of whether condition (ii) holds. In other words,
- * only if condition (i) does not hold, then idling is
- * allowed, and the device tends to be prevented from queueing
- * many requests, possibly of several processes. Since there
- * are no active groups, then, to control condition (i) it is
- * enough to check whether all active queues have the same
- * weight.
+ * On the opposite end, if there are no groups with requests
+ * waiting for completion, then only condition (i) is actually
+ * controlled, i.e., provided that condition (i) holds, idling
+ * is not performed, regardless of whether condition (ii)
+ * holds. In other words, only if condition (i) does not hold,
+ * then idling is allowed, and the device tends to be
+ * prevented from queueing many requests, possibly of several
+ * processes. Since there are no groups with requests waiting
+ * for completion, then, to control condition (i) it is enough
+ * to check just whether all the queues with requests waiting
+ * for completion also have the same weight.
*
* Not checking condition (ii) evidently exposes bfqq to the
* risk of getting less throughput than its fair share.
* bfqq is weight-raised is checked explicitly here. More
* precisely, the compound condition below takes into account
* also the fact that, even if bfqq is being weight-raised,
- * the scenario is still symmetric if all active queues happen
- * to be weight-raised. Actually, we should be even more
- * precise here, and differentiate between interactive weight
- * raising and soft real-time weight raising.
+ * the scenario is still symmetric if all queues with requests
+ * waiting for completion happen to be
+ * weight-raised. Actually, we should be even more precise
+ * here, and differentiate between interactive weight raising
+ * and soft real-time weight raising.
*
* As a side note, it is worth considering that the above
* device-idling countermeasures may however fail in the
bfqd->idle_slice_timer.function = bfq_idle_slice_timer;
bfqd->queue_weights_tree = RB_ROOT;
- bfqd->num_active_groups = 0;
+ bfqd->num_groups_with_pending_reqs = 0;
INIT_LIST_HEAD(&bfqd->active_list);
INIT_LIST_HEAD(&bfqd->idle_list);
/* flag, set to request a weight, ioprio or ioprio_class change */
int prio_changed;
+
+ /* flag, set if the entity is counted in groups_with_pending_reqs */
+ bool in_groups_with_pending_reqs;
};
struct bfq_group;
* bfq_weights_tree_[add|remove] for further details).
*/
struct rb_root queue_weights_tree;
+
/*
- * number of groups with requests still waiting for completion
+ * Number of groups with at least one descendant process that
+ * has at least one request waiting for completion. Note that
+ * this accounts for also requests already dispatched, but not
+ * yet completed. Therefore this number of groups may differ
+ * (be larger) than the number of active groups, as a group is
+ * considered active only if its corresponding entity has
+ * descendant queues with at least one request queued. This
+ * number is used to decide whether a scenario is symmetric.
+ * For a detailed explanation see comments on the computation
+ * of the variable asymmetric_scenario in the function
+ * bfq_better_to_idle().
+ *
+ * However, it is hard to compute this number exactly, for
+ * groups with multiple descendant processes. Consider a group
+ * that is inactive, i.e., that has no descendant process with
+ * pending I/O inside BFQ queues. Then suppose that
+ * num_groups_with_pending_reqs is still accounting for this
+ * group, because the group has descendant processes with some
+ * I/O request still in flight. num_groups_with_pending_reqs
+ * should be decremented when the in-flight request of the
+ * last descendant process is finally completed (assuming that
+ * nothing else has changed for the group in the meantime, in
+ * terms of composition of the group and active/inactive state of child
+ * groups and processes). To accomplish this, an additional
+ * pending-request counter must be added to entities, and must
+ * be updated correctly. To avoid this additional field and operations,
+ * we resort to the following tradeoff between simplicity and
+ * accuracy: for an inactive group that is still counted in
+ * num_groups_with_pending_reqs, we decrement
+ * num_groups_with_pending_reqs when the first descendant
+ * process of the group remains with no request waiting for
+ * completion.
+ *
+ * Even this simpler decrement strategy requires a little
+ * carefulness: to avoid multiple decrements, we flag a group,
+ * more precisely an entity representing a group, as still
+ * counted in num_groups_with_pending_reqs when it becomes
+ * inactive. Then, when the first descendant queue of the
+ * entity remains with no request waiting for completion,
+ * num_groups_with_pending_reqs is decremented, and this flag
+ * is reset. After this flag is reset for the entity,
+ * num_groups_with_pending_reqs won't be decremented any
+ * longer in case a new descendant queue of the entity remains
+ * with no request waiting for completion.
*/
- unsigned int num_active_groups;
+ unsigned int num_groups_with_pending_reqs;
/*
* Number of bfq_queues containing requests (including the