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diff --git a/Documentation/block/biodoc.rst b/Documentation/block/biodoc.rst new file mode 100644 index 000000000..1d4d71e39 --- /dev/null +++ b/Documentation/block/biodoc.rst @@ -0,0 +1,1164 @@ +===================================================== +Notes on the Generic Block Layer Rewrite in Linux 2.5 +===================================================== + +.. note:: + + It seems that there are lot of outdated stuff here. This seems + to be written somewhat as a task list. Yet, eventually, something + here might still be useful. + +Notes Written on Jan 15, 2002: + + - Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com> + - Suparna Bhattacharya <suparna@in.ibm.com> + +Last Updated May 2, 2002 + +September 2003: Updated I/O Scheduler portions + - Nick Piggin <npiggin@kernel.dk> + +Introduction +============ + +These are some notes describing some aspects of the 2.5 block layer in the +context of the bio rewrite. The idea is to bring out some of the key +changes and a glimpse of the rationale behind those changes. + +Please mail corrections & suggestions to suparna@in.ibm.com. + +Credits +======= + +2.5 bio rewrite: + - Jens Axboe <jens.axboe@oracle.com> + +Many aspects of the generic block layer redesign were driven by and evolved +over discussions, prior patches and the collective experience of several +people. See sections 8 and 9 for a list of some related references. + +The following people helped with review comments and inputs for this +document: + + - Christoph Hellwig <hch@infradead.org> + - Arjan van de Ven <arjanv@redhat.com> + - Randy Dunlap <rdunlap@xenotime.net> + - Andre Hedrick <andre@linux-ide.org> + +The following people helped with fixes/contributions to the bio patches +while it was still work-in-progress: + + - David S. Miller <davem@redhat.com> + + +.. Description of Contents: + + 1. Scope for tuning of logic to various needs + 1.1 Tuning based on device or low level driver capabilities + - Per-queue parameters + - Highmem I/O support + - I/O scheduler modularization + 1.2 Tuning based on high level requirements/capabilities + 1.2.1 Request Priority/Latency + 1.3 Direct access/bypass to lower layers for diagnostics and special + device operations + 1.3.1 Pre-built commands + 2. New flexible and generic but minimalist i/o structure or descriptor + (instead of using buffer heads at the i/o layer) + 2.1 Requirements/Goals addressed + 2.2 The bio struct in detail (multi-page io unit) + 2.3 Changes in the request structure + 3. Using bios + 3.1 Setup/teardown (allocation, splitting) + 3.2 Generic bio helper routines + 3.2.1 Traversing segments and completion units in a request + 3.2.2 Setting up DMA scatterlists + 3.2.3 I/O completion + 3.2.4 Implications for drivers that do not interpret bios (don't handle + multiple segments) + 3.3 I/O submission + 4. The I/O scheduler + 5. Scalability related changes + 5.1 Granular locking: Removal of io_request_lock + 5.2 Prepare for transition to 64 bit sector_t + 6. Other Changes/Implications + 6.1 Partition re-mapping handled by the generic block layer + 7. A few tips on migration of older drivers + 8. A list of prior/related/impacted patches/ideas + 9. Other References/Discussion Threads + + +Bio Notes +========= + +Let us discuss the changes in the context of how some overall goals for the +block layer are addressed. + +1. Scope for tuning the generic logic to satisfy various requirements +===================================================================== + +The block layer design supports adaptable abstractions to handle common +processing with the ability to tune the logic to an appropriate extent +depending on the nature of the device and the requirements of the caller. +One of the objectives of the rewrite was to increase the degree of tunability +and to enable higher level code to utilize underlying device/driver +capabilities to the maximum extent for better i/o performance. This is +important especially in the light of ever improving hardware capabilities +and application/middleware software designed to take advantage of these +capabilities. + +1.1 Tuning based on low level device / driver capabilities +---------------------------------------------------------- + +Sophisticated devices with large built-in caches, intelligent i/o scheduling +optimizations, high memory DMA support, etc may find some of the +generic processing an overhead, while for less capable devices the +generic functionality is essential for performance or correctness reasons. +Knowledge of some of the capabilities or parameters of the device should be +used at the generic block layer to take the right decisions on +behalf of the driver. + +How is this achieved ? + +Tuning at a per-queue level: + +i. Per-queue limits/values exported to the generic layer by the driver + +Various parameters that the generic i/o scheduler logic uses are set at +a per-queue level (e.g maximum request size, maximum number of segments in +a scatter-gather list, logical block size) + +Some parameters that were earlier available as global arrays indexed by +major/minor are now directly associated with the queue. Some of these may +move into the block device structure in the future. Some characteristics +have been incorporated into a queue flags field rather than separate fields +in themselves. There are blk_queue_xxx functions to set the parameters, +rather than update the fields directly + +Some new queue property settings: + + blk_queue_bounce_limit(q, u64 dma_address) + Enable I/O to highmem pages, dma_address being the + limit. No highmem default. + + blk_queue_max_sectors(q, max_sectors) + Sets two variables that limit the size of the request. + + - The request queue's max_sectors, which is a soft size in + units of 512 byte sectors, and could be dynamically varied + by the core kernel. + + - The request queue's max_hw_sectors, which is a hard limit + and reflects the maximum size request a driver can handle + in units of 512 byte sectors. + + The default for both max_sectors and max_hw_sectors is + 255. The upper limit of max_sectors is 1024. + + blk_queue_max_phys_segments(q, max_segments) + Maximum physical segments you can handle in a request. 128 + default (driver limit). (See 3.2.2) + + blk_queue_max_hw_segments(q, max_segments) + Maximum dma segments the hardware can handle in a request. 128 + default (host adapter limit, after dma remapping). + (See 3.2.2) + + blk_queue_max_segment_size(q, max_seg_size) + Maximum size of a clustered segment, 64kB default. + + blk_queue_logical_block_size(q, logical_block_size) + Lowest possible sector size that the hardware can operate + on, 512 bytes default. + +New queue flags: + + - QUEUE_FLAG_CLUSTER (see 3.2.2) + - QUEUE_FLAG_QUEUED (see 3.2.4) + + +ii. High-mem i/o capabilities are now considered the default + +The generic bounce buffer logic, present in 2.4, where the block layer would +by default copyin/out i/o requests on high-memory buffers to low-memory buffers +assuming that the driver wouldn't be able to handle it directly, has been +changed in 2.5. The bounce logic is now applied only for memory ranges +for which the device cannot handle i/o. A driver can specify this by +setting the queue bounce limit for the request queue for the device +(blk_queue_bounce_limit()). This avoids the inefficiencies of the copyin/out +where a device is capable of handling high memory i/o. + +In order to enable high-memory i/o where the device is capable of supporting +it, the pci dma mapping routines and associated data structures have now been +modified to accomplish a direct page -> bus translation, without requiring +a virtual address mapping (unlike the earlier scheme of virtual address +-> bus translation). So this works uniformly for high-memory pages (which +do not have a corresponding kernel virtual address space mapping) and +low-memory pages. + +Note: Please refer to :doc:`/core-api/dma-api-howto` for a discussion +on PCI high mem DMA aspects and mapping of scatter gather lists, and support +for 64 bit PCI. + +Special handling is required only for cases where i/o needs to happen on +pages at physical memory addresses beyond what the device can support. In these +cases, a bounce bio representing a buffer from the supported memory range +is used for performing the i/o with copyin/copyout as needed depending on +the type of the operation. For example, in case of a read operation, the +data read has to be copied to the original buffer on i/o completion, so a +callback routine is set up to do this, while for write, the data is copied +from the original buffer to the bounce buffer prior to issuing the +operation. Since an original buffer may be in a high memory area that's not +mapped in kernel virtual addr, a kmap operation may be required for +performing the copy, and special care may be needed in the completion path +as it may not be in irq context. Special care is also required (by way of +GFP flags) when allocating bounce buffers, to avoid certain highmem +deadlock possibilities. + +It is also possible that a bounce buffer may be allocated from high-memory +area that's not mapped in kernel virtual addr, but within the range that the +device can use directly; so the bounce page may need to be kmapped during +copy operations. [Note: This does not hold in the current implementation, +though] + +There are some situations when pages from high memory may need to +be kmapped, even if bounce buffers are not necessary. For example a device +may need to abort DMA operations and revert to PIO for the transfer, in +which case a virtual mapping of the page is required. For SCSI it is also +done in some scenarios where the low level driver cannot be trusted to +handle a single sg entry correctly. The driver is expected to perform the +kmaps as needed on such occasions as appropriate. A driver could also use +the blk_queue_bounce() routine on its own to bounce highmem i/o to low +memory for specific requests if so desired. + +iii. The i/o scheduler algorithm itself can be replaced/set as appropriate + +As in 2.4, it is possible to plugin a brand new i/o scheduler for a particular +queue or pick from (copy) existing generic schedulers and replace/override +certain portions of it. The 2.5 rewrite provides improved modularization +of the i/o scheduler. There are more pluggable callbacks, e.g for init, +add request, extract request, which makes it possible to abstract specific +i/o scheduling algorithm aspects and details outside of the generic loop. +It also makes it possible to completely hide the implementation details of +the i/o scheduler from block drivers. + +I/O scheduler wrappers are to be used instead of accessing the queue directly. +See section 4. The I/O scheduler for details. + +1.2 Tuning Based on High level code capabilities +------------------------------------------------ + +i. Application capabilities for raw i/o + +This comes from some of the high-performance database/middleware +requirements where an application prefers to make its own i/o scheduling +decisions based on an understanding of the access patterns and i/o +characteristics + +ii. High performance filesystems or other higher level kernel code's +capabilities + +Kernel components like filesystems could also take their own i/o scheduling +decisions for optimizing performance. Journalling filesystems may need +some control over i/o ordering. + +What kind of support exists at the generic block layer for this ? + +The flags and rw fields in the bio structure can be used for some tuning +from above e.g indicating that an i/o is just a readahead request, or priority +settings (currently unused). As far as user applications are concerned they +would need an additional mechanism either via open flags or ioctls, or some +other upper level mechanism to communicate such settings to block. + +1.2.1 Request Priority/Latency +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + +Todo/Under discussion:: + + Arjan's proposed request priority scheme allows higher levels some broad + control (high/med/low) over the priority of an i/o request vs other pending + requests in the queue. For example it allows reads for bringing in an + executable page on demand to be given a higher priority over pending write + requests which haven't aged too much on the queue. Potentially this priority + could even be exposed to applications in some manner, providing higher level + tunability. Time based aging avoids starvation of lower priority + requests. Some bits in the bi_opf flags field in the bio structure are + intended to be used for this priority information. + + +1.3 Direct Access to Low level Device/Driver Capabilities (Bypass mode) +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +(e.g Diagnostics, Systems Management) + +There are situations where high-level code needs to have direct access to +the low level device capabilities or requires the ability to issue commands +to the device bypassing some of the intermediate i/o layers. +These could, for example, be special control commands issued through ioctl +interfaces, or could be raw read/write commands that stress the drive's +capabilities for certain kinds of fitness tests. Having direct interfaces at +multiple levels without having to pass through upper layers makes +it possible to perform bottom up validation of the i/o path, layer by +layer, starting from the media. + +The normal i/o submission interfaces, e.g submit_bio, could be bypassed +for specially crafted requests which such ioctl or diagnostics +interfaces would typically use, and the elevator add_request routine +can instead be used to directly insert such requests in the queue or preferably +the blk_do_rq routine can be used to place the request on the queue and +wait for completion. Alternatively, sometimes the caller might just +invoke a lower level driver specific interface with the request as a +parameter. + +If the request is a means for passing on special information associated with +the command, then such information is associated with the request->special +field (rather than misuse the request->buffer field which is meant for the +request data buffer's virtual mapping). + +For passing request data, the caller must build up a bio descriptor +representing the concerned memory buffer if the underlying driver interprets +bio segments or uses the block layer end*request* functions for i/o +completion. Alternatively one could directly use the request->buffer field to +specify the virtual address of the buffer, if the driver expects buffer +addresses passed in this way and ignores bio entries for the request type +involved. In the latter case, the driver would modify and manage the +request->buffer, request->sector and request->nr_sectors or +request->current_nr_sectors fields itself rather than using the block layer +end_request or end_that_request_first completion interfaces. +(See 2.3 or Documentation/block/request.rst for a brief explanation of +the request structure fields) + +:: + + [TBD: end_that_request_last should be usable even in this case; + Perhaps an end_that_direct_request_first routine could be implemented to make + handling direct requests easier for such drivers; Also for drivers that + expect bios, a helper function could be provided for setting up a bio + corresponding to a data buffer] + + <JENS: I dont understand the above, why is end_that_request_first() not + usable? Or _last for that matter. I must be missing something> + + <SUP: What I meant here was that if the request doesn't have a bio, then + end_that_request_first doesn't modify nr_sectors or current_nr_sectors, + and hence can't be used for advancing request state settings on the + completion of partial transfers. The driver has to modify these fields + directly by hand. + This is because end_that_request_first only iterates over the bio list, + and always returns 0 if there are none associated with the request. + _last works OK in this case, and is not a problem, as I mentioned earlier + > + +1.3.1 Pre-built Commands +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + +A request can be created with a pre-built custom command to be sent directly +to the device. The cmd block in the request structure has room for filling +in the command bytes. (i.e rq->cmd is now 16 bytes in size, and meant for +command pre-building, and the type of the request is now indicated +through rq->flags instead of via rq->cmd) + +The request structure flags can be set up to indicate the type of request +in such cases (REQ_PC: direct packet command passed to driver, REQ_BLOCK_PC: +packet command issued via blk_do_rq, REQ_SPECIAL: special request). + +It can help to pre-build device commands for requests in advance. +Drivers can now specify a request prepare function (q->prep_rq_fn) that the +block layer would invoke to pre-build device commands for a given request, +or perform other preparatory processing for the request. This is routine is +called by elv_next_request(), i.e. typically just before servicing a request. +(The prepare function would not be called for requests that have RQF_DONTPREP +enabled) + +Aside: + Pre-building could possibly even be done early, i.e before placing the + request on the queue, rather than construct the command on the fly in the + driver while servicing the request queue when it may affect latencies in + interrupt context or responsiveness in general. One way to add early + pre-building would be to do it whenever we fail to merge on a request. + Now REQ_NOMERGE is set in the request flags to skip this one in the future, + which means that it will not change before we feed it to the device. So + the pre-builder hook can be invoked there. + + +2. Flexible and generic but minimalist i/o structure/descriptor +=============================================================== + +2.1 Reason for a new structure and requirements addressed +--------------------------------------------------------- + +Prior to 2.5, buffer heads were used as the unit of i/o at the generic block +layer, and the low level request structure was associated with a chain of +buffer heads for a contiguous i/o request. This led to certain inefficiencies +when it came to large i/o requests and readv/writev style operations, as it +forced such requests to be broken up into small chunks before being passed +on to the generic block layer, only to be merged by the i/o scheduler +when the underlying device was capable of handling the i/o in one shot. +Also, using the buffer head as an i/o structure for i/os that didn't originate +from the buffer cache unnecessarily added to the weight of the descriptors +which were generated for each such chunk. + +The following were some of the goals and expectations considered in the +redesign of the block i/o data structure in 2.5. + +1. Should be appropriate as a descriptor for both raw and buffered i/o - + avoid cache related fields which are irrelevant in the direct/page i/o path, + or filesystem block size alignment restrictions which may not be relevant + for raw i/o. +2. Ability to represent high-memory buffers (which do not have a virtual + address mapping in kernel address space). +3. Ability to represent large i/os w/o unnecessarily breaking them up (i.e + greater than PAGE_SIZE chunks in one shot) +4. At the same time, ability to retain independent identity of i/os from + different sources or i/o units requiring individual completion (e.g. for + latency reasons) +5. Ability to represent an i/o involving multiple physical memory segments + (including non-page aligned page fragments, as specified via readv/writev) + without unnecessarily breaking it up, if the underlying device is capable of + handling it. +6. Preferably should be based on a memory descriptor structure that can be + passed around different types of subsystems or layers, maybe even + networking, without duplication or extra copies of data/descriptor fields + themselves in the process +7. Ability to handle the possibility of splits/merges as the structure passes + through layered drivers (lvm, md, evms), with minimal overhead. + +The solution was to define a new structure (bio) for the block layer, +instead of using the buffer head structure (bh) directly, the idea being +avoidance of some associated baggage and limitations. The bio structure +is uniformly used for all i/o at the block layer ; it forms a part of the +bh structure for buffered i/o, and in the case of raw/direct i/o kiobufs are +mapped to bio structures. + +2.2 The bio struct +------------------ + +The bio structure uses a vector representation pointing to an array of tuples +of <page, offset, len> to describe the i/o buffer, and has various other +fields describing i/o parameters and state that needs to be maintained for +performing the i/o. + +Notice that this representation means that a bio has no virtual address +mapping at all (unlike buffer heads). + +:: + + struct bio_vec { + struct page *bv_page; + unsigned short bv_len; + unsigned short bv_offset; + }; + + /* + * main unit of I/O for the block layer and lower layers (ie drivers) + */ + struct bio { + struct bio *bi_next; /* request queue link */ + struct block_device *bi_bdev; /* target device */ + unsigned long bi_flags; /* status, command, etc */ + unsigned long bi_opf; /* low bits: r/w, high: priority */ + + unsigned int bi_vcnt; /* how may bio_vec's */ + struct bvec_iter bi_iter; /* current index into bio_vec array */ + + unsigned int bi_size; /* total size in bytes */ + unsigned short bi_hw_segments; /* segments after DMA remapping */ + unsigned int bi_max; /* max bio_vecs we can hold + used as index into pool */ + struct bio_vec *bi_io_vec; /* the actual vec list */ + bio_end_io_t *bi_end_io; /* bi_end_io (bio) */ + atomic_t bi_cnt; /* pin count: free when it hits zero */ + void *bi_private; + }; + +With this multipage bio design: + +- Large i/os can be sent down in one go using a bio_vec list consisting + of an array of <page, offset, len> fragments (similar to the way fragments + are represented in the zero-copy network code) +- Splitting of an i/o request across multiple devices (as in the case of + lvm or raid) is achieved by cloning the bio (where the clone points to + the same bi_io_vec array, but with the index and size accordingly modified) +- A linked list of bios is used as before for unrelated merges [#]_ - this + avoids reallocs and makes independent completions easier to handle. +- Code that traverses the req list can find all the segments of a bio + by using rq_for_each_segment. This handles the fact that a request + has multiple bios, each of which can have multiple segments. +- Drivers which can't process a large bio in one shot can use the bi_iter + field to keep track of the next bio_vec entry to process. + (e.g a 1MB bio_vec needs to be handled in max 128kB chunks for IDE) + [TBD: Should preferably also have a bi_voffset and bi_vlen to avoid modifying + bi_offset an len fields] + +.. [#] + + unrelated merges -- a request ends up containing two or more bios that + didn't originate from the same place. + +bi_end_io() i/o callback gets called on i/o completion of the entire bio. + +At a lower level, drivers build a scatter gather list from the merged bios. +The scatter gather list is in the form of an array of <page, offset, len> +entries with their corresponding dma address mappings filled in at the +appropriate time. As an optimization, contiguous physical pages can be +covered by a single entry where <page> refers to the first page and <len> +covers the range of pages (up to 16 contiguous pages could be covered this +way). There is a helper routine (blk_rq_map_sg) which drivers can use to build +the sg list. + +Note: Right now the only user of bios with more than one page is ll_rw_kio, +which in turn means that only raw I/O uses it (direct i/o may not work +right now). The intent however is to enable clustering of pages etc to +become possible. The pagebuf abstraction layer from SGI also uses multi-page +bios, but that is currently not included in the stock development kernels. +The same is true of Andrew Morton's work-in-progress multipage bio writeout +and readahead patches. + +2.3 Changes in the Request Structure +------------------------------------ + +The request structure is the structure that gets passed down to low level +drivers. The block layer make_request function builds up a request structure, +places it on the queue and invokes the drivers request_fn. The driver makes +use of block layer helper routine elv_next_request to pull the next request +off the queue. Control or diagnostic functions might bypass block and directly +invoke underlying driver entry points passing in a specially constructed +request structure. + +Only some relevant fields (mainly those which changed or may be referred +to in some of the discussion here) are listed below, not necessarily in +the order in which they occur in the structure (see include/linux/blkdev.h) +Refer to Documentation/block/request.rst for details about all the request +structure fields and a quick reference about the layers which are +supposed to use or modify those fields:: + + struct request { + struct list_head queuelist; /* Not meant to be directly accessed by + the driver. + Used by q->elv_next_request_fn + rq->queue is gone + */ + . + . + unsigned char cmd[16]; /* prebuilt command data block */ + unsigned long flags; /* also includes earlier rq->cmd settings */ + . + . + sector_t sector; /* this field is now of type sector_t instead of int + preparation for 64 bit sectors */ + . + . + + /* Number of scatter-gather DMA addr+len pairs after + * physical address coalescing is performed. + */ + unsigned short nr_phys_segments; + + /* Number of scatter-gather addr+len pairs after + * physical and DMA remapping hardware coalescing is performed. + * This is the number of scatter-gather entries the driver + * will actually have to deal with after DMA mapping is done. + */ + unsigned short nr_hw_segments; + + /* Various sector counts */ + unsigned long nr_sectors; /* no. of sectors left: driver modifiable */ + unsigned long hard_nr_sectors; /* block internal copy of above */ + unsigned int current_nr_sectors; /* no. of sectors left in the + current segment:driver modifiable */ + unsigned long hard_cur_sectors; /* block internal copy of the above */ + . + . + int tag; /* command tag associated with request */ + void *special; /* same as before */ + char *buffer; /* valid only for low memory buffers up to + current_nr_sectors */ + . + . + struct bio *bio, *biotail; /* bio list instead of bh */ + struct request_list *rl; + } + +See the req_ops and req_flag_bits definitions for an explanation of the various +flags available. Some bits are used by the block layer or i/o scheduler. + +The behaviour of the various sector counts are almost the same as before, +except that since we have multi-segment bios, current_nr_sectors refers +to the numbers of sectors in the current segment being processed which could +be one of the many segments in the current bio (i.e i/o completion unit). +The nr_sectors value refers to the total number of sectors in the whole +request that remain to be transferred (no change). The purpose of the +hard_xxx values is for block to remember these counts every time it hands +over the request to the driver. These values are updated by block on +end_that_request_first, i.e. every time the driver completes a part of the +transfer and invokes block end*request helpers to mark this. The +driver should not modify these values. The block layer sets up the +nr_sectors and current_nr_sectors fields (based on the corresponding +hard_xxx values and the number of bytes transferred) and updates it on +every transfer that invokes end_that_request_first. It does the same for the +buffer, bio, bio->bi_iter fields too. + +The buffer field is just a virtual address mapping of the current segment +of the i/o buffer in cases where the buffer resides in low-memory. For high +memory i/o, this field is not valid and must not be used by drivers. + +Code that sets up its own request structures and passes them down to +a driver needs to be careful about interoperation with the block layer helper +functions which the driver uses. (Section 1.3) + +3. Using bios +============= + +3.1 Setup/Teardown +------------------ + +There are routines for managing the allocation, and reference counting, and +freeing of bios (bio_alloc, bio_get, bio_put). + +This makes use of Ingo Molnar's mempool implementation, which enables +subsystems like bio to maintain their own reserve memory pools for guaranteed +deadlock-free allocations during extreme VM load. For example, the VM +subsystem makes use of the block layer to writeout dirty pages in order to be +able to free up memory space, a case which needs careful handling. The +allocation logic draws from the preallocated emergency reserve in situations +where it cannot allocate through normal means. If the pool is empty and it +can wait, then it would trigger action that would help free up memory or +replenish the pool (without deadlocking) and wait for availability in the pool. +If it is in IRQ context, and hence not in a position to do this, allocation +could fail if the pool is empty. In general mempool always first tries to +perform allocation without having to wait, even if it means digging into the +pool as long it is not less that 50% full. + +On a free, memory is released to the pool or directly freed depending on +the current availability in the pool. The mempool interface lets the +subsystem specify the routines to be used for normal alloc and free. In the +case of bio, these routines make use of the standard slab allocator. + +The caller of bio_alloc is expected to taken certain steps to avoid +deadlocks, e.g. avoid trying to allocate more memory from the pool while +already holding memory obtained from the pool. + +:: + + [TBD: This is a potential issue, though a rare possibility + in the bounce bio allocation that happens in the current code, since + it ends up allocating a second bio from the same pool while + holding the original bio ] + +Memory allocated from the pool should be released back within a limited +amount of time (in the case of bio, that would be after the i/o is completed). +This ensures that if part of the pool has been used up, some work (in this +case i/o) must already be in progress and memory would be available when it +is over. If allocating from multiple pools in the same code path, the order +or hierarchy of allocation needs to be consistent, just the way one deals +with multiple locks. + +The bio_alloc routine also needs to allocate the bio_vec_list (bvec_alloc()) +for a non-clone bio. There are the 6 pools setup for different size biovecs, +so bio_alloc(gfp_mask, nr_iovecs) will allocate a vec_list of the +given size from these slabs. + +The bio_get() routine may be used to hold an extra reference on a bio prior +to i/o submission, if the bio fields are likely to be accessed after the +i/o is issued (since the bio may otherwise get freed in case i/o completion +happens in the meantime). + +The bio_clone_fast() routine may be used to duplicate a bio, where the clone +shares the bio_vec_list with the original bio (i.e. both point to the +same bio_vec_list). This would typically be used for splitting i/o requests +in lvm or md. + +3.2 Generic bio helper Routines +------------------------------- + +3.2.1 Traversing segments and completion units in a request +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + +The macro rq_for_each_segment() should be used for traversing the bios +in the request list (drivers should avoid directly trying to do it +themselves). Using these helpers should also make it easier to cope +with block changes in the future. + +:: + + struct req_iterator iter; + rq_for_each_segment(bio_vec, rq, iter) + /* bio_vec is now current segment */ + +I/O completion callbacks are per-bio rather than per-segment, so drivers +that traverse bio chains on completion need to keep that in mind. Drivers +which don't make a distinction between segments and completion units would +need to be reorganized to support multi-segment bios. + +3.2.2 Setting up DMA scatterlists +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + +The blk_rq_map_sg() helper routine would be used for setting up scatter +gather lists from a request, so a driver need not do it on its own. + + nr_segments = blk_rq_map_sg(q, rq, scatterlist); + +The helper routine provides a level of abstraction which makes it easier +to modify the internals of request to scatterlist conversion down the line +without breaking drivers. The blk_rq_map_sg routine takes care of several +things like collapsing physically contiguous segments (if QUEUE_FLAG_CLUSTER +is set) and correct segment accounting to avoid exceeding the limits which +the i/o hardware can handle, based on various queue properties. + +- Prevents a clustered segment from crossing a 4GB mem boundary +- Avoids building segments that would exceed the number of physical + memory segments that the driver can handle (phys_segments) and the + number that the underlying hardware can handle at once, accounting for + DMA remapping (hw_segments) (i.e. IOMMU aware limits). + +Routines which the low level driver can use to set up the segment limits: + +blk_queue_max_hw_segments() : Sets an upper limit of the maximum number of +hw data segments in a request (i.e. the maximum number of address/length +pairs the host adapter can actually hand to the device at once) + +blk_queue_max_phys_segments() : Sets an upper limit on the maximum number +of physical data segments in a request (i.e. the largest sized scatter list +a driver could handle) + +3.2.3 I/O completion +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + +The existing generic block layer helper routines end_request, +end_that_request_first and end_that_request_last can be used for i/o +completion (and setting things up so the rest of the i/o or the next +request can be kicked of) as before. With the introduction of multi-page +bio support, end_that_request_first requires an additional argument indicating +the number of sectors completed. + +3.2.4 Implications for drivers that do not interpret bios +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + +(don't handle multiple segments) + +Drivers that do not interpret bios e.g those which do not handle multiple +segments and do not support i/o into high memory addresses (require bounce +buffers) and expect only virtually mapped buffers, can access the rq->buffer +field. As before the driver should use current_nr_sectors to determine the +size of remaining data in the current segment (that is the maximum it can +transfer in one go unless it interprets segments), and rely on the block layer +end_request, or end_that_request_first/last to take care of all accounting +and transparent mapping of the next bio segment when a segment boundary +is crossed on completion of a transfer. (The end*request* functions should +be used if only if the request has come down from block/bio path, not for +direct access requests which only specify rq->buffer without a valid rq->bio) + +3.3 I/O Submission +------------------ + +The routine submit_bio() is used to submit a single io. Higher level i/o +routines make use of this: + +(a) Buffered i/o: + +The routine submit_bh() invokes submit_bio() on a bio corresponding to the +bh, allocating the bio if required. ll_rw_block() uses submit_bh() as before. + +(b) Kiobuf i/o (for raw/direct i/o): + +The ll_rw_kio() routine breaks up the kiobuf into page sized chunks and +maps the array to one or more multi-page bios, issuing submit_bio() to +perform the i/o on each of these. + +The embedded bh array in the kiobuf structure has been removed and no +preallocation of bios is done for kiobufs. [The intent is to remove the +blocks array as well, but it's currently in there to kludge around direct i/o.] +Thus kiobuf allocation has switched back to using kmalloc rather than vmalloc. + +Todo/Observation: + + A single kiobuf structure is assumed to correspond to a contiguous range + of data, so brw_kiovec() invokes ll_rw_kio for each kiobuf in a kiovec. + So right now it wouldn't work for direct i/o on non-contiguous blocks. + This is to be resolved. The eventual direction is to replace kiobuf + by kvec's. + + Badari Pulavarty has a patch to implement direct i/o correctly using + bio and kvec. + + +(c) Page i/o: + +Todo/Under discussion: + + Andrew Morton's multi-page bio patches attempt to issue multi-page + writeouts (and reads) from the page cache, by directly building up + large bios for submission completely bypassing the usage of buffer + heads. This work is still in progress. + + Christoph Hellwig had some code that uses bios for page-io (rather than + bh). This isn't included in bio as yet. Christoph was also working on a + design for representing virtual/real extents as an entity and modifying + some of the address space ops interfaces to utilize this abstraction rather + than buffer_heads. (This is somewhat along the lines of the SGI XFS pagebuf + abstraction, but intended to be as lightweight as possible). + +(d) Direct access i/o: + +Direct access requests that do not contain bios would be submitted differently +as discussed earlier in section 1.3. + +Aside: + + Kvec i/o: + + Ben LaHaise's aio code uses a slightly different structure instead + of kiobufs, called a kvec_cb. This contains an array of <page, offset, len> + tuples (very much like the networking code), together with a callback function + and data pointer. This is embedded into a brw_cb structure when passed + to brw_kvec_async(). + + Now it should be possible to directly map these kvecs to a bio. Just as while + cloning, in this case rather than PRE_BUILT bio_vecs, we set the bi_io_vec + array pointer to point to the veclet array in kvecs. + + TBD: In order for this to work, some changes are needed in the way multi-page + bios are handled today. The values of the tuples in such a vector passed in + from higher level code should not be modified by the block layer in the course + of its request processing, since that would make it hard for the higher layer + to continue to use the vector descriptor (kvec) after i/o completes. Instead, + all such transient state should either be maintained in the request structure, + and passed on in some way to the endio completion routine. + + +4. The I/O scheduler +==================== + +I/O scheduler, a.k.a. elevator, is implemented in two layers. Generic dispatch +queue and specific I/O schedulers. Unless stated otherwise, elevator is used +to refer to both parts and I/O scheduler to specific I/O schedulers. + +Block layer implements generic dispatch queue in `block/*.c`. +The generic dispatch queue is responsible for requeueing, handling non-fs +requests and all other subtleties. + +Specific I/O schedulers are responsible for ordering normal filesystem +requests. They can also choose to delay certain requests to improve +throughput or whatever purpose. As the plural form indicates, there are +multiple I/O schedulers. They can be built as modules but at least one should +be built inside the kernel. Each queue can choose different one and can also +change to another one dynamically. + +A block layer call to the i/o scheduler follows the convention elv_xxx(). This +calls elevator_xxx_fn in the elevator switch (block/elevator.c). Oh, xxx +and xxx might not match exactly, but use your imagination. If an elevator +doesn't implement a function, the switch does nothing or some minimal house +keeping work. + +4.1. I/O scheduler API +---------------------- + +The functions an elevator may implement are: (* are mandatory) + +=============================== ================================================ +elevator_merge_fn called to query requests for merge with a bio + +elevator_merge_req_fn called when two requests get merged. the one + which gets merged into the other one will be + never seen by I/O scheduler again. IOW, after + being merged, the request is gone. + +elevator_merged_fn called when a request in the scheduler has been + involved in a merge. It is used in the deadline + scheduler for example, to reposition the request + if its sorting order has changed. + +elevator_allow_merge_fn called whenever the block layer determines + that a bio can be merged into an existing + request safely. The io scheduler may still + want to stop a merge at this point if it + results in some sort of conflict internally, + this hook allows it to do that. Note however + that two *requests* can still be merged at later + time. Currently the io scheduler has no way to + prevent that. It can only learn about the fact + from elevator_merge_req_fn callback. + +elevator_dispatch_fn* fills the dispatch queue with ready requests. + I/O schedulers are free to postpone requests by + not filling the dispatch queue unless @force + is non-zero. Once dispatched, I/O schedulers + are not allowed to manipulate the requests - + they belong to generic dispatch queue. + +elevator_add_req_fn* called to add a new request into the scheduler + +elevator_former_req_fn +elevator_latter_req_fn These return the request before or after the + one specified in disk sort order. Used by the + block layer to find merge possibilities. + +elevator_completed_req_fn called when a request is completed. + +elevator_set_req_fn +elevator_put_req_fn Must be used to allocate and free any elevator + specific storage for a request. + +elevator_activate_req_fn Called when device driver first sees a request. + I/O schedulers can use this callback to + determine when actual execution of a request + starts. +elevator_deactivate_req_fn Called when device driver decides to delay + a request by requeueing it. + +elevator_init_fn* +elevator_exit_fn Allocate and free any elevator specific storage + for a queue. +=============================== ================================================ + +4.2 Request flows seen by I/O schedulers +---------------------------------------- + +All requests seen by I/O schedulers strictly follow one of the following three +flows. + + set_req_fn -> + + i. add_req_fn -> (merged_fn ->)* -> dispatch_fn -> activate_req_fn -> + (deactivate_req_fn -> activate_req_fn ->)* -> completed_req_fn + ii. add_req_fn -> (merged_fn ->)* -> merge_req_fn + iii. [none] + + -> put_req_fn + +4.3 I/O scheduler implementation +-------------------------------- + +The generic i/o scheduler algorithm attempts to sort/merge/batch requests for +optimal disk scan and request servicing performance (based on generic +principles and device capabilities), optimized for: + +i. improved throughput +ii. improved latency +iii. better utilization of h/w & CPU time + +Characteristics: + +i. Binary tree +AS and deadline i/o schedulers use red black binary trees for disk position +sorting and searching, and a fifo linked list for time-based searching. This +gives good scalability and good availability of information. Requests are +almost always dispatched in disk sort order, so a cache is kept of the next +request in sort order to prevent binary tree lookups. + +This arrangement is not a generic block layer characteristic however, so +elevators may implement queues as they please. + +ii. Merge hash +AS and deadline use a hash table indexed by the last sector of a request. This +enables merging code to quickly look up "back merge" candidates, even when +multiple I/O streams are being performed at once on one disk. + +"Front merges", a new request being merged at the front of an existing request, +are far less common than "back merges" due to the nature of most I/O patterns. +Front merges are handled by the binary trees in AS and deadline schedulers. + +iii. Plugging the queue to batch requests in anticipation of opportunities for + merge/sort optimizations + +Plugging is an approach that the current i/o scheduling algorithm resorts to so +that it collects up enough requests in the queue to be able to take +advantage of the sorting/merging logic in the elevator. If the +queue is empty when a request comes in, then it plugs the request queue +(sort of like plugging the bath tub of a vessel to get fluid to build up) +till it fills up with a few more requests, before starting to service +the requests. This provides an opportunity to merge/sort the requests before +passing them down to the device. There are various conditions when the queue is +unplugged (to open up the flow again), either through a scheduled task or +could be on demand. For example wait_on_buffer sets the unplugging going +through sync_buffer() running blk_run_address_space(mapping). Or the caller +can do it explicity through blk_unplug(bdev). So in the read case, +the queue gets explicitly unplugged as part of waiting for completion on that +buffer. + +Aside: + This is kind of controversial territory, as it's not clear if plugging is + always the right thing to do. Devices typically have their own queues, + and allowing a big queue to build up in software, while letting the device be + idle for a while may not always make sense. The trick is to handle the fine + balance between when to plug and when to open up. Also now that we have + multi-page bios being queued in one shot, we may not need to wait to merge + a big request from the broken up pieces coming by. + +4.4 I/O contexts +---------------- + +I/O contexts provide a dynamically allocated per process data area. They may +be used in I/O schedulers, and in the block layer (could be used for IO statis, +priorities for example). See `*io_context` in block/ll_rw_blk.c, and as-iosched.c +for an example of usage in an i/o scheduler. + + +5. Scalability related changes +============================== + +5.1 Granular Locking: io_request_lock replaced by a per-queue lock +------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The global io_request_lock has been removed as of 2.5, to avoid +the scalability bottleneck it was causing, and has been replaced by more +granular locking. The request queue structure has a pointer to the +lock to be used for that queue. As a result, locking can now be +per-queue, with a provision for sharing a lock across queues if +necessary (e.g the scsi layer sets the queue lock pointers to the +corresponding adapter lock, which results in a per host locking +granularity). The locking semantics are the same, i.e. locking is +still imposed by the block layer, grabbing the lock before +request_fn execution which it means that lots of older drivers +should still be SMP safe. Drivers are free to drop the queue +lock themselves, if required. Drivers that explicitly used the +io_request_lock for serialization need to be modified accordingly. +Usually it's as easy as adding a global lock:: + + static DEFINE_SPINLOCK(my_driver_lock); + +and passing the address to that lock to blk_init_queue(). + +5.2 64 bit sector numbers (sector_t prepares for 64 bit support) +---------------------------------------------------------------- + +The sector number used in the bio structure has been changed to sector_t, +which could be defined as 64 bit in preparation for 64 bit sector support. + +6. Other Changes/Implications +============================= + +6.1 Partition re-mapping handled by the generic block layer +----------------------------------------------------------- + +In 2.5 some of the gendisk/partition related code has been reorganized. +Now the generic block layer performs partition-remapping early and thus +provides drivers with a sector number relative to whole device, rather than +having to take partition number into account in order to arrive at the true +sector number. The routine blk_partition_remap() is invoked by +submit_bio_noacct even before invoking the queue specific ->submit_bio, +so the i/o scheduler also gets to operate on whole disk sector numbers. This +should typically not require changes to block drivers, it just never gets +to invoke its own partition sector offset calculations since all bios +sent are offset from the beginning of the device. + + +7. A Few Tips on Migration of older drivers +=========================================== + +Old-style drivers that just use CURRENT and ignores clustered requests, +may not need much change. The generic layer will automatically handle +clustered requests, multi-page bios, etc for the driver. + +For a low performance driver or hardware that is PIO driven or just doesn't +support scatter-gather changes should be minimal too. + +The following are some points to keep in mind when converting old drivers +to bio. + +Drivers should use elv_next_request to pick up requests and are no longer +supposed to handle looping directly over the request list. +(struct request->queue has been removed) + +Now end_that_request_first takes an additional number_of_sectors argument. +It used to handle always just the first buffer_head in a request, now +it will loop and handle as many sectors (on a bio-segment granularity) +as specified. + +Now bh->b_end_io is replaced by bio->bi_end_io, but most of the time the +right thing to use is bio_endio(bio) instead. + +If the driver is dropping the io_request_lock from its request_fn strategy, +then it just needs to replace that with q->queue_lock instead. + +As described in Sec 1.1, drivers can set max sector size, max segment size +etc per queue now. Drivers that used to define their own merge functions i +to handle things like this can now just use the blk_queue_* functions at +blk_init_queue time. + +Drivers no longer have to map a {partition, sector offset} into the +correct absolute location anymore, this is done by the block layer, so +where a driver received a request ala this before:: + + rq->rq_dev = mk_kdev(3, 5); /* /dev/hda5 */ + rq->sector = 0; /* first sector on hda5 */ + +it will now see:: + + rq->rq_dev = mk_kdev(3, 0); /* /dev/hda */ + rq->sector = 123128; /* offset from start of disk */ + +As mentioned, there is no virtual mapping of a bio. For DMA, this is +not a problem as the driver probably never will need a virtual mapping. +Instead it needs a bus mapping (dma_map_page for a single segment or +use dma_map_sg for scatter gather) to be able to ship it to the driver. For +PIO drivers (or drivers that need to revert to PIO transfer once in a +while (IDE for example)), where the CPU is doing the actual data +transfer a virtual mapping is needed. If the driver supports highmem I/O, +(Sec 1.1, (ii) ) it needs to use kmap_atomic or similar to temporarily map +a bio into the virtual address space. + + +8. Prior/Related/Impacted patches +================================= + +8.1. Earlier kiobuf patches (sct/axboe/chait/hch/mkp) +----------------------------------------------------- + +- orig kiobuf & raw i/o patches (now in 2.4 tree) +- direct kiobuf based i/o to devices (no intermediate bh's) +- page i/o using kiobuf +- kiobuf splitting for lvm (mkp) +- elevator support for kiobuf request merging (axboe) + +8.2. Zero-copy networking (Dave Miller) +--------------------------------------- + +8.3. SGI XFS - pagebuf patches - use of kiobufs +----------------------------------------------- +8.4. Multi-page pioent patch for bio (Christoph Hellwig) +-------------------------------------------------------- +8.5. Direct i/o implementation (Andrea Arcangeli) since 2.4.10-pre11 +-------------------------------------------------------------------- +8.6. Async i/o implementation patch (Ben LaHaise) +------------------------------------------------- +8.7. EVMS layering design (IBM EVMS team) +----------------------------------------- +8.8. Larger page cache size patch (Ben LaHaise) and Large page size (Daniel Phillips) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- + + => larger contiguous physical memory buffers + +8.9. VM reservations patch (Ben LaHaise) +---------------------------------------- +8.10. Write clustering patches ? (Marcelo/Quintela/Riel ?) +---------------------------------------------------------- +8.11. Block device in page cache patch (Andrea Archangeli) - now in 2.4.10+ +--------------------------------------------------------------------------- +8.12. Multiple block-size transfers for faster raw i/o (Shailabh Nagar, Badari) +------------------------------------------------------------------------------- +8.13 Priority based i/o scheduler - prepatches (Arjan van de Ven) +------------------------------------------------------------------ +8.14 IDE Taskfile i/o patch (Andre Hedrick) +-------------------------------------------- +8.15 Multi-page writeout and readahead patches (Andrew Morton) +--------------------------------------------------------------- +8.16 Direct i/o patches for 2.5 using kvec and bio (Badari Pulavarthy) +----------------------------------------------------------------------- + +9. Other References +=================== + +9.1 The Splice I/O Model +------------------------ + +Larry McVoy (and subsequent discussions on lkml, and Linus' comments - Jan 2001 + +9.2 Discussions about kiobuf and bh design +------------------------------------------ + +On lkml between sct, linus, alan et al - Feb-March 2001 (many of the +initial thoughts that led to bio were brought up in this discussion thread) + +9.3 Discussions on mempool on lkml - Dec 2001. +---------------------------------------------- |