Linux kernel source tree
Go to file
Ryan Roberts 18ebe55a92 mm/readahead: terminate async readahead on natural boundary
Previously asynchonous readahead would read ra_pages (usually 128K)
directly after the end of the synchonous readahead and given the
synchronous readahead portion had no alignment guarantees (beyond page
boundaries) it is possible (and likely) that the end of the initial 128K
region would not fall on a natural boundary for the folio size being used.
Therefore smaller folios were used to align down to the required
boundary, both at the end of the previous readahead block and at the start
of the new one.

In the worst cases, this can result in never properly ramping up the folio
size, and instead getting stuck oscillating between order-0, -1 and -2
folios.  The next readahead will try to use folios whose order is +2
bigger than the folio that had the readahead marker.  But because of the
alignment requirements, that folio (the first one in the readahead block)
can end up being order-0 in some cases.

There will be 2 modifications to solve this issue:

1) Calculate the readahead size so the end is aligned to a folio
   boundary. This prevents needing to allocate small folios to align
   down at the end of the window and fixes the oscillation problem.

2) Remember the "preferred folio order" in the ra state instead of
   inferring it from the folio with the readahead marker. This solves
   the slow ramp up problem (discussed in a subsequent patch).

This patch addresses (1) only. A subsequent patch will address (2).

Worked example:

The following shows the previous pathalogical behaviour when the initial
synchronous readahead is unaligned.  We start reading at page 17 in the
file and read sequentially from there.  I'm showing a dump of the pages in
the page cache just after we read the first page of the folio with the
readahead marker.

Initially there are no pages in the page cache:

TYPE    STARTOFFS     ENDOFFS        SIZE  STARTPG    ENDPG   NRPG  ORDER  RA
-----  ----------  ----------  ----------  -------  -------  -----  -----  --
HOLE   0x00000000  0x00800000     8388608        0     2048   2048

Then we access page 17, causing synchonous read-around of 128K with a
readahead marker set up at page 25. So far, all as expected:

TYPE    STARTOFFS     ENDOFFS        SIZE  STARTPG    ENDPG   NRPG  ORDER  RA
-----  ----------  ----------  ----------  -------  -------  -----  -----  --
HOLE   0x00000000  0x00001000        4096        0        1      1
FOLIO  0x00001000  0x00002000        4096        1        2      1      0
FOLIO  0x00002000  0x00003000        4096        2        3      1      0
FOLIO  0x00003000  0x00004000        4096        3        4      1      0
FOLIO  0x00004000  0x00005000        4096        4        5      1      0
FOLIO  0x00005000  0x00006000        4096        5        6      1      0
FOLIO  0x00006000  0x00007000        4096        6        7      1      0
FOLIO  0x00007000  0x00008000        4096        7        8      1      0
FOLIO  0x00008000  0x00009000        4096        8        9      1      0
FOLIO  0x00009000  0x0000a000        4096        9       10      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000a000  0x0000b000        4096       10       11      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000b000  0x0000c000        4096       11       12      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000c000  0x0000d000        4096       12       13      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000d000  0x0000e000        4096       13       14      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000e000  0x0000f000        4096       14       15      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000f000  0x00010000        4096       15       16      1      0
FOLIO  0x00010000  0x00011000        4096       16       17      1      0
FOLIO  0x00011000  0x00012000        4096       17       18      1      0
FOLIO  0x00012000  0x00013000        4096       18       19      1      0
FOLIO  0x00013000  0x00014000        4096       19       20      1      0
FOLIO  0x00014000  0x00015000        4096       20       21      1      0
FOLIO  0x00015000  0x00016000        4096       21       22      1      0
FOLIO  0x00016000  0x00017000        4096       22       23      1      0
FOLIO  0x00017000  0x00018000        4096       23       24      1      0
FOLIO  0x00018000  0x00019000        4096       24       25      1      0
FOLIO  0x00019000  0x0001a000        4096       25       26      1      0  Y
FOLIO  0x0001a000  0x0001b000        4096       26       27      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001b000  0x0001c000        4096       27       28      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001c000  0x0001d000        4096       28       29      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001d000  0x0001e000        4096       29       30      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001e000  0x0001f000        4096       30       31      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001f000  0x00020000        4096       31       32      1      0
FOLIO  0x00020000  0x00021000        4096       32       33      1      0
HOLE   0x00021000  0x00800000     8253440       33     2048   2015

Now access pages 18-25 inclusive.  This causes an asynchronous 128K
readahead starting at page 33.  But since we are unaligned, even though
the preferred folio order is 2, the first folio in this batch (the one
with the new readahead marker) is order-0:

TYPE    STARTOFFS     ENDOFFS        SIZE  STARTPG    ENDPG   NRPG  ORDER  RA
-----  ----------  ----------  ----------  -------  -------  -----  -----  --
HOLE   0x00000000  0x00001000        4096        0        1      1
FOLIO  0x00001000  0x00002000        4096        1        2      1      0
FOLIO  0x00002000  0x00003000        4096        2        3      1      0
FOLIO  0x00003000  0x00004000        4096        3        4      1      0
FOLIO  0x00004000  0x00005000        4096        4        5      1      0
FOLIO  0x00005000  0x00006000        4096        5        6      1      0
FOLIO  0x00006000  0x00007000        4096        6        7      1      0
FOLIO  0x00007000  0x00008000        4096        7        8      1      0
FOLIO  0x00008000  0x00009000        4096        8        9      1      0
FOLIO  0x00009000  0x0000a000        4096        9       10      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000a000  0x0000b000        4096       10       11      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000b000  0x0000c000        4096       11       12      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000c000  0x0000d000        4096       12       13      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000d000  0x0000e000        4096       13       14      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000e000  0x0000f000        4096       14       15      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000f000  0x00010000        4096       15       16      1      0
FOLIO  0x00010000  0x00011000        4096       16       17      1      0
FOLIO  0x00011000  0x00012000        4096       17       18      1      0
FOLIO  0x00012000  0x00013000        4096       18       19      1      0
FOLIO  0x00013000  0x00014000        4096       19       20      1      0
FOLIO  0x00014000  0x00015000        4096       20       21      1      0
FOLIO  0x00015000  0x00016000        4096       21       22      1      0
FOLIO  0x00016000  0x00017000        4096       22       23      1      0
FOLIO  0x00017000  0x00018000        4096       23       24      1      0
FOLIO  0x00018000  0x00019000        4096       24       25      1      0
FOLIO  0x00019000  0x0001a000        4096       25       26      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001a000  0x0001b000        4096       26       27      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001b000  0x0001c000        4096       27       28      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001c000  0x0001d000        4096       28       29      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001d000  0x0001e000        4096       29       30      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001e000  0x0001f000        4096       30       31      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001f000  0x00020000        4096       31       32      1      0
FOLIO  0x00020000  0x00021000        4096       32       33      1      0
FOLIO  0x00021000  0x00022000        4096       33       34      1      0  Y
FOLIO  0x00022000  0x00024000        8192       34       36      2      1
FOLIO  0x00024000  0x00028000       16384       36       40      4      2
FOLIO  0x00028000  0x0002c000       16384       40       44      4      2
FOLIO  0x0002c000  0x00030000       16384       44       48      4      2
FOLIO  0x00030000  0x00034000       16384       48       52      4      2
FOLIO  0x00034000  0x00038000       16384       52       56      4      2
FOLIO  0x00038000  0x0003c000       16384       56       60      4      2
FOLIO  0x0003c000  0x00040000       16384       60       64      4      2
FOLIO  0x00040000  0x00041000        4096       64       65      1      0
HOLE   0x00041000  0x00800000     8122368       65     2048   1983

Which means that when we now read pages 26-33 and readahead is kicked off
again, the new preferred order is 2 (0 + 2), not 4 as we intended:

TYPE    STARTOFFS     ENDOFFS        SIZE  STARTPG    ENDPG   NRPG  ORDER  RA
-----  ----------  ----------  ----------  -------  -------  -----  -----  --
HOLE   0x00000000  0x00001000        4096        0        1      1
FOLIO  0x00001000  0x00002000        4096        1        2      1      0
FOLIO  0x00002000  0x00003000        4096        2        3      1      0
FOLIO  0x00003000  0x00004000        4096        3        4      1      0
FOLIO  0x00004000  0x00005000        4096        4        5      1      0
FOLIO  0x00005000  0x00006000        4096        5        6      1      0
FOLIO  0x00006000  0x00007000        4096        6        7      1      0
FOLIO  0x00007000  0x00008000        4096        7        8      1      0
FOLIO  0x00008000  0x00009000        4096        8        9      1      0
FOLIO  0x00009000  0x0000a000        4096        9       10      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000a000  0x0000b000        4096       10       11      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000b000  0x0000c000        4096       11       12      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000c000  0x0000d000        4096       12       13      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000d000  0x0000e000        4096       13       14      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000e000  0x0000f000        4096       14       15      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000f000  0x00010000        4096       15       16      1      0
FOLIO  0x00010000  0x00011000        4096       16       17      1      0
FOLIO  0x00011000  0x00012000        4096       17       18      1      0
FOLIO  0x00012000  0x00013000        4096       18       19      1      0
FOLIO  0x00013000  0x00014000        4096       19       20      1      0
FOLIO  0x00014000  0x00015000        4096       20       21      1      0
FOLIO  0x00015000  0x00016000        4096       21       22      1      0
FOLIO  0x00016000  0x00017000        4096       22       23      1      0
FOLIO  0x00017000  0x00018000        4096       23       24      1      0
FOLIO  0x00018000  0x00019000        4096       24       25      1      0
FOLIO  0x00019000  0x0001a000        4096       25       26      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001a000  0x0001b000        4096       26       27      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001b000  0x0001c000        4096       27       28      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001c000  0x0001d000        4096       28       29      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001d000  0x0001e000        4096       29       30      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001e000  0x0001f000        4096       30       31      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001f000  0x00020000        4096       31       32      1      0
FOLIO  0x00020000  0x00021000        4096       32       33      1      0
FOLIO  0x00021000  0x00022000        4096       33       34      1      0
FOLIO  0x00022000  0x00024000        8192       34       36      2      1
FOLIO  0x00024000  0x00028000       16384       36       40      4      2
FOLIO  0x00028000  0x0002c000       16384       40       44      4      2
FOLIO  0x0002c000  0x00030000       16384       44       48      4      2
FOLIO  0x00030000  0x00034000       16384       48       52      4      2
FOLIO  0x00034000  0x00038000       16384       52       56      4      2
FOLIO  0x00038000  0x0003c000       16384       56       60      4      2
FOLIO  0x0003c000  0x00040000       16384       60       64      4      2
FOLIO  0x00040000  0x00041000        4096       64       65      1      0
FOLIO  0x00041000  0x00042000        4096       65       66      1      0  Y
FOLIO  0x00042000  0x00044000        8192       66       68      2      1
FOLIO  0x00044000  0x00048000       16384       68       72      4      2
FOLIO  0x00048000  0x0004c000       16384       72       76      4      2
FOLIO  0x0004c000  0x00050000       16384       76       80      4      2
FOLIO  0x00050000  0x00054000       16384       80       84      4      2
FOLIO  0x00054000  0x00058000       16384       84       88      4      2
FOLIO  0x00058000  0x0005c000       16384       88       92      4      2
FOLIO  0x0005c000  0x00060000       16384       92       96      4      2
FOLIO  0x00060000  0x00061000        4096       96       97      1      0
HOLE   0x00061000  0x00800000     7991296       97     2048   1951

This ramp up from order-0 with smaller orders at the edges for alignment
cycle continues all the way to the end of the file (not shown).

After the change, we round down the end boundary to the order boundary so
we no longer get stuck in the cycle and can ramp up the order over time. 
Note that the rate of the ramp up is still not as we would expect it.  We
will fix that next.  Here we are touching pages 17-256 sequentially:

TYPE    STARTOFFS     ENDOFFS        SIZE  STARTPG    ENDPG   NRPG  ORDER  RA
-----  ----------  ----------  ----------  -------  -------  -----  -----  --
HOLE   0x00000000  0x00001000        4096        0        1      1
FOLIO  0x00001000  0x00002000        4096        1        2      1      0
FOLIO  0x00002000  0x00003000        4096        2        3      1      0
FOLIO  0x00003000  0x00004000        4096        3        4      1      0
FOLIO  0x00004000  0x00005000        4096        4        5      1      0
FOLIO  0x00005000  0x00006000        4096        5        6      1      0
FOLIO  0x00006000  0x00007000        4096        6        7      1      0
FOLIO  0x00007000  0x00008000        4096        7        8      1      0
FOLIO  0x00008000  0x00009000        4096        8        9      1      0
FOLIO  0x00009000  0x0000a000        4096        9       10      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000a000  0x0000b000        4096       10       11      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000b000  0x0000c000        4096       11       12      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000c000  0x0000d000        4096       12       13      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000d000  0x0000e000        4096       13       14      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000e000  0x0000f000        4096       14       15      1      0
FOLIO  0x0000f000  0x00010000        4096       15       16      1      0
FOLIO  0x00010000  0x00011000        4096       16       17      1      0
FOLIO  0x00011000  0x00012000        4096       17       18      1      0
FOLIO  0x00012000  0x00013000        4096       18       19      1      0
FOLIO  0x00013000  0x00014000        4096       19       20      1      0
FOLIO  0x00014000  0x00015000        4096       20       21      1      0
FOLIO  0x00015000  0x00016000        4096       21       22      1      0
FOLIO  0x00016000  0x00017000        4096       22       23      1      0
FOLIO  0x00017000  0x00018000        4096       23       24      1      0
FOLIO  0x00018000  0x00019000        4096       24       25      1      0
FOLIO  0x00019000  0x0001a000        4096       25       26      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001a000  0x0001b000        4096       26       27      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001b000  0x0001c000        4096       27       28      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001c000  0x0001d000        4096       28       29      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001d000  0x0001e000        4096       29       30      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001e000  0x0001f000        4096       30       31      1      0
FOLIO  0x0001f000  0x00020000        4096       31       32      1      0
FOLIO  0x00020000  0x00021000        4096       32       33      1      0
FOLIO  0x00021000  0x00022000        4096       33       34      1      0
FOLIO  0x00022000  0x00024000        8192       34       36      2      1
FOLIO  0x00024000  0x00028000       16384       36       40      4      2
FOLIO  0x00028000  0x0002c000       16384       40       44      4      2
FOLIO  0x0002c000  0x00030000       16384       44       48      4      2
FOLIO  0x00030000  0x00034000       16384       48       52      4      2
FOLIO  0x00034000  0x00038000       16384       52       56      4      2
FOLIO  0x00038000  0x0003c000       16384       56       60      4      2
FOLIO  0x0003c000  0x00040000       16384       60       64      4      2
FOLIO  0x00040000  0x00044000       16384       64       68      4      2
FOLIO  0x00044000  0x00048000       16384       68       72      4      2
FOLIO  0x00048000  0x0004c000       16384       72       76      4      2
FOLIO  0x0004c000  0x00050000       16384       76       80      4      2
FOLIO  0x00050000  0x00054000       16384       80       84      4      2
FOLIO  0x00054000  0x00058000       16384       84       88      4      2
FOLIO  0x00058000  0x0005c000       16384       88       92      4      2
FOLIO  0x0005c000  0x00060000       16384       92       96      4      2
FOLIO  0x00060000  0x00070000       65536       96      112     16      4
FOLIO  0x00070000  0x00080000       65536      112      128     16      4
FOLIO  0x00080000  0x000a0000      131072      128      160     32      5
FOLIO  0x000a0000  0x000c0000      131072      160      192     32      5
FOLIO  0x000c0000  0x000e0000      131072      192      224     32      5
FOLIO  0x000e0000  0x00100000      131072      224      256     32      5
FOLIO  0x00100000  0x00120000      131072      256      288     32      5
FOLIO  0x00120000  0x00140000      131072      288      320     32      5  Y
HOLE   0x00140000  0x00800000     7077888      320     2048   1728

Link: https://lkml.kernel.org/r/20250609092729.274960-3-ryan.roberts@arm.com
Signed-off-by: Ryan Roberts <ryan.roberts@arm.com>
Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@suse.cz>
Cc: Chaitanya S Prakash <chaitanyas.prakash@arm.com>
Cc: David Hildenbrand <david@redhat.com>
Cc: Will Deacon <will@kernel.org>
Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org>
2025-07-09 22:42:02 -07:00
arch drivers/base/node: rename __register_one_node() to register_one_node() 2025-07-09 22:42:00 -07:00
block block-6.16-20250626 2025-06-27 09:02:33 -07:00
certs sign-file,extract-cert: use pkcs11 provider for OPENSSL MAJOR >= 3 2024-09-20 19:52:48 +03:00
crypto crypto: wp512 - Use API partial block handling 2025-06-23 16:56:56 +08:00
Documentation Docs/admin-guide/mm/damon: add DAMON_STAT usage document 2025-07-09 22:41:56 -07:00
drivers drivers/base/node: rename __register_one_node() to register_one_node() 2025-07-09 22:42:00 -07:00
fs proc: use the same treatment to check proc_lseek as ones for proc_read_iter et.al 2025-07-09 22:42:01 -07:00
include proc: use the same treatment to check proc_lseek as ones for proc_read_iter et.al 2025-07-09 22:42:01 -07:00
init futex: Temporary disable FUTEX_PRIVATE_HASH 2025-07-01 15:02:05 +02:00
io_uring io_uring-6.16-20250630 2025-06-30 16:32:43 -07:00
ipc - The 3 patch series "hung_task: extend blocking task stacktrace dump to 2025-05-31 19:12:53 -07:00
kernel - Fix the calculation of the deadline server task's runtime as this mishap was 2025-07-06 11:17:47 -07:00
lib xarray: add a BUG_ON() to ensure caller is not sibling 2025-07-09 22:42:02 -07:00
LICENSES LICENSES: add CC0-1.0 license text 2025-05-21 14:54:17 +02:00
mm mm/readahead: terminate async readahead on natural boundary 2025-07-09 22:42:02 -07:00
net Including fixes from Bluetooth. 2025-07-03 09:18:55 -07:00
rust Driver core fixes for 6.16-rc3 2025-06-18 14:31:16 -07:00
samples - The 3 patch series "hung_task: extend blocking task stacktrace dump to 2025-05-31 19:12:53 -07:00
scripts scripts/gdb: fix dentry_name() lookup 2025-06-25 15:55:03 -07:00
security selinux: change security_compute_sid to return the ssid or tsid on match 2025-06-19 16:13:16 -04:00
sound ALSA: hda/realtek: Fix built-in mic on ASUS VivoBook X507UAR 2025-06-26 08:02:44 +02:00
tools tools/testing/selftests: add VMA merge tests for KSM merge 2025-07-09 22:41:54 -07:00
usr usr/include: openrisc: don't HDRTEST bpf_perf_event.h 2025-05-12 15:03:17 +09:00
virt Merge branch 'kvm-lockdep-common' into HEAD 2025-05-28 06:29:17 -04:00
.clang-format Linux 6.15-rc5 2025-05-06 16:39:25 +10:00
.clippy.toml rust: clean Rust 1.88.0's warning about clippy::disallowed_macros configuration 2025-05-07 00:11:47 +02:00
.cocciconfig
.editorconfig .editorconfig: remove trim_trailing_whitespace option 2024-06-13 16:47:52 +02:00
.get_maintainer.ignore MAINTAINERS: Retire Ralf Baechle 2024-11-12 15:48:59 +01:00
.gitattributes .gitattributes: set diff driver for Rust source code files 2023-05-31 17:48:25 +02:00
.gitignore .gitignore: ignore Python compiled bytecode 2025-04-24 10:12:46 -06:00
.mailmap 16 hotfixes. 6 are cc:stable and the remainder address post-6.15 issues 2025-06-27 20:34:10 -07:00
.pylintrc docs: add a .pylintrc file with sys path for docs scripts 2025-04-09 12:10:33 -06:00
.rustfmt.toml rust: add .rustfmt.toml 2022-09-28 09:02:20 +02:00
COPYING COPYING: state that all contributions really are covered by this file 2020-02-10 13:32:20 -08:00
CREDITS CREDITS: Add entry for Shannon Nelson 2025-06-21 07:34:28 -07:00
Kbuild drm: ensure drm headers are self-contained and pass kernel-doc 2025-02-12 10:44:43 +02:00
Kconfig io_uring: Rename KConfig to Kconfig 2025-02-19 14:53:27 -07:00
MAINTAINERS tools/mm: add script to display page state for a given PID and VADDR 2025-07-09 22:41:53 -07:00
Makefile Linux 6.16-rc5 2025-07-06 14:10:26 -07:00
README README: Fix spelling 2024-03-18 03:36:32 -06:00

Linux kernel
============

There are several guides for kernel developers and users. These guides can
be rendered in a number of formats, like HTML and PDF. Please read
Documentation/admin-guide/README.rst first.

In order to build the documentation, use ``make htmldocs`` or
``make pdfdocs``.  The formatted documentation can also be read online at:

    https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/

There are various text files in the Documentation/ subdirectory,
several of them using the reStructuredText markup notation.

Please read the Documentation/process/changes.rst file, as it contains the
requirements for building and running the kernel, and information about
the problems which may result by upgrading your kernel.