As we have attempted before
(https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/qemu-devel/2019-01/msg06451.html,
"file-posix: Cache lseek result for data regions";
https://lists.nongnu.org/archive/html/qemu-block/2021-02/msg00934.html,
"file-posix: Cache next hole"), this patch seeks to reduce the number of
SEEK_DATA/HOLE operations the file-posix driver has to perform. The
main difference is that this time it is implemented as part of the
general block layer code.
The problem we face is that on some filesystems or in some
circumstances, SEEK_DATA/HOLE is unreasonably slow. Given the
implementation is outside of qemu, there is little we can do about its
performance.
We have already introduced the want_zero parameter to
bdrv_co_block_status() to reduce the number of SEEK_DATA/HOLE calls
unless we really want zero information; but sometimes we do want that
information, because for files that consist largely of zero areas,
special-casing those areas can give large performance boosts. So the
real problem is with files that consist largely of data, so that
inquiring the block status does not gain us much performance, but where
such an inquiry itself takes a lot of time.
To address this, we want to cache data regions. Most of the time, when
bad performance is reported, it is in places where the image is iterated
over from start to end (qemu-img convert or the mirror job), so a simple
yet effective solution is to cache only the current data region.
(Note that only caching data regions but not zero regions means that
returning false information from the cache is not catastrophic: Treating
zeroes as data is fine. While we try to invalidate the cache on zero
writes and discards, such incongruences may still occur when there are
other processes writing to the image.)
We only use the cache for nodes without children (i.e. protocol nodes),
because that is where the problem is: Drivers that rely on block-status
implementations outside of qemu (e.g. SEEK_DATA/HOLE).
Resolves: https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/issues/307
Signed-off-by: Hanna Reitz <hreitz@redhat.com>
---
include/block/block_int.h | 50 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ /*
+ * Note that checking QLIST_EMPTY(&bs->children) is also done when
+ * the cache is queried above. Technically, we do not need to
check
+ * it here; the worst that can happen is that we fill the cache for
+ * non-protocol nodes, and then it is never used. However, filling
+ * the cache requires an RCU update, so double check here to avoid
+ * such an update if possible.
+ */
+ if (ret == (BDRV_BLOCK_DATA | BDRV_BLOCK_OFFSET_VALID) &&
+ QLIST_EMPTY(&bs->children))
+ {
+ /*
+ * When a protocol driver reports BLOCK_OFFSET_VALID, the
+ * returned local_map value must be the same as the offset we
+ * have passed (aligned_offset).
+ * Assert this, because we follow this rule when reading from
+ * the cache (see the `local_map = aligned_offset` assignment
+ * above), and the result the cache delivers must be the same
+ * as the driver would deliver.
+ */
+ assert(local_map == aligned_offset);