These changes appear to give us benefits with both small (32MB) and

large (1G) memory machine configurations.  I was able to run 'dbench 32'
on a 32MB system without bring the machine to a grinding halt.

    * buffer cache hash table now dynamically allocated.  This will
      have no effect on memory consumption for smaller systems and
      will help scale the buffer cache for larger systems.

    * minor enhancement to pmap_clearbit().  I noticed that
      all the calls to it used constant arguments.  Making
      it an inline allows the constants to propogate to
      deeper inlines and should produce better code.

    * removal of inherent vfs_ioopt support through the emplacement
      of appropriate #ifdef's, with John's permission.  If we do not
      find a use for it by the end of the year we will remove it entirely.

    * removal of getnewbufloops* counters & sysctl's - no longer
      necessary for debugging, getnewbuf() is now optimal.

    * buffer hash table functions removed from sys/buf.h and localized
      to vfs_bio.c

    * VFS_BIO_NEED_DIRTYFLUSH flag and support code added
      ( bwillwrite() ), allowing processes to block when too many dirty
      buffers are present in the system.

    * removal of a softdep test in bdwrite() that is no longer necessary
      now that bdwrite() no longer attempts to flush dirty buffers.

    * slight optimization added to bqrelse() - there is no reason
      to test for available buffer space on B_DELWRI buffers.

    * addition of reverse-scanning code to vfs_bio_awrite().
      vfs_bio_awrite() will attempt to locate clusterable areas
      in both the forward and reverse direction relative to the
      offset of the buffer passed to it.  This will probably not
      make much of a difference now, but I believe we will start
      to rely on it heavily in the future if we decide to shift
      some of the burden of the clustering closer to the actual
      I/O initiation.

    * Removal of the newbufcnt and lastnewbuf counters that Kirk
      added.  They do not fix any race conditions that haven't already
      been fixed by the gbincore() test done after the only call
      to getnewbuf().  getnewbuf() is a static, so there is no chance
      of it being misused by other modules.  ( Unless Kirk can think
      of a specific thing that this code fixes.  I went through it
      very carefully and didn't see anything ).

    * removal of VOP_ISLOCKED() check in flushbufqueues().  I do not
      think this check is necessary, the buffer should flush properly
      whether the vnode is locked or not. ( yes? ).

    * removal of extra arguments passed to getnewbuf() that are not
      necessary.

    * missed cluster_wbuild() that had to be a cluster_wbuild_wb() in
      vfs_cluster.c

    * vn_write() now calls bwillwrite() *PRIOR* to locking the vnode,
      which should greatly aid flushing operations in heavy load
      situations - both the pageout and update daemons will be able
      to operate more efficiently.

    * removal of b_usecount.  We may add it back in later but for now
      it is useless.  Prior implementations of the buffer cache never
      had enough buffers for it to be useful, and current implementations
      which make more buffers available might not benefit relative to
      the amount of sophistication required to implement a b_usecount.
      Straight LRU should work just as well, especially when most things
      are VMIO backed.  I expect that (even though John will not like
      this assumption) directories will become VMIO backed some point soon.

Submitted by:	Matthew Dillon <dillon@backplane.com>
Reviewed by:	Kirk McKusick <mckusick@mckusick.com>

1 files changed, 4 insertions, 14 deletions

diff --git a/sys/sys/bio.h b/sys/sys/bio.h
index e6d23d8..87043e3 100644
--- a/sys/sys/bio.h
+++ b/sys/sys/bio.h
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@
  * SUCH DAMAGE.
  *
  *	@(#)buf.h	8.9 (Berkeley) 3/30/95
- * $Id: buf.h,v 1.74 1999/06/29 05:59:47 peter Exp $
+ * $Id: buf.h,v 1.75 1999/07/04 00:25:32 mckusick Exp $
  */
 
 #ifndef _SYS_BUF_H_
@@ -100,7 +100,7 @@ struct buf {
 	TAILQ_ENTRY(buf) b_act;		/* Device driver queue when active. *new* */
 	long	b_flags;		/* B_* flags. */
 	unsigned short b_qindex;	/* buffer queue index */
-	unsigned char b_usecount;	/* buffer use count */
+	unsigned char b_unused1;	/* unused field */
 	unsigned char b_xflags;		/* extra flags */
 	struct lock b_lock;		/* Buffer lock */
 	int	b_error;		/* Errno value. */
@@ -410,18 +410,6 @@ bufq_first(struct buf_queue_head *head)
 
 #endif /* KERNEL */
 
-
-/*
- * number of buffer hash entries
- */
-#define BUFHSZ 512
-
-/*
- * buffer hash table calculation, originally by David Greenman
- */
-#define BUFHASH(vnp, bn)        \
-	(&bufhashtbl[(((uintptr_t)(vnp) >> 7)+(int)(bn)) % BUFHSZ])
-
 /*
  * Definitions for the buffer free lists.
  */
@@ -458,7 +446,9 @@ extern TAILQ_HEAD(bqueues, buf) bufqueues[BUFFER_QUEUES];
 
 struct uio;
 
+vm_offset_t bufhashinit __P((vm_offset_t));
 void	bufinit __P((void));
+void	bwillwrite __P((void));
 void	bremfree __P((struct buf *));
 int	bread __P((struct vnode *, daddr_t, int,
 	    struct ucred *, struct buf **));