From: Rusty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
To: Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com>
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org,
Wanlong Gao <gaowanlong@cn.fujitsu.com>,
asias@redhat.com, mst@redhat.com, kvm@vger.kernel.org,
virtualization@lists.linux-foundation.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH 0/9] virtio: new API for addition of buffers, scatterlist changes
Date: Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:19:11 +1030 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <87ehgciw08.fsf@rustcorp.com.au> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <511CAD19.2010902@redhat.com>
Paolo Bonzini <pbonzini@redhat.com> writes:
>> virtio_ring: virtqueue_add_sgs, to add multiple sgs.
>>
>> virtio_scsi and virtio_blk can really use these, to avoid their current
>> hack of copying the whole sg array.
>>
>> Signed-off-by: Ruty Russell <rusty@rustcorp.com.au>
>
> It's much better than the other prototype you had posted, but I still
> dislike this... You pay for additional counting of scatterlists when
> the caller knows the number of buffers
Yes, but I like the API simplicity. We could use an array of sg_table,
which is what you have in virtio_scsi anyway, but I doubt it's
measurable on benchmarks.
> and the nested loops aren't free, either.
I think they'll win over multiple function calls :)
But modulo devastating benchmarks, this wins. Because the three-part
API is really, really ugly. It *looks* like a generic "start - work
... work - end" API, but it's not. Because you need to declare exactly
what you're doing in virtqueue_start_buf!
And that's OK, because noone wants a generic API like that.
> > + sg_unmark_end(sg + out + in);
> > + if (out && in)
> > + sg_unmark_end(sg + out);
>
> What's this second sg_unmark_end block for? Doesn't it access after the
> end of sg? If you wanted it to be sg_mark_end, that must be:
>
> if (out)
> sg_mark_end(sg + out - 1);
> if (in)
> sg_mark_end(sg + out + in - 1);
>
> with a corresponding unmark afterwards.
Thanks, I fixed that after I actually tested it :)
But as we clean them every time, we don't need to unmark:
/* Workaround until callers pass well-formed sgs. */
for (i = 0; i < out + in; i++)
sg_unmark_end(sg + i);
sg_mark_end(sg + out + in - 1);
if (out && in)
sg_mark_end(sg + out - 1);
return virtqueue_add_sgs(_vq, sgs, out ? 1 : 0, in ? 1 : 0, data, gfp);
This is a workaround until all callers fixed / replaced, of course.
> Another problem is that you cannot pass "truncated" scatterlists. You
> must ensure there is an end marker on the last item. I'm not sure if
> the kernel ensures that, given that for_each_sg takes explicitly the
> number of scatterlist elements; and it is not as trivial as
> "sg_mark_end(foo + nsg - 1);" if the upper layers hand you a chained
> scatterlist.
Makes you wonder why they have end markers at all. But yes, the block
layer does the right thing with end markers in blk_bio_map_sg(), which
seems to carry through.
Cheers,
Rusty.
PS. Patchbomb coming, lightly tested.
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2013-02-19 8:02 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 35+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2013-02-12 12:23 [PATCH 0/9] virtio: new API for addition of buffers, scatterlist changes Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 12:23 ` [PATCH 1/9] virtio: add functions for piecewise addition of buffers Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 14:56 ` Michael S. Tsirkin
2013-02-12 15:32 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 15:43 ` Michael S. Tsirkin
2013-02-12 15:48 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 16:13 ` Michael S. Tsirkin
2013-02-12 16:17 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 16:35 ` Michael S. Tsirkin
2013-02-12 16:57 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 17:34 ` Michael S. Tsirkin
2013-02-12 18:04 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 18:23 ` Michael S. Tsirkin
2013-02-12 20:08 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 20:49 ` Michael S. Tsirkin
2013-02-13 8:06 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-13 10:33 ` Michael S. Tsirkin
2013-02-12 18:03 ` [PATCH v2 " Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 12:23 ` [PATCH 2/9] virtio-blk: reorganize virtblk_add_req Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-17 6:38 ` Asias He
2013-02-12 12:23 ` [PATCH 3/9] virtio-blk: use virtqueue_start_buf on bio path Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-17 6:39 ` Asias He
2013-02-12 12:23 ` [PATCH 4/9] virtio-blk: use virtqueue_start_buf on req path Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-17 6:37 ` Asias He
2013-02-18 9:05 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 12:23 ` [PATCH 5/9] scatterlist: introduce sg_unmark_end Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 12:23 ` [PATCH 6/9] virtio-net: unmark scatterlist ending after virtqueue_add_buf Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 12:23 ` [PATCH 7/9] virtio-scsi: use virtqueue_start_buf Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 12:23 ` [PATCH 8/9] virtio: introduce and use virtqueue_add_buf_single Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-12 12:23 ` [PATCH 9/9] virtio: reimplement virtqueue_add_buf using new functions Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-14 6:00 ` [PATCH 0/9] virtio: new API for addition of buffers, scatterlist changes Rusty Russell
2013-02-14 9:23 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-15 18:04 ` Paolo Bonzini
2013-02-19 7:49 ` Rusty Russell [this message]
2013-02-19 9:11 ` Paolo Bonzini
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