On Thu, May 25, 2006 at 08:44:15AM -0700, Andrew Morton wrote:
> These are nice-looking numbers, but one wonders. If optimising readahead
> makes this much difference to postgresql performance then postgresql should
> be doing the readahead itself, rather than relying upon the kernel's
> ability to guess what the application will be doing in the future. Because
> surely the database can do a better job of that than the kernel.
>
> That would involve using posix_fadvise(POSIX_FADV_RANDOM) to disable kernel
> readahead and then using posix_fadvise(POSIX_FADV_WILLNEED) to launch
> application-level readahead.
>
> Has this been considered or attempted?
There has been many lengthy debates in the postgresql mailing list,
and it seems that there has been _strong_ resistance to it.
IMHO, a best scheme would be
- leave _obvious_ patterns to the kernel
i.e. all kinds of (semi-)sequential reads
- do fadvise() for _non-obvious_ patterns on _critical_ points
i.e. the index scans
Wu
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to [email protected]
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
[Index of Archives]
[Kernel Newbies]
[Netfilter]
[Bugtraq]
[Photo]
[Stuff]
[Gimp]
[Yosemite News]
[MIPS Linux]
[ARM Linux]
[Linux Security]
[Linux RAID]
[Video 4 Linux]
[Linux for the blind]
[Linux Resources]
