314 lines
13 KiB
Text
314 lines
13 KiB
Text
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====================================================
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IN-KERNEL CACHE OBJECT REPRESENTATION AND MANAGEMENT
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====================================================
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By: David Howells <dhowells@redhat.com>
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Contents:
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(*) Representation
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(*) Object management state machine.
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- Provision of cpu time.
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- Locking simplification.
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(*) The set of states.
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(*) The set of events.
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==============
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REPRESENTATION
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==============
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FS-Cache maintains an in-kernel representation of each object that a netfs is
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currently interested in. Such objects are represented by the fscache_cookie
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struct and are referred to as cookies.
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FS-Cache also maintains a separate in-kernel representation of the objects that
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a cache backend is currently actively caching. Such objects are represented by
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the fscache_object struct. The cache backends allocate these upon request, and
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are expected to embed them in their own representations. These are referred to
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as objects.
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There is a 1:N relationship between cookies and objects. A cookie may be
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represented by multiple objects - an index may exist in more than one cache -
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or even by no objects (it may not be cached).
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Furthermore, both cookies and objects are hierarchical. The two hierarchies
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correspond, but the cookies tree is a superset of the union of the object trees
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of multiple caches:
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NETFS INDEX TREE : CACHE 1 : CACHE 2
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: :
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: +-----------+ :
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+----------->| IObject | :
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+-----------+ | : +-----------+ :
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| ICookie |-------+ : | :
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+-----------+ | : | : +-----------+
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| +------------------------------>| IObject |
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| : | : +-----------+
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| : V : |
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| : +-----------+ : |
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V +----------->| IObject | : |
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+-----------+ | : +-----------+ : |
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| ICookie |-------+ : | : V
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+-----------+ | : | : +-----------+
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| +------------------------------>| IObject |
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+-----+-----+ : | : +-----------+
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| | : | : |
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V | : V : |
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+-----------+ | : +-----------+ : |
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| ICookie |------------------------->| IObject | : |
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+-----------+ | : +-----------+ : |
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| V : | : V
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| +-----------+ : | : +-----------+
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| | ICookie |-------------------------------->| IObject |
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| +-----------+ : | : +-----------+
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V | : V : |
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+-----------+ | : +-----------+ : |
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| DCookie |------------------------->| DObject | : |
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+-----------+ | : +-----------+ : |
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| : : |
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+-------+-------+ : : |
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V V : : V
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+-----------+ +-----------+ : : +-----------+
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| DCookie | | DCookie |------------------------>| DObject |
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+-----------+ +-----------+ : : +-----------+
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: :
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In the above illustration, ICookie and IObject represent indices and DCookie
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and DObject represent data storage objects. Indices may have representation in
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multiple caches, but currently, non-index objects may not. Objects of any type
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may also be entirely unrepresented.
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As far as the netfs API goes, the netfs is only actually permitted to see
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pointers to the cookies. The cookies themselves and any objects attached to
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those cookies are hidden from it.
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===============================
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OBJECT MANAGEMENT STATE MACHINE
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===============================
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Within FS-Cache, each active object is managed by its own individual state
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machine. The state for an object is kept in the fscache_object struct, in
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object->state. A cookie may point to a set of objects that are in different
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states.
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Each state has an action associated with it that is invoked when the machine
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wakes up in that state. There are four logical sets of states:
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(1) Preparation: states that wait for the parent objects to become ready. The
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representations are hierarchical, and it is expected that an object must
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be created or accessed with respect to its parent object.
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(2) Initialisation: states that perform lookups in the cache and validate
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what's found and that create on disk any missing metadata.
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(3) Normal running: states that allow netfs operations on objects to proceed
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and that update the state of objects.
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(4) Termination: states that detach objects from their netfs cookies, that
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delete objects from disk, that handle disk and system errors and that free
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up in-memory resources.
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In most cases, transitioning between states is in response to signalled events.
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When a state has finished processing, it will usually set the mask of events in
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which it is interested (object->event_mask) and relinquish the worker thread.
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Then when an event is raised (by calling fscache_raise_event()), if the event
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is not masked, the object will be queued for processing (by calling
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fscache_enqueue_object()).
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PROVISION OF CPU TIME
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---------------------
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The work to be done by the various states is given CPU time by the threads of
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the slow work facility (see Documentation/slow-work.txt). This is used in
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preference to the workqueue facility because:
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(1) Threads may be completely occupied for very long periods of time by a
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particular work item. These state actions may be doing sequences of
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synchronous, journalled disk accesses (lookup, mkdir, create, setxattr,
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getxattr, truncate, unlink, rmdir, rename).
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(2) Threads may do little actual work, but may rather spend a lot of time
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sleeping on I/O. This means that single-threaded and 1-per-CPU-threaded
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workqueues don't necessarily have the right numbers of threads.
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LOCKING SIMPLIFICATION
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----------------------
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Because only one worker thread may be operating on any particular object's
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state machine at once, this simplifies the locking, particularly with respect
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to disconnecting the netfs's representation of a cache object (fscache_cookie)
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from the cache backend's representation (fscache_object) - which may be
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requested from either end.
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=================
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THE SET OF STATES
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=================
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The object state machine has a set of states that it can be in. There are
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preparation states in which the object sets itself up and waits for its parent
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object to transit to a state that allows access to its children:
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(1) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_INIT.
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Initialise the object and wait for the parent object to become active. In
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the cache, it is expected that it will not be possible to look an object
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up from the parent object, until that parent object itself has been looked
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up.
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There are initialisation states in which the object sets itself up and accesses
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disk for the object metadata:
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(2) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_LOOKING_UP.
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Look up the object on disk, using the parent as a starting point.
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FS-Cache expects the cache backend to probe the cache to see whether this
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object is represented there, and if it is, to see if it's valid (coherency
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management).
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The cache should call fscache_object_lookup_negative() to indicate lookup
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failure for whatever reason, and should call fscache_obtained_object() to
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indicate success.
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At the completion of lookup, FS-Cache will let the netfs go ahead with
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read operations, no matter whether the file is yet cached. If not yet
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cached, read operations will be immediately rejected with ENODATA until
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the first known page is uncached - as to that point there can be no data
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to be read out of the cache for that file that isn't currently also held
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in the pagecache.
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(3) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_CREATING.
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Create an object on disk, using the parent as a starting point. This
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happens if the lookup failed to find the object, or if the object's
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coherency data indicated what's on disk is out of date. In this state,
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FS-Cache expects the cache to create
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The cache should call fscache_obtained_object() if creation completes
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successfully, fscache_object_lookup_negative() otherwise.
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At the completion of creation, FS-Cache will start processing write
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operations the netfs has queued for an object. If creation failed, the
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write ops will be transparently discarded, and nothing recorded in the
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cache.
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There are some normal running states in which the object spends its time
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servicing netfs requests:
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(4) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_AVAILABLE.
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A transient state in which pending operations are started, child objects
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are permitted to advance from FSCACHE_OBJECT_INIT state, and temporary
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lookup data is freed.
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(5) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_ACTIVE.
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The normal running state. In this state, requests the netfs makes will be
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passed on to the cache.
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(6) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_UPDATING.
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The state machine comes here to update the object in the cache from the
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netfs's records. This involves updating the auxiliary data that is used
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to maintain coherency.
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And there are terminal states in which an object cleans itself up, deallocates
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memory and potentially deletes stuff from disk:
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(7) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_LC_DYING.
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The object comes here if it is dying because of a lookup or creation
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error. This would be due to a disk error or system error of some sort.
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Temporary data is cleaned up, and the parent is released.
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(8) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_DYING.
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The object comes here if it is dying due to an error, because its parent
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cookie has been relinquished by the netfs or because the cache is being
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withdrawn.
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Any child objects waiting on this one are given CPU time so that they too
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can destroy themselves. This object waits for all its children to go away
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before advancing to the next state.
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(9) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_ABORT_INIT.
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The object comes to this state if it was waiting on its parent in
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FSCACHE_OBJECT_INIT, but its parent died. The object will destroy itself
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so that the parent may proceed from the FSCACHE_OBJECT_DYING state.
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(10) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_RELEASING.
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(11) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_RECYCLING.
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The object comes to one of these two states when dying once it is rid of
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all its children, if it is dying because the netfs relinquished its
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cookie. In the first state, the cached data is expected to persist, and
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in the second it will be deleted.
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(12) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_WITHDRAWING.
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The object transits to this state if the cache decides it wants to
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withdraw the object from service, perhaps to make space, but also due to
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error or just because the whole cache is being withdrawn.
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(13) State FSCACHE_OBJECT_DEAD.
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The object transits to this state when the in-memory object record is
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ready to be deleted. The object processor shouldn't ever see an object in
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this state.
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THE SET OF EVENTS
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-----------------
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There are a number of events that can be raised to an object state machine:
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(*) FSCACHE_OBJECT_EV_UPDATE
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The netfs requested that an object be updated. The state machine will ask
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the cache backend to update the object, and the cache backend will ask the
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netfs for details of the change through its cookie definition ops.
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(*) FSCACHE_OBJECT_EV_CLEARED
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This is signalled in two circumstances:
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(a) when an object's last child object is dropped and
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(b) when the last operation outstanding on an object is completed.
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This is used to proceed from the dying state.
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(*) FSCACHE_OBJECT_EV_ERROR
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This is signalled when an I/O error occurs during the processing of some
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object.
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(*) FSCACHE_OBJECT_EV_RELEASE
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(*) FSCACHE_OBJECT_EV_RETIRE
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These are signalled when the netfs relinquishes a cookie it was using.
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The event selected depends on whether the netfs asks for the backing
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object to be retired (deleted) or retained.
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(*) FSCACHE_OBJECT_EV_WITHDRAW
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This is signalled when the cache backend wants to withdraw an object.
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This means that the object will have to be detached from the netfs's
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cookie.
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Because the withdrawing releasing/retiring events are all handled by the object
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state machine, it doesn't matter if there's a collision with both ends trying
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to sever the connection at the same time. The state machine can just pick
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which one it wants to honour, and that effects the other.
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