as needed to read a request instead of the maximum message size.
Insanely enough, this makes "cheap backend I/O" file systems such
dtfs and sysctlfs perform 10-30% better (depending on the average
size of incoming requests).
Previously each request was executed on its own callcontext and
switched to every time the request was being processed. Now requests
borrow the mainloop context and switch only if/when they yield.
This takes two context switches away from a file system request
bringing down the typical amounts 2->0 (e.g. dtfs) and 4->2 (e.g.
psshfs).
The interfaces for manually executing requests changed a bit:
puffs_dispatch_create() and puffs_dispatch_exec() must now be used.
They are not tested, as nothing in-tree wants them and I doubt
anyone else is really interested in them either.
Also do some misc code cleanup related to execution contexts. The
"work-in-progress checkpoint" committed over a year ago was starting
to look slightly weed-infested.
Get rid of the original puffs_req(3) framework and use puffs_framebuf(3)
instead for file system requests. It has the advantage of being
suitable for transporting a distributed message passing protocol
and therefore us being able to run the file system server on any
host.
Ok, puffs is not quite here yet: libpuffs needs to grow request
routing support and the message contents need to be munged into a
host independent format. Saying which format would be telling,
but it might begin with an X, end in an L and have the 13th character
in the middle. Keep an eye out for the sequels: Parts 3+m/n.
alternative to the (vastly superior ;) continuation model. This
is very preliminary stuff and not compiled by default (which it
even won't do without some other patches I cannot commit yet).
The raison d'commit of the patch is a snippet which ensures proper
in-order dispatching of all operations, including those which don't
require a response. Previously many of them would be dispatched
simultaneosly, e.g. fsync and reclaim on the same node, which
obviously isn't all that nice for correct operation.
userspace, since it doesn't contain any information yet. I should
still rework this more so this is just a quickie to get the read/write
style interface more up to speed with the ioctl version.
interacts with the userspace file server:
* since the kernel-user communication is not purely request-response
anymore (hasn't been since 2006), try to rename some "request" to
"message". more similar mangling will take place in the future.
* completely rework how messages are allocated. previously most of
them were borrowed from the stack (originally *all* of them),
but now always allocate dynamically. this makes the structure
of the code much cleaner. also makes it possible to fix a
locking order violation. it enables plenty of future enhancements.
* start generalizing the transport interface to be independent of puffs
* move transport interface to read/write instead of ioctl. the
old one had legacy design problems, and besides, ioctl's suck.
implement a very generic version for now; this will be
worked on later hopefully some day reaching "highly optimized".
* implement libpuffs support behind existing library request
interfaces. this will change eventually (I hate those interfaces)
only take the bare essentials, which currently means removing
"maxreqlen" from the argument list (all current callers I'm aware
of set it as 0 anyway). Introduce puffs_init(), which provides a
context for setting various parameters and puffs_domount(), which
can be used to mount the file system. Keep puffs_mount() as a
shortcut for the above two for simple file systems.
Bump development ABI version to 13. After all, it's Friday the 13th.
Watch out! Bad things can happen on Friday the 13th. --No carrier--
Add support for having multiple outstanding operations. This is done
by exposing enough interfaces so that it is convenient to have the
main event loop in the implementation itself and by providing a
continuation framework for convinient blocking and rescheduling.
works fine, but will undergo further cleanup & development
pooka