Hi all I migrated one of my server from kernel 2.6.18 to the latest 2.6.22 and I experienced lower disk performance for processes that open file with the O_DIRECT flag.
I did a very simple test program that opens two files with O_DIRECT flag and reads the files to end. I monitored the time spent to read the files and I have ~ 40% of difference between 2.6.18 and 2.6.22. For information, the files are stored on a XFS partition which is part of a software raid-5 block device (the raid-5 is made with 3 SATA drives). Does that make sense to you gurus ? Of course, I didn't change the configuration (task scheduler, HZ, default I/O scheduler, ...) between the two kernels. For information, the code of my test program is pasted below (I snipped the #include part): ----------------------8<----------------------8<---------------------- #define BSIZE (512*512) int main(int ac, char * av[]) { int fd[2]; char* buffer; if (ac != 3) { printf("USAGE: %s <FILE-1> <FILE-2>\n", av[0]); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } if ((fd[0] = open(av[1], O_RDONLY|O_DIRECT)) == -1) exit(EXIT_FAILURE); if ((fd[1] = open(av[2], O_RDONLY|O_DIRECT)) == -1) exit(EXIT_FAILURE); if ((buffer = (char *)memalign(4096, BSIZE)) == 0) exit(EXIT_FAILURE); for (;;) { if (read(fd[0], buffer, BSIZE) != BSIZE) break; if (read(fd[1], buffer, BSIZE) != BSIZE) break; } close(fd[0]); close(fd[1]); free(buffer); return EXIT_SUCCESS; } ----------------------8<----------------------8<---------------------- Any help/hint would be appreciate. -- R.C - 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/