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Elixir Cross Referencer

The following are demonstrations of the fsrw.d script.


Here the fsrw.d script was running while a 50 Kbyte file was read,

   # ./fsrw.d
   Event            Device RW     Size Offset Path
   sc-read               .  R     8192      0 /extra1/50k
     fop_read            .  R     8192      0 /extra1/50k
       disk_io       cmdk0  R     8192      0 /extra1/50k
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R     8192      8 /extra1/50k
   sc-read               .  R     8192      8 /extra1/50k
     fop_read            .  R     8192      8 /extra1/50k
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    34816     16 /extra1/50k
   sc-read               .  R     8192     16 /extra1/50k
     fop_read            .  R     8192     16 /extra1/50k
   sc-read               .  R     8192     24 /extra1/50k
     fop_read            .  R     8192     24 /extra1/50k
   sc-read               .  R     8192     32 /extra1/50k
     fop_read            .  R     8192     32 /extra1/50k
   sc-read               .  R     8192     40 /extra1/50k
     fop_read            .  R     8192     40 /extra1/50k
   sc-read               .  R     8192     48 /extra1/50k
     fop_read            .  R     8192     48 /extra1/50k
   sc-read               .  R     8192     50 /extra1/50k
     fop_read            .  R     8192     50 /extra1/50k
   ^C

By looking closely at the Offset (Kbytes) and Size of each transaction, we
can see how the read() system calls (sc-read) were satisfied by the file
system. There were 8 read() system calls, and 3 disk events - 2 of which were
UFS read-ahead (disk_ra). The final read-ahead was for 34 Kbytes and began
with an offset of 16 Kbytes, which read the remaining file data (34 + 16 = 50
Kbytes). The subsequent read() system calls and corresponding fop_read() calls
returned from the page cache.



The following demonstrates how a logical I/O is broken up into multiple 
physical I/O events. Here a dd command was used to read 1 Mbytes from the
/var/sadm/install/contents file while fsrw.d was tracing.

   # ./fsrw.d
   Event            Device RW     Size Offset Path
   sc-read               .  R  1048576      0 /var/sadm/install/contents
     fop_read            .  R  1048576      0 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R     4096     72 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R     8192     96 <none>
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344     96 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    152 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    208 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    49152    264 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    312 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    368 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    424 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    480 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    536 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    592 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    648 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    704 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    760 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    816 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    872 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    928 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344    984 /var/sadm/install/contents
       disk_ra       cmdk0  R    57344   1040 /var/sadm/install/contents
   ^C

Both the read() syscall (sc-read) and the fop_read() call asked the file system
for 1048576 bytes, which was then broken into numerous disk I/O events of up to
56 Kbytes in size. The 8192 byte read with a path of "<none>" is likely to be
the file system reading the indirect block pointers for the 
/var/sadm/install/contents file (something DTrace could confirm in detail).




The following traces activity as a cp command copies a 50 Kbyte file.

   # ./fsrw.d
   Event            Device RW     Size Offset Path
       disk_io        dad1  R     1024      0 /extra1
       disk_io        dad1  R     8192      0 <none>
       disk_io        dad1  R     8192      0 <none>
       disk_io        dad1  R     2048      0 <none>
       disk_io        dad1  R     2048      0 <none>
   sc-write              .  W    51200      0 /extra1/outfile
     fop_write           .  W    51200      0 /extra1/outfile
       disk_io        dad1  R     8192      0 /extra1/50k
       disk_ra        dad1  R     8192      8 /extra1/50k
       disk_ra        dad1  R    34816     16 /extra1/50k
       disk_io        dad1  R     2048      0 <none>
       disk_io        dad1  W    49152      0 /extra1/outfile
   ^C

Reads including UFS read-ahead can be seen as the file is read.
The output finishes with disk writes as the new file is flushed to disk.
The syscall write() and fop_write() can be seen to the /extra1/outfile,
however there is no syscall read() or fop_read() to /extra1/50k - which
we may have expected to occur before the writes. This is due to the way
the cp command now works, it uses mmap() to map files in for reading.
This activity can be seen if we also trace fop_getpage() and fop_putpage(),
as the fspaging.d dtrace script does.

   # ./fspaging.d
   Event             Device RW     Size Offset Path
       disk_io         dad1  R     1024      0 /extra1
       disk_io         dad1  R     8192      0 <none>
       disk_io         dad1  R     2048      0 <none>
   sc-write               .  W    51200      0 /extra1/outfile
     fop_write            .  W    51200      0 /extra1/outfile
     fop_getpage          .  R     8192      0 /extra1/50k
       disk_io         dad1  R     8192      0 /extra1/50k
       disk_ra         dad1  R     8192      8 /extra1/50k
     fop_getpage          .  R     8192      8 /extra1/50k
       disk_ra         dad1  R    34816     16 /extra1/50k
     fop_getpage          .  R     8192     16 /extra1/50k
     fop_getpage          .  R     8192     24 /extra1/50k
     fop_getpage          .  R     8192     32 /extra1/50k
     fop_getpage          .  R     8192     40 /extra1/50k
     fop_getpage          .  R     8192     48 /extra1/50k
     fop_putpage          .  W     8192      0 /extra1/outfile
     fop_putpage          .  W     8192      8 /extra1/outfile
     fop_putpage          .  W     8192     16 /extra1/outfile
     fop_putpage          .  W     8192     24 /extra1/outfile
     fop_putpage          .  W     8192     32 /extra1/outfile
     fop_putpage          .  W     8192     40 /extra1/outfile
       disk_io         dad1  W    51200      0 /extra1/outfile