On Fri, 20 May 2011 02:11:56 +0300, "Michael S. Tsirkin" <m...@redhat.com> 
wrote:
> Current code might introduce a lot of latency variation
> if there are many pending bufs at the time we
> attempt to transmit a new one. This is bad for
> real-time applications and can't be good for TCP either.

Do we have more than speculation to back that up, BTW?

This patch is pretty sloppy; the previous ones were better polished.

> -static void free_old_xmit_skbs(struct virtnet_info *vi)
> +static bool free_old_xmit_skbs(struct virtnet_info *vi, int capacity)
>  {

A comment here indicating it returns true if it frees something?

>       struct sk_buff *skb;
>       unsigned int len;
> -
> -     while ((skb = virtqueue_get_buf(vi->svq, &len)) != NULL) {
> +     bool c;
> +     int n;
> +
> +     /* We try to free up at least 2 skbs per one sent, so that we'll get
> +      * all of the memory back if they are used fast enough. */
> +     for (n = 0;
> +          ((c = virtqueue_get_capacity(vi->svq) < capacity) || n < 2) &&
> +          ((skb = virtqueue_get_buf(vi->svq, &len)));
> +          ++n) {
>               pr_debug("Sent skb %p\n", skb);
>               vi->dev->stats.tx_bytes += skb->len;
>               vi->dev->stats.tx_packets++;
>               dev_kfree_skb_any(skb);
>       }
> +     return !c;

This is for() abuse :)

Why is the capacity check in there at all?  Surely it's simpler to try
to free 2 skbs each time around?

   for (n = 0; n < 2; n++) {
        skb = virtqueue_get_buf(vi->svq, &len);
        if (!skb)
                break;
        pr_debug("Sent skb %p\n", skb);
        vi->dev->stats.tx_bytes += skb->len;
        vi->dev->stats.tx_packets++;
        dev_kfree_skb_any(skb);
   }

>  static int xmit_skb(struct virtnet_info *vi, struct sk_buff *skb)
> @@ -574,8 +582,8 @@ static netdev_tx_t start_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct 
> net_device *dev)
>       struct virtnet_info *vi = netdev_priv(dev);
>       int capacity;
>  
> -     /* Free up any pending old buffers before queueing new ones. */
> -     free_old_xmit_skbs(vi);
> +     /* Free enough pending old buffers to enable queueing new ones. */
> +     free_old_xmit_skbs(vi, 2+MAX_SKB_FRAGS);
>  
>       /* Try to transmit */
>       capacity = xmit_skb(vi, skb);
> @@ -609,9 +617,7 @@ static netdev_tx_t start_xmit(struct sk_buff *skb, struct 
> net_device *dev)
>               netif_stop_queue(dev);
>               if (unlikely(!virtqueue_enable_cb_delayed(vi->svq))) {
>                       /* More just got used, free them then recheck. */
> -                     free_old_xmit_skbs(vi);
> -                     capacity = virtqueue_get_capacity(vi->svq);
> -                     if (capacity >= 2+MAX_SKB_FRAGS) {
> +                     if (!likely(free_old_xmit_skbs(vi, 2+MAX_SKB_FRAGS))) {

This extra argument to free_old_xmit_skbs seems odd, unless you have
future plans?

Thanks,
Rusty.
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