Instead, allow the mapping to persist, but add the sf_buf to a free list.
If a later sendfile(2) or zero-copy send resends the same physical page,
perhaps with the same or different contents, then the mapping overhead is
avoided and the sf_buf is simply removed from the free list.
In other words, the i386 sf_buf implementation now behaves as a cache of
virtual-to-physical translations using an LRU replacement policy on
inactive sf_bufs. This is similar in concept to a part of
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~yruan/debox/ patch, but much simpler in
implementation. Note: none of this is required on alpha, amd64, or ia64.
They now use their direct virtual-to-physical mapping to avoid any
emphemeral mapping overheads in their sf_buf implementations.
more than one sf_buf for one vm_page. To accomplish this, we add
a global hash table mapping vm_pages to sf_bufs and a reference
count to each sf_buf. (This is similar to the patches for RELENG_4
at http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~yruan/debox/.)
For the uninitiated, an sf_buf is nothing more than a kernel virtual
address that is used for temporary virtual-to-physical mappings by
sendfile(2) and zero-copy sockets. As such, there is no reason for
one vm_page to have several sf_bufs mapping it. In fact, using more
than one sf_buf for a single vm_page increases the likelihood that
sendfile(2) blocks, hurting throughput.
(See http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~yruan/debox/.)
physical mapping.
- Move the sf_buf API to its own header file; make struct sf_buf's
definition machine dependent. In this commit, we remove an
unnecessary field from struct sf_buf on the alpha, amd64, and ia64.
Ultimately, we may eliminate struct sf_buf on those architecures
except as an opaque pointer that references a vm page.
