Re: [PATCH v3 17/23] multifd: Use normal pages array on the send side

[Dr. David Alan Gilbert]

* Juan Quintela (quintela@redhat.com) wrote:
> "Dr. David Alan Gilbert" <dgilbert@redhat.com> wrote:
> > * Juan Quintela (quintela@redhat.com) wrote:
> >> Signed-off-by: Juan Quintela <quintela@redhat.com>
> >
> > Can you explain a bit more what's going on here?
> 
> Sorry.
> 
> Until patch 20, we have what we had always have:
> 
> pages that are sent through multifd (non zero pages).  We are going to
> call it normal pages.  So right now, we use the array of pages that we
> are passed in directly on the multifd send methods.
> 
> But when we introduce zero pages handling around patch 20, we end having
> two types of pages sent through multifd:
> - normal pages (a.k.a. non-zero pages)
> - zero pages
> 
> So the options are:
> - we rename the fields before we introduce the zero page code, and then
>   we introduce the zero page code.
> - we rename at the same time that we introduce the zero page code.
> 
> I decided to go with the 1st option.
> 
> The other thing that we do here is that we introduce the normal array
> pages, so right now we do:
> 
> for (i = 0; i < pages->num; i++) {
>     p->narmal[p->normal_num] = pages->offset[i];
>     p->normal_num++:
> }
> 
> 
> Why?
> 
> Because then patch 20 becomes:
> 
> for (i = 0; i < pages->num; i++) {
>     if (buffer_is_zero(page->offset[i])) {
>         p->zerol[p->zero_num] = pages->offset[i];
>         p->zeronum++:
>     } else {
>         p->narmal[p->normal_num] = pages->offset[i];
>         p->normal_num++:
>     }
> }
> 
> i.e. don't have to touch the handling of normal pages at all, only this
> for loop.
> 
> As an added benefit, after this patch, multifd methods don't need to
> know about the pages array, only about the params array (that will allow
> me to drop the locking earlier).
> 
> I hope this helps.

OK, so the code is OK, but it needs a commit message that explains all
that a bit more concisely.

Dave

> Later, Juan.
> 
-- 
Dr. David Alan Gilbert / dgilbert@redhat.com / Manchester, UK