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Re: [PATCH] Fix O(n) runtime in cache lookup, part 1/2

From: Stefan Fuhrmann <stefanfuhrmann_at_alice-dsl.de>
Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 03:04:48 +0200

Hi Philip,

thanks for your review!

Philip Martin wrote:
> Stefan Fuhrman <stefanfuhrmann_at_alice-dsl.de> writes:
>
>
>> svn_cache_t lookup returns a copy of the value found.
>> For objects of variable size, this can be expensive. If you
>> checkout / export all N files of a specific directory, for
>> instance, every single path gets verified. The directory
>> information is cached for FSFS but the copy operation
>> will still be O(N).
>>
>> As a result, the whole check takes O(N2). The good
>>
>
> That sounds bad. Do you have any measurements to show how much
> improvement your patch gives?
>
Well, choose your N ;) For low square mean numbers of files
per folder as in TSVN and SVN, the gains were between 3
and 4 percent of total "svn export" runtime. If you want me to,
I could run a test with 10k files in a folder (probably a realistic
upper limit).
>
>> news is that we don't need the information for too long.
>> In fact, copying it takes longer than the usage afterwards.
>>
>> This patch extends the cache interface by a "get and pin"
>> operation that returns a reference to the cached object
>> instead of a copy. As long as an entry is pinned the reference
>> will remain valid. The caller has to unpin it explicitly.
>>
>
> What happens if the caller fails to unpin?
>
> Looking at the code pinned leaves the cache locked until unpin. That
> makes failure to unpin an unrecoverable error.
>
Rationale see below.
> [...]
>
>> Index: subversion/libsvn_fs_fs/fs_fs.c
>> ===================================================================
>> --- subversion/libsvn_fs_fs/fs_fs.c (revision 930220)
>> +++ subversion/libsvn_fs_fs/fs_fs.c (working copy)
>> @@ -1822,15 +1822,19 @@
>> apr_array_header_t *manifest;
>> apr_pool_t *iterpool;
>>
>> + /* We can operate on the cached object directly since we only need it
>> + * in this local context. Also, we just want to access a single
>> element + * of that array. Copying the whole thing would be expensive.
>> + */
>> shard = rev / ffd->max_files_per_dir;
>> - SVN_ERR(svn_cache__get((void **) &manifest, &is_cached,
>> - ffd->packed_offset_cache, &shard, pool));
>> + SVN_ERR(svn_cache__get_pinned((void **) &manifest, &is_cached,
>> + ffd->packed_offset_cache, &shard,
>> pool));
>>
>> if (is_cached)
>> {
>> *rev_offset = APR_ARRAY_IDX(manifest, rev %
>> ffd->max_files_per_dir,
>> apr_off_t);
>>
>
> Adding
>
> SVN_ERR(svn_foo(...));
>
> would now be a bug because an error would cause the unpin to be
> skipped. This is an interface that is easy to get wrong, how about a
> calback interface similar to svn_wc__call_with_write_lock?
>
The implementation is supposed not pin nor lock upon
lookup failure. Perhaps, I should make that clear in the
API documentation.
>
>> - return SVN_NO_ERROR;
>> + return svn_cache__unpin((void*)manifest,
>> ffd->packed_offset_cache, pool);
>> }
>>
>> /* Open the manifest file. */
>> Index: subversion/libsvn_subr/cache-inprocess.c
>> ===================================================================
>> --- subversion/libsvn_subr/cache-inprocess.c (revision 930220)
>> +++ subversion/libsvn_subr/cache-inprocess.c (working copy)
>> @@ -66,6 +66,13 @@
>> */
>> apr_pool_t *cache_pool;
>>
>> + /* Reference to the item returned by inprocess_cache_get_pinned.
>> + * Currently, we support at most one item to be pinned at any given
>> + * time. While it is pinned, the mutex will be locked as will.
>> + * If NULL, no item has been pinned.
>> + */
>> + struct cache_entry *pinned_entry;
>> +
>> #if APR_HAS_THREADS
>> /* A lock for intra-process synchronization to the cache, or NULL if
>> * the cache's creator doesn't feel the cache needs to be
>> @@ -205,31 +212,38 @@
>> return err;
>> }
>>
>> +/* Implement get in terms of get_pinned, copy an unpin.
>> + * The overhead of doing so is marginal.
>> + *
>> + * This is also an example of how client code should use the
>> + * pin / unpin functionality.
>> + */
>> static svn_error_t *
>> +inprocess_cache_get_pinned(void **value_p,
>> + svn_boolean_t *found,
>> + void *cache_void,
>> + const void *key,
>> + apr_pool_t *pool);
>> +
>> +static svn_error_t *
>> +inprocess_cache_unpin(const void *value_p,
>> + void *cache_void,
>> + apr_pool_t *pool);
>> +
>> +static svn_error_t *
>> inprocess_cache_get(void **value_p,
>> svn_boolean_t *found,
>> void *cache_void,
>> const void *key,
>> apr_pool_t *pool)
>> {
>> - inprocess_cache_t *cache = cache_void;
>> - struct cache_entry *entry;
>> - svn_error_t *err;
>> + void* temp;
>> + SVN_ERR(inprocess_cache_get_pinned (&temp, found, cache_void, key,
>> pool));
>> + if (!*found)
>> + return SVN_NO_ERROR;
>>
>> - SVN_ERR(lock_cache(cache));
>> -
>> - entry = apr_hash_get(cache->hash, key, cache->klen);
>> - if (! entry)
>> - {
>> - *found = FALSE;
>> - return unlock_cache(cache, SVN_NO_ERROR);
>> - }
>> -
>> - move_page_to_front(cache, entry->page);
>> -
>> - *found = TRUE;
>> - err = duplicate_value(value_p, cache, entry->value, pool);
>> - return unlock_cache(cache, err);
>> + SVN_ERR(duplicate_value(value_p, cache_void, temp, pool));
>> + return inprocess_cache_unpin(temp, cache_void, pool);
>> }
>>
>> /* Removes PAGE from the LRU list, removes all of its entries from
>> @@ -275,6 +289,14 @@
>>
>> SVN_ERR(lock_cache(cache));
>>
>> + /* We got the mutex. Thus, other threads cannot have pinned an item.
>> + * But the current thread may try to modify the cache before
>> unpinning
>> + * the pinned item.
>> + */
>> + if (cache->pinned_entry)
>> + return svn_error_create(SVN_ERR_UNSUPPORTED_FEATURE, NULL,
>> + _("Cannot modify the cache while an
>> object is pinned."));
>> +
>>
>
> It's undefined behaviour for a thread to lock a POSIX mutex that is
> already locked in the same thread. Are you relying on the code above,
> or is it really debugging code? Perhaps use SVN_ERR_ASSERT? You need
> to make the mutex recursive if this is to be reliable but I don't know
> if all platforms support recursive mutexes.
>
That is debugging code, so SVN_ERR_ASSERT is certainly
a better choice. My whole "try a simple implementation" approach
may not be suitable here (see below).
>
>> existing_entry = apr_hash_get(cache->hash, key, cache->klen);
>>
>> /* Is it already here, but we can do the one-item-per-page
>> @@ -403,16 +425,91 @@
>> b.user_baton = user_baton;
>>
>> SVN_ERR(lock_cache(cache));
>> +
>> + /* We got the mutex. Thus, other threads cannot have pinned an item.
>> + * But the current thread may try to access the cache before
>> unpinning
>> + * the pinned item. + * While this restriction is not strictly
>> necessary here, we may want + * to enforce the pin-evaluate-unpin
>> pattern regardless of the threading + * model, for instance.
>> Otherwise, we may end up with Heisenbugs etc.
>> + */
>> + if (cache->pinned_entry)
>> + return svn_error_create(SVN_ERR_UNSUPPORTED_FEATURE, NULL,
>> + _("Cannot read the cache while an object
>> is still pinned."));
>> +
>> return unlock_cache(cache,
>> svn_iter_apr_hash(completed, cache->hash,
>> iter_cb, &b,
>> pool));
>>
>> }
>>
>> +static svn_error_t *
>> +inprocess_cache_get_pinned(void **value_p,
>> + svn_boolean_t *found,
>> + void *cache_void,
>> + const void *key,
>> + apr_pool_t *pool)
>> +{
>> + inprocess_cache_t *cache = cache_void;
>> + struct cache_entry *entry;
>> +
>> + SVN_ERR(lock_cache(cache));
>> +
>> + /* We got the mutex. Thus, other threads cannot have pinned an item.
>> + * But the current thread may try to pin two entries or the same
>> entry + * twice.
>> + */
>> + if (cache->pinned_entry)
>> + return svn_error_create(SVN_ERR_UNSUPPORTED_FEATURE, NULL,
>> + _("Cannot pin more than one object."));
>> +
>> + /* Lookup. */
>> + entry = apr_hash_get(cache->hash, key, cache->klen);
>> + if (! entry)
>> + {
>> + *found = FALSE;
>> + return unlock_cache(cache, SVN_NO_ERROR);
>> + }
>> +
>> + /* LRU mechanism. */
>> + move_page_to_front(cache, entry->page);
>> +
>> + /* Mark / pin the entry found and return the reference */
>> + *found = TRUE;
>> + cache->pinned_entry = entry;
>> + *value_p = entry->value;
>> +
>> + /* Cache remains locked until *unpin has been called. */
>> + return SVN_NO_ERROR;
>> +}
>>
>
> So pinning leaves the cache locked and failing to unpin is essentially
> an unrecoverable error.
>
Yes. Even if the locking would not be a problem. Pinning
is equivalent to locking a resource (the entry in that case).
Memory, for instance, will not be reclaimed until you destroy
the whole cache. This is the very purpose of this functionality.
> I think your claim that the interface allows more than one item to be
> pinned is also suspect. How would the locking work? Could two
> threads each pin an item?
>
The current implementation is more simplistic than what
the interface allows. Locking the cache is a by-product
of that simplistic implementation.
> Do you really need to leave the cache locked? Would it be enough to
> arrange for the item not to be evicted from the LRU cache? Move the
> pinned item from the LRU cache to a pinned cache, and move it back
> when unpinned?
>
An alternative implementation would associate every
cache entry with a pin count. While the latter is >0,
the respective entry will not be evicted from cache.
The basic meaning of "pin" is: 'keep this reference
valid as long as it is pinned'.

The downside is that you may be tempted to pin many
items or to pin them for a longer time, possibly forgetting
to release these items in certain edge-cases.

That is the reason why I chose to pin at most one item
at any given time. Mistakes in cache usage would become
obvious pretty quickly. On the downside, multi-threaded
code needs additional coordination to make that "only 1"
limit feasible. Thus, the lock.

If your assessment is that "misusing" the lock is more
risky than the risk of a temporary memory leak, I can
change the implementation this weekend and post a
new patch.

-- Stefan^2.
Received on 2010-04-16 03:05:34 CEST

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