ext4: Improve the documentation for ext4's /proc tunables
Signed-off-by: "Theodore Ts'o" <tytso@mit.edu>
Cc: Alex Tomas <bzzz@sun.com>
Cc: Andreas Dilger <adilger@sun.com>
diff --git a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
index f566ad9..d9ac970 100644
--- a/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
+++ b/Documentation/filesystems/proc.txt
@@ -923,45 +923,41 @@
The "procs_blocked" line gives the number of processes currently blocked,
waiting for I/O to complete.
+
1.9 Ext4 file system parameters
------------------------------
-Ext4 file system have one directory per partition under /proc/fs/ext4/
-# ls /proc/fs/ext4/hdc/
-group_prealloc max_to_scan mb_groups mb_history min_to_scan order2_req
-stats stream_req
-mb_groups:
-This file gives the details of multiblock allocator buddy cache of free blocks
+Information about mounted ext4 file systems can be found in
+/proc/fs/ext4. Each mounted filesystem will have a directory in
+/proc/fs/ext4 based on its device name (i.e., /proc/fs/ext4/hdc or
+/proc/fs/ext4/dm-0). The files in each per-device directory are shown
+in Table 1-10, below.
-mb_history:
-Multiblock allocation history.
+Table 1-10: Files in /proc/fs/ext4/<devname>
+..............................................................................
+ File Content
+ mb_groups details of multiblock allocator buddy cache of free blocks
+ mb_history multiblock allocation history
+ stats controls whether the multiblock allocator should start
+ collecting statistics, which are shown during the unmount
+ group_prealloc the multiblock allocator will round up allocation
+ requests to a multiple of this tuning parameter if the
+ stripe size is not set in the ext4 superblock
+ max_to_scan The maximum number of extents the multiblock allocator
+ will search to find the best extent
+ min_to_scan The minimum number of extents the multiblock allocator
+ will search to find the best extent
+ order2_req Tuning parameter which controls the minimum size for
+ requests (as a power of 2) where the buddy cache is
+ used
+ stream_req Files which have fewer blocks than this tunable
+ parameter will have their blocks allocated out of a
+ block group specific preallocation pool, so that small
+ files are packed closely together. Each large file
+ will have its blocks allocated out of its own unique
+ preallocation pool.
+..............................................................................
-stats:
-This file indicate whether the multiblock allocator should start collecting
-statistics. The statistics are shown during unmount
-
-group_prealloc:
-The multiblock allocator normalize the block allocation request to
-group_prealloc filesystem blocks if we don't have strip value set.
-The stripe value can be specified at mount time or during mke2fs.
-
-max_to_scan:
-How long multiblock allocator can look for a best extent (in found extents)
-
-min_to_scan:
-How long multiblock allocator must look for a best extent
-
-order2_req:
-Multiblock allocator use 2^N search using buddies only for requests greater
-than or equal to order2_req. The request size is specfied in file system
-blocks. A value of 2 indicate only if the requests are greater than or equal
-to 4 blocks.
-
-stream_req:
-Files smaller than stream_req are served by the stream allocator, whose
-purpose is to pack requests as close each to other as possible to
-produce smooth I/O traffic. Avalue of 16 indicate that file smaller than 16
-filesystem block size will use group based preallocation.
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Summary