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+From: Janardhana Reddy <jana-reddy@mediaring.com.sg>
+To: Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
+cc: PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>,
+ janareddy
+ <jana-reddy@mediaring.com.sg>
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+Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2001 17:57:04 +0800
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+Subject: Re: [HACKERS] PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT by mapping WAL FILES
+References: <200109282137.f8SLbpm01890@candle.pha.pa.us>
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+Status: ORr
+
+ I have just completed the functional testing the WAL using mmap , it is
+
+ working fine, I have tested by commenting out the "CreateCheckPoint "
+functionality so that
+ when i kill the postgres and restart it will redo all the records from the
+WAL log file which
+ is updated using mmap.
+ Just i need to clean code and to do some stress testing.
+ By the end of this week i should able to complete the stress test and
+generate the patch file .
+ As Tom Lane mentioned i see the problem in portability to all platforms,
+
+ what i propose is to use mmap for only WAL for some platforms like
+ linux,freebsd etc . For other platforms we can use the existing method by
+slightly modifying the
+ write() routine to write only the modified part of the page.
+
+Regards
+jana
+
+>
+>
+> OK, I have talked to Tom Lane about this on the phone and we have a few
+> ideas.
+>
+> Historically, we have avoided mmap() because of portability problems,
+> and because using mmap() to write to large tables could consume lots of
+> address space with little benefit. However, I perhaps can see WAL as
+> being a good use of mmap.
+>
+> First, there is the issue of using mmap(). For OS's that have the
+> mmap() MAP_SHARED flag, different backends could mmap the same file and
+> each see the changes. However, keep in mind we still have to fsync()
+> WAL, so we need to use msync().
+>
+> So, looking at the benefits of using mmap(), we have overhead of
+> different backends having to mmap something that now sits quite easily
+> in shared memory. Now, I can see mmap reducing the copy from user to
+> kernel, but there are other ways to fix that. We could modify the
+> write() routines to write() 8k on first WAL page write and later write
+> only the modified part of the page to the kernel buffers. The old
+> kernel buffer is probably still around so it is unlikely to require a
+> read from the file system to read in the rest of the page. This reduces
+> the write from 8k to something probably less than 4k which is better
+> than we can do with mmap.
+>
+> I will add a TODO item to this effect.
+>
+> As far as reducing the write to disk from 8k to 4k, if we have to
+> fsync/msync, we have to wait for the disk to spin to the proper location
+> and at that point writing 4k or 8k doesn't seem like much of a win.
+>
+> In summary, I think it would be nice to reduce the 8k transfer from user
+> to kernel on secondary page writes to only the modified part of the
+> page. I am uncertain if mmap() or anything else will help the physical
+> write to the disk.
+>
+> --
+> Bruce Momjian | http://candle.pha.pa.us
+> pgman@candle.pha.pa.us | (610) 853-3000
+> + If your life is a hard drive, | 830 Blythe Avenue
+> + Christ can be your backup. | Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026
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