[Kernel-meetup] Need help formalizing the hardware caching assignment

[Amit Kucheria]

Hi Chaitanya,

The formal problem definition could be as follows:
Find all the sources of caching on a running Linux system (HW and SW)
and instrument them to find out how much of an effect them have on
overall system performance.

So here is how I'd go about it:

1. Find everything in your PC that has a cache.
    a. Start with HW e.g CPU, Harddrives (e.g. read look ahead feature)
    b. Next the SW: e.g. various kernel subsystems (VFS layer,
filesystems, virtual memory mangement, page cache, buffer cache),
userspace (e.g. glibc)
2. Create a spreadsheet with a list of all caches
3. Find ways to disable each of them e.g.
http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2014/01/disable-disk-caching-prevent-data-loss/
and hdparm -A0
4. Find interesting usecases to testing the effect of caching with
(start with something as simple as playing an mp3 or video file)

Let me know if you need more help.

Cheers,
Amit


On Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 10:43 AM, Chaitanya Kukde
<chaitanya.kukde at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Amit,
>
> I was trying to start on the work on our caching problem with some
> preliminary googling but I was unable to latch on to a concrete
> concept or idea to research into. Could you help me define the problem
> or put it in formal terms?
>
> Would be glad for any help.
>
> Interesting article, btw. Thanks for sharing :)
>
> Thanks,
> Chaitanya Kukde



-- 
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Amit Kucheria