On Wed, Aug 03, 2011 at 02:21:25PM -0400, Robert Haas wrote:
> It would be nice if the Linux guys would fix this problem for us, but
> I'm not sure whether they will. For those who may be curious, the
> problem is in generic_file_llseek() in fs/read-write.c. On a platform
> with 8-byte atomic reads, it seems like it ought to be very possible
> to read inode->i_size without taking a spinlock.
Interesting. There's this thread from 2003 suggesting the use of pread
instead, it was rejected on the argument that lseek is cheap so not a
problem.
http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-patches/2003-02/msg00197.php
Perhaps we now have a benchmark where the effect can be measured.
There's the issue about whether it screws up the readahead mechanism...
Have a nice day,
--
Martijn van Oosterhout <kleptog@svana.org> http://svana.org/kleptog/
> He who writes carelessly confesses thereby at the very outset that he does
> not attach much importance to his own thoughts. -- Arthur Schopenhauer