Read shortcut, buffer cache improvements

The new vm.read_shortcut option has been turned on by default by Matthew Dillon, which should lead to some performance improvements.  That improvement has been measured for tmpfs, at least.  There’s also some buffer cache improvments that help on x86_64 systems, too.

Update: As Venkatesh Srinivas pointed out, tmpfs also no longer uses the mplock, so it’ll take better advantage of multiple processors.

a pf question on VoIP

I have a pf question for anyone who is interested.  I have this setup in my /etc/pf.conf, to prioritize my VoIP link.  (this system also does NAT.)

extif="em0"
intif="nfe0"
ipphone = "192.168.0.101"
altq on $extif cbq bandwidth 768Kb queue { std, voip }
queue voip bandwidth 168Kb priority 7 cbq(borrow)
queue std bandwidth 600Kb priority 1 cbq(default)
nat on $extif from $intif:network to any -> ($extif)
pass in quick on $intif proto udp from $ipphone to any tag VOIP_OUT keep state
pass in on $intif from $intif:network to any keep state
pass out on $intif from any to $intif:network keep state

pass out on $extif tagged VOIP_OUT keep state queue(voip)
pass out on $extif inet proto tcp all modulate state flags S/SA queue(std)
pass out on $extif inet proto { udp, icmp, gre } all keep state

When I run this, ‘pfctl -s queue’ shows most of the data getting run through the ‘voip’ queue.  I unplug the ATA, I still see the number of packets going up.  It seems packets are getting tagged that shouldn’t be, but I’m not sure why.  Anyone else have a similar – but working – setup?

Update: it was the underscore character in the tag.  Everything matched it, it seems.  Removing that made it work as expected.

 

Lazy Reading for 2013/01/13

It’s a very short week this week.  I was on the road for work, so I didn’t see anywhere as much of the Internet as I may have liked.  Count my dports writeup yesterday as part of this and it averages out to a good amount of reading.

  • Favorite Linux Commands.  Not all of them are Linux/bash specific.  (via)
  • Advanced Vim Registers.  Or buffers, or clipboards, if you want to get messy with terms.  (via)
  • “I hate BSD so much!”, he yelled at his spittle-flecked monitor.
  • TOME, a roguelike.  Read through the comments for discussion of many other roguelike games.

Your unrelated link of the week: New Tokyo Ondo.  via Jesse Moynihan, whose Forming comic on that site is an epic read.  Epic, as in it’s actually telling a NSFW world creation story.