$filterdir/nbdkit-readahead-filter.so
The filter.
Use "nbdkit --dump-config" to find the location of $filterdir.
nbdkit-readahead-filter1
Prefetch data ahead of sequential reads
Usage
nbdkit --filter=readahead
PLUGIN
nbdkit --filter=readahead
--filter=cache
PLUGIN
nbdkit --filter=readahead
--filter=cow
PLUGIN
cow-on-cache=true
Overview
"nbdkit-readahead-filter" is a filter that prefetches data when the client is reading.
When the client issues a read, this filter issues a parallel prefetch (".cache") for subsequent data. Plugins which support this command will prefetch the data, making sequential reads faster. For plugins which do not support this command, you can inject nbdkit-cache-filter(1) below (after) this filter, giving approximately the same effect. nbdkit-cow-filter(1) can be used instead of nbdkit-cache-filter, if you add the "cow-on-cache=true" option.
The filter uses a simple adaptive algorithm which accelerates sequential reads and requires no further configuration.
A similar filter is nbdkit-scan-filter(1) which reads ahead over the whole disk, useful if you know that the client will be reading sequentially across most or all of the disk.
Limitations
In a number of significant cases this filter will do nothing. The filter will print a warning message if this happens.
- Thread model must be parallel
-
Use
"nbdkit PLUGIN --dump-plugin"to find the thread model of the underlying plugin. If it does not support the"parallel"thread model, this filter cannot perform prefetches in parallel with the read requests.We may be able to lift this restriction in future.
- Underlying filters or plugin must support ".cache" (prefetch)
-
Very many plugins do not have the concept of prefetching and/or do not implement the
".cache"callback, and so there is no way for this filter to issue prefetches.You can usually get around this by adding --filter=cache after this filter as explained above. It may be necessary to limit the total size of the cache (see "CACHE MAXIMUM SIZE" in nbdkit-cache-filter(1)).
- Clients and kernels may do readahead already
-
It may be the case that NBD clients are already issuing
"NBD_CMD_CACHE"(NBD prefetch) commands. It may also be the case that your plugin is using local file functions where the kernel is doing readahead. In such cases this filter is not necessary and may be pessimal.
Parameters
There are no parameters specific to nbdkit-readahead-filter. Any parameters are passed through to and processed by the underlying plugin in the normal way.
Files
Version
"nbdkit-readahead-filter" first appeared in nbdkit 1.12.
Releases
3 releases since Debian 11 (Bullseye); the text changed 2 times.