Four targeted changes to maximize mux throughput regardless of storage
backend (local SSD, local HDD, NFS, network share) and surface enough
log data to diagnose 'mux slow' reports without a re-rip:
1. POSIX_FADV_SEQUENTIAL on FileSectorSource::open (Linux only).
Widens the kernel readahead window for sequential ISO reads. One
syscall at open, free on every storage type.
2. POSIX_FADV_DONTNEED on the ISO read side after every 32 MiB chunk.
Mirrors the writeback DONTNEED that already runs on the write
side. Keeps the read-side page cache bounded during multi-GB ISO
reads — eliminates the OOM-pressure / eviction-storm risk on
long mux runs. Linux only; per-drop trace at target="mux".
3. WritebackFile::create_with_size_hint(path, size_bytes) calls
fallocate(FALLOC_FL_KEEP_SIZE) on Linux to pre-reserve extents
for the output. Reported file size stays 0 (writes grow it
naturally) but the on-disk extent allocation is contiguous —
reduces extent fragmentation for big sequential muxes. Wired
into mkv:// and m2ts:// output paths via DiscTitle::size_bytes.
No-op on macOS/Windows; old create() kept with #[allow(dead_code)]
for callers without a size hint.
4. Adaptive WRITEBACK_CHUNK_BYTES in the Linux writeback pipeline.
Tracks sync_file_range(WAIT_AFTER) elapsed_ms in a rolling
16-sample window. p95 > 200 ms → double chunk size (cap 256 MiB).
p95 < 20 ms → halve (floor 4 MiB). One algorithm, both
fast-storage (small chunks, responsive) and slow-storage (big
chunks, fewer commit round-trips) optimized. Per-chunk trace +
per-32-chunk debug snapshot + info-on-resize so an operator can
see where the autoscaler settled.
All four are universal — no storage-type detection, no env vars to
flip, no per-deploy tuning required. Total +201/-6 across four files.
Pass 1 sweep speed on a healthy disc previously dipped from ~15 MB/s
to ~1 MB/s every ~30 s on a host with default Linux dirty-page
settings. Empirical cause: the kernel's vm.dirty_ratio (~20% of RAM)
lets hundreds of MB of dirty pages accumulate, then bursts a flush at
99% disk utilisation that blocks app writes for ~1 s. Confirmed on
the BU40N test bed — dirty pages grew 112 → 563 MB between bursts;
lowering vm.dirty_bytes to 64 MB at the host sysctl level eliminated
the dips. Shipping the equivalent inside libfreemkv so users do not
need to tune the host kernel.
- New crate::io::Writer: drop-in File wrapper (impl Write + Seek).
Wraps a per-platform WritebackPipeline that on Linux schedules
sync_file_range(WRITE) + lagging sync_file_range(WAIT_AFTER) +
posix_fadvise(DONTNEED) in 32 MB chunks, bounding dirty cache at
~64 MB. macOS and Windows ship a no-op stub.
- Disc::sweep wraps its output File in Writer. Loop body unchanged.
- Module is purpose-built so any large sequential output (patch,
mux) can adopt the same wrapper as a one-line change later.
MattJackson