Pre-coalescing the Phase-2.5 writer thread issued one `file.write_all`
syscall per `Cmd::Write` dequeued. The mux side calls
`WritebackFile::write_all(buf)` per PES frame, typically 30-200 KB.
On NFS that translates to one RPC per syscall, capping per-thread
throughput at `(wsize / rtt) × inflight` — well below what the same
disk delivers under a 1 MiB `dd oflag=direct` workload (empirical
2026-05-15: dd 71 MB/s vs mux ~25 MB/s sustained, with instantaneous
samples bursting 7→108 MB/s as the kernel page cache filled and
drained on its own cadence).
Coalesce instead: dequeue drains consecutive `Cmd::Write` items off
the ring up to a 1 MiB byte budget, returns them as
`DequeuedWork::Writes(Vec<Vec<u8>>)`, and the run loop concatenates
into one contiguous buffer and issues a single `file.write_all`.
Non-write commands (Seek, Flush, SyncAll, Finish) break the run and
are returned one at a time as `DequeuedWork::Other`, preserving their
ordering relative to the writes.
Single-buffer fast path avoids the concat allocation when only one
write is in the queue at dequeue time. A single oversize write (e.g.
the rare matroska cluster larger than 1 MiB) is admitted alone so it
still makes progress — the kernel splits internally.
This is generic across mediums: bigger app writes are at-least-as-
good on local SSD, HDD, or NFS. On fast storage the ring rarely fills
so coalescing is mostly a no-op; on slow storage with significant
per-RPC overhead it materially improves throughput.
Tests in `tests/` (write_then_drop_persists_bytes, sync_all_drains,
seek_then_patch_roundtrip, flush_is_observed_in_order) still pass —
ordering and durability semantics are unchanged.
MattJackson
fc13268dc6