BUFFERCACHE(9)

NAME
buffercache, bread, breadn, bwrite, bawrite, bdwrite, getblk, geteblk, incore, allocbuf, brelse, biodone, biowait - buffer cache interfaces

SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/buf.h>
int
bread(struct vnode *vp, daddr_t blkno, int size, struct buf **bpp);
int
breadn(struct vnode *vp, daddr_t blkno, int size, daddr_t rablks[], int rasizes[], int nrablks, struct buf **bpp);
int
bwrite(struct buf *bp);
void
bawrite(struct buf *bp);
void
bdwrite(struct buf *bp);
struct buf *
getblk(struct vnode *vp, daddr_t blkno, int size, int slpflag, int slptimeo);
struct buf *
geteblk(int size);
struct buf *
incore(struct vnode *vp, daddr_t blkno);
void
allocbuf(struct buf *bp, int size);
void
brelse(struct buf *bp);
void
biodone(struct buf *bp);
int
biowait(struct buf *bp);

DESCRIPTION
The buffercache interface is used by each filesystem to improve I/O performance using in-core caches of filesystem blocks.

The kernel memory used to cache a block is called a buffer and described by a buf structure. In addition to describing a cached block, a buf structure is also used to describe an I/O request as a part of the disk driver interface.

FUNCTIONS

bread(vp, blkno, size, bpp)
    Read a block corresponding to vp and blkno. The buffer is returned via bpp.

    If the buffer is not found (i.e. the block is not cached in memory), bread() calls getblk() to allocate a buffer with enough pages for size and reads the specified disk block into it.

    The buffer returned by bread() is marked as busy. (The B_BUSY flag is set.) After manipulation of the buffer returned from bread(), the caller should unbusy it so that another thread can get it. If the buffer contents are modified and should be written back to disk, it should be unbusied using one of the variants of bwrite(). Otherwise, it should be unbusied using brelse().

    breadn(vp, blkno, size, rablks, rasizes, nrablks, bpp) Get a buffer as bread(). In addition, breadn() will start read-ahead of blocks specified by rablks, rasizes, and nrablks. The read-ahead blocks aren't returned, but are available in cache for future accesses.

bwrite(bp)
    Write a block. Start I/O for write using VOP_STRATEGY(). Then, unless the B_ASYNC flag is set in bp, bwrite() waits for the I/O to complete.

bawrite(bp)
    Write a block asynchronously. Set the B_ASYNC flag in bp and simply call VOP_BWRITE(), which results in bwrite() for most filesystems.

bdwrite(bp)
    Delayed write. Unlike bawrite(), bdwrite() won't start any I/O. It only marks the buffer as dirty (B_DELWRI) and unbusies it. This routine should be used when the buffer is expected to be modified again soon, typically a small write that partially fills a buffer.

getblk(vp, blkno, size, slpflag, slptimeo)
    Get a block of requested size size that is associated with a given vnode and block offset, specified by vp and blkno. If it is found in the block cache, mark it as having been found, make it busy and return it. Otherwise, return an empty block of the correct size. It is up to the caller to ensure that the cached blocks are of the correct size.

    If getblk() needs to sleep, slpflag and slptimeo are used as arguments for tsleep().

geteblk(size)
    Allocate an empty, disassociated block of a given size size.

incore(vp, blkno)
    Determine if a block associated with a given vnode and block offset is in the cache. If it is there, return a pointer to it. Note that incore() doesn't mark the buffer as busy unlike getblk().

allocbuf(bp, size)
    Expand or contract the actual memory allocated to a buffer. If the buffer shrinks, the truncated part of the data is lost, so it is up to the caller to have written it out first if needed; this routine will not start a write. If the buffer grows, it is the caller's responsibility to fill out the buffer's additional contents.

brelse(bp)
    Unlock a buffer by clearing the B_AGE, B_ASYNC, B_BUSY, B_NOCACHE, and B_DEFERRED flags and release it to the free lists.

biodone(bp)
    Mark I/O complete on a buffer. If a callback has been requested by B_CALL, do so. Otherwise, wake up the waiting processes.

biowait(bp)
    Wait for operations on the buffer to complete. When they do, extract and return the I/O's error value. If the operation on the buffer is being done via a direct call to a strategy() type function, then the buffer must be previously initialized with the B_RAW flag.

CODE REFERENCES
This section describes places within the OpenBSD source tree where actual code implementing the buffer cache subsystem can be found. All pathnames are relative to /usr/src.

The buffer cache subsystem is implemented within the file sys/kern/vfs_bio.c.

SEE ALSO
intro(9), vnode(9), VOP_STRATEGY(9) Maurice J. Bach, The Design of the UNIX Operating System, Prentice Hall, 1986. Marshall Kirk McKusick, Keith Bostic, Michael J. Karels, John S. Quarterman, The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating System, Addison Wesley, 1996. Leffler, et. al., The Design and Implementation of the 4.3 BSD Unix Operating System, Addison Wesley, 1989.