[master] 9bf73a3 Tidy up (and document) the advice parameter

Federico G. Schwindt fgsch at lodoss.net
Mon Nov 28 13:18:04 CET 2016


commit 9bf73a3bc038f93101aabf2fb7c5134a03e4e216
Author: Federico G. Schwindt <fgsch at lodoss.net>
Date:   Mon Nov 28 12:06:00 2016 +0000

    Tidy up (and document) the advice parameter

diff --git a/doc/sphinx/reference/varnishd.rst b/doc/sphinx/reference/varnishd.rst
index aff1f72..22991aa 100644
--- a/doc/sphinx/reference/varnishd.rst
+++ b/doc/sphinx/reference/varnishd.rst
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ The following storage types are available:
 
   malloc is a memory based backend.
 
--s <file,path[,size[,granularity]]>
+-s <file,path[,size[,granularity[,advice]]]>
 
   The file backend stores data in a file on disk. The file will be
   accessed using mmap.
@@ -209,6 +209,13 @@ The following storage types are available:
   Granularity sets the allocation block size. Defaults to the system
   page size or the filesystem block size, whichever is larger.
 
+  Advice tells the kernel how `varnishd` expects to use this mapped
+  region so that the kernel can choose the appropriate read-ahead
+  and caching techniques. Possible values are ``normal``, ``random``
+  and ``sequencial``, corresponding to MADV_NORMAL, MADV_RANDOM and
+  MADV_SEQUENTIAL madvise() advice argument, respectively. Defaults to
+  ``random``.
+
 -s <persistent,path,size>
 
   Persistent storage. Varnish will store objects in a file in a manner
diff --git a/doc/sphinx/users-guide/storage-backends.rst b/doc/sphinx/users-guide/storage-backends.rst
index 64e0b66..01dce9c 100644
--- a/doc/sphinx/users-guide/storage-backends.rst
+++ b/doc/sphinx/users-guide/storage-backends.rst
@@ -93,12 +93,15 @@ have many small objects.
 File performance is typically limited to the write speed of the
 device, and depending on use, the seek time.
 
-'advice' dictates what Varnish tells the system to optimize reads. Depending
-on your OS, disks and object sizes, it can be beneficial to tweak this. The
-three possible values are "normal", "random" (default) and "sequential" and
-correspond to MADV_NORMAL, MADV_RANDOM, MADV_SEQUENTIAL, respectively.
-For example, large objects and rotational disk should profit from "sequential"
-on Linux.
+The 'advice' parameter tells the kernel how `varnishd` expects to
+use this mapped region so that the kernel can choose the appropriate
+read-ahead and caching techniques.  Possible values are ``normal``,
+``random`` and ``sequencial``, corresponding to MADV_NORMAL, MADV_RANDOM
+and MADV_SEQUENTIAL madvise() advice argument, respectively.  Defaults to
+``random``.
+
+On Linux, large objects and rotational disk should benefit from
+"sequential".
 
 persistent (experimental)
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



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