Subject: New hash algorithm - FNV - for use in the kernel
To: None <tech-perform@netbsd.org>
From: Luke Mewburn <lukem@wasabisystems.com>
List: tech-kern
Date: 11/27/2001 15:52:18
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I recently added <sys/fnv_hash.h> (from FreeBSD), which provides an
implementation of the Fowler / Noll / Vo (FNV) hash, as described at:
	http://www.isthe.com/chongo/tech/comp/fnv/

I've done some initial investigation and testing of the effectiveness
of this hash algorithm, and I'm getting similar improvements that
Peter Wemm (of FreeBSD) found when he switched parts of FreeBSD over
to using the FNV hash.

There is a potential issue however; FNV uses multiply (*) and xor (^),
whereas a lot of the existing hashes on strings and buffers just use 
addition (+). Whilst FNV has much better distribution than the latter,
it will be slower on platforms without hardware multiply. The question
is as to whether the reduction in hash collisions (and the subsequent
following of collision list chains) is effective on these systems.

Using the nfs client node (nfsnodehash) as an example, here's some
results I achieved by:
	- applying the attached diff to sys/nfs/nfs_node.c
	- running the attached benchmark
	- changing the value of nfs_hash_fnv to 1 to enable the
	  use of fnv_32_buf() in nfs_hash()
	- re-running the attached benchmark

Results
-------


1) vmstat -h nfsnodehash:
			    total     used     util      num  average  maximum
	hash table        buckets  buckets        %    items    chain    chain
	----------------------------------------------------------------------

    with existing nfs_hash():
	nfsnodehash         65536     1000     1.53    34688       34      105

    using fnv_32_buf()
	nfsnodehash         65536    27054    41.28    34867        1        6


	There's much better distribution with the fnv_32 code.


2) kernel profiling, and examining the hits on nfs_nget() and nfs_hash():

	  %   cumulative   self              self     total           
	 time   seconds   seconds    calls  ns/call  ns/call  name    
	--------------------------------------------------------------

    with existing nfs_hash():
	  0.60    194.78     1.48    83303    17.77    21.47  nfs_nget
	  0.01    228.36     0.02    83303     0.24     0.24  nfs_hash

    using fnv_32_buf()
	  0.03    213.41     0.06    83305     0.72     2.35  nfs_nget
	  0.02    213.87     0.05    83305     0.60     0.60  nfs_hash

	nfs_hash() is more expensive in the second case, but nfs_nget is
	much more efficient because of the reduced hash collisions.


3) The actual benchmark

	This is an 'ls -Rf' of an nfs mountpoint which has
	approximately 330,000 files.  The actual time to run
	this took approximately the same amount of time in
	both cases.


It would be interesting to see the test results from other people.
Here's the patch, and the benchmark. You'll need a -current vmstat(1).

I'm going to cut over to using fnv_32_buf() as the guts of nfs_hash()
in a couple of days unless there's some results that show that this
will be a bad idea on the `no hardware multiply' platforms.

Luke.


-- 
Luke Mewburn  <lukem@wasabisystems.com>  http://www.wasabisystems.com
Luke Mewburn     <lukem@netbsd.org>      http://www.netbsd.org
Wasabi Systems - NetBSD hackers for hire
NetBSD - the world's most portable UNIX-like operating system

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Index: nfs/nfs_node.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/syssrc/sys/nfs/nfs_node.c,v
retrieving revision 1.47
diff -p -p -u -r1.47 nfs_node.c
--- nfs/nfs_node.c	2001/11/10 10:59:09	1.47
+++ nfs/nfs_node.c	2001/11/27 04:49:37
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ __KERNEL_RCSID(0, "$NetBSD: nfs_node.c,v
 #include <sys/malloc.h>
 #include <sys/pool.h>
 #include <sys/lock.h>
+#include <sys/fnv_hash.h>
 
 #include <nfs/rpcv2.h>
 #include <nfs/nfsproto.h>
@@ -143,6 +144,8 @@ nfs_nhdone()
 	pool_destroy(&nfs_vattr_pool);
 }
 
+int nfs_hash_fnv = 0;
+
 /*
  * Compute an entry in the NFS hash table structure
  */
@@ -155,6 +158,9 @@ nfs_hash(fhp, fhsize)
 	u_long fhsum;
 	int i;
 
+	if (nfs_hash_fnv)
+		return fnv_32_buf(fhp->fh_bytes, fhsize, FNV1_32_INIT);
+		
 	fhpp = &fhp->fh_bytes[0];
 	fhsum = 0;
 	for (i = 0; i < fhsize; i++)

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#!/bin/sh

MOUNTPOINT=`mktemp -d /tmp/nfsXXXXXX` || exit 1
DATE=`date +'%y%m%d-%H%M%S'`
trap "umount $MOUNTPOINT; rmdir $MOUNTPOINT; exit 0" EXIT INT QUIT PIPE

LISTDIR=$MOUNTPOINT

(

mount -o rdonly argo:/z $MOUNTPOINT || exit 1

echo ""
echo "nfs_fnv_hash value:"
echo 'print nfs_hash_fnv' | gdb -q /netbsd
echo ""

echo ""
echo "nfs_node hash stats:"
vmstat -h nfsnodehash

echo ""
echo "starting kernel profile:"
kgmon -br

echo ""
echo "ls -Rf $LISTDIR"
echo "begin: "`date`
ls -Rf $LISTDIR >/dev/null
echo "end:   "`date`

echo ""
echo "stopping kernel profile:"
kgmon -h

echo ""
echo "nfs_node hash stats:"
vmstat -h nfsnodehash

echo ""
echo "generating $DATE.gmon"
kgmon -p
mv gmon.out $DATE.gmon

echo ""
echo "generating $DATE.profile from $DATE.gmon"
gprof /netbsd.gdb $DATE.gmon > $DATE.profile

echo ""

) | tee $DATE.out

exit 0

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