What's new in Linux kernel for PostgreSQL
7 hours ago
- #PostgreSQL
- #Database Optimization
- #Linux Kernel
- Linux kernel changes are being explored for their potential benefits to PostgreSQL, focusing on recent and interesting developments.
- Uncached buffered IO (RWF_DONTCACHE) improves performance under memory pressure by using page cache without leaving data in cache post-operation.
- Untorn writes (RWF_ATOMIC) leverage NVMe/SCSI atomic write support to prevent partial page writes, though currently limited to direct IO.
- Cachestat syscall offers a scalable way to query page cache state, useful for databases to predict IO impact and optimize scans.
- BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter) enables kernel customization, with proposals for schedulers (sched_ext), cache eviction (cache_ext), io_uring, and OOM killer tailored for database needs.