[patch] longstanding elevator infinite starvation fix

[Andrea Arcangeli]

In the last days I discovered and fixed a very longstanding serious bug
(it's included in all version of linux I seen).

This is the source of the famous write stall. Basically it's why while you
are writing heavily to disk the machine hangs. That's why "linux never
reacted smootly to disk writes".

This patch I developed fixes completly the elevator infinite starvation.
This is been my approch to the problem but I am still doing research on
it (thus expect further patches in the next days).

	ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/andrea/patches/v2.2/2.2.14/elevator-starvation-1.gz

The patch is rock solid (and strightforward) so you can just use it for
production until I'll finish developing a better solution. (is just
included into 2.2.14aa3, btw)

If you'll try it please try to make some comparison and feedback. Thanks!

Andrea


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