lfsr: add HOWTO and man page documentation

[fio.git] / fio.1

diff --git a/fio.1 b/fio.1
index 08d6c0f4ba3da66191ba855de21f60a4ed0b838c..7c622938b1360cbd7497c605fa891d5831b26857 100644 (file)
--- a/fio.1
+++ b/fio.1
@@ -580,6 +580,32 @@ overrides the first. This may interfere with a given rate setting, if fio is
 asked to limit reads or writes to a certain rate. If that is the case, then
 the distribution may be skewed. Default: 50.
 .TP
+.BI random_distribution \fR=\fPstr:float
+By default, fio will use a completely uniform random distribution when asked
+to perform random IO. Sometimes it is useful to skew the distribution in
+specific ways, ensuring that some parts of the data is more hot than others.
+Fio includes the following distribution models:
+.RS
+.TP
+.B random
+Uniform random distribution
+.TP
+.B zipf
+Zipf distribution
+.TP
+.B pareto
+Pareto distribution
+.TP
+.RE
+.P
+When using a zipf or pareto distribution, an input value is also needed to
+define the access pattern. For zipf, this is the zipf theta. For pareto,
+it's the pareto power. Fio includes a test program, genzipf, that can be
+used visualize what the given input values will yield in terms of hit rates.
+If you wanted to use zipf with a theta of 1.2, you would use
+random_distribution=zipf:1.2 as the option. If a non-uniform model is used,
+fio will disable use of the random map.
+.TP
 .B norandommap
 Normally \fBfio\fR will cover every block of the file when doing random I/O. If
 this parameter is given, a new offset will be chosen without looking at past
@@ -591,6 +617,26 @@ fails to allocate the map, if this option is set it will continue without a
 random block map. As coverage will not be as complete as with random maps, this
 option is disabled by default.
 .TP
+.BI random_generator \fR=\fPstr
+Fio supports the following engines for generating IO offsets for random IO:
+.RS
+.TP
+.B tausworthe
+Strong 2^88 cycle random number generator
+.TP
+.B lfsr
+Linear feedback shift register generator
+.TP
+.RE
+.P
+Tausworthe is a strong random number generator, but it requires tracking on the
+side if we want to ensure that blocks are only read or written once. LFSR
+guarantees that we never generate the same offset twice, and it's also less
+computationally expensive. It's not a true random generator, however, though
+for IO purposes it's typically good enough. LFSR only works with single block
+sizes, not with workloads that use multiple block sizes. If used with such a
+workload, fio may read or write some blocks multiple times.
+.TP
 .BI nice \fR=\fPint
 Run job with given nice value.  See \fInice\fR\|(2).
 .TP