Add LICENSE to Windows installer, fix filename extensions and update URL.

[fio.git] / README

diff --git a/README b/README
index 163ee38dd5ee9a7eacd15dc798e2048ecacd8196..4f796e3003e3cfad62cdb2c3021f12dba211706a 100644 (file)
--- a/README
+++ b/README
@@ -16,7 +16,10 @@ fio resides in a git repo, the canonical place is:
 
 git://git.kernel.dk/fio.git
 
 
 git://git.kernel.dk/fio.git
 

-The http protocol also works, path is the same.
+If you are inside a corporate firewall, git:// may not always work for
+you. In that case you can use the http protocol, path is the same:
+
+http://git.kernel.dk/fio.git

 
 Snapshots are frequently generated and they include the git meta data as
 well. You can download them here:
 
 Snapshots are frequently generated and they include the git meta data as
 well. You can download them here:


@@ -36,11 +39,6 @@ Starting with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (aka "Lucid Lynx"), fio packages are part
 of the Ubuntu "universe" repository.
 http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=fio
 
 of the Ubuntu "universe" repository.
 http://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=fio
 

-SUSE:
-Pascal Bleser <guru@unixtech.be> has fio RPMs in his repository for SUSE
-variants, you can find them here:
-http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/rpm-navigation.php?cat=System/fio
-

 Red Hat, CentOS & Co:
 Dag Wieërs has RPMs for Red Hat related distros, find them here:
 http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/fio/
 Red Hat, CentOS & Co:
 Dag Wieërs has RPMs for Red Hat related distros, find them here:
 http://dag.wieers.com/rpm/packages/fio/


@@ -56,7 +54,7 @@ tool (http://www.opencsw.org/get-it/pkgutil/) and then install fio via
 
 Windows:
 Bruce Cran <bruce@cran.org.uk> has fio packages for Windows at
 
 Windows:
 Bruce Cran <bruce@cran.org.uk> has fio packages for Windows at

-http://www.bluestop.org/fio .
+http://www.bluestop.org/fio/ .

 
 
 Mailing list
 
 
 Mailing list


@@ -106,21 +104,29 @@ based distros, it's typically called libaio-devel.
 Windows
 -------
 
 Windows
 -------
 

-On Windows Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com) is required with at least
-devel/gcc4 and devel/make installed in order to build fio, and
-admin/cygrunsrv to run it. You can also install devel/git to fetch/update
-the source files. To create an MSI installer package put a copy of Cygwin
-in os\windows\fio, install WiX 3.6 from http://wix.sourceforge.net/releases/
-and run dobuild.cmd from the os/windows directory.
+On Windows Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/) is required in order to
+build fio. To create an MSI installer package install WiX 3.7 from
+http://wixtoolset.org and run dobuild.cmd from the
+os/windows directory.
+
+How to compile FIO on 64-bit Windows:
+
+ 1. Install Cygwin (http://www.cygwin.com/setup.exe). Install 'make' and all
+    packages starting with 'mingw64-i686' and 'mingw64-x86_64'.
+ 2. Download ftp://sourceware.org/pub/pthreads-win32/prebuilt-dll-2-9-1-release/dll/x64/pthreadGC2.dll
+    and copy to the fio source directory.
+ 3. Open the Cygwin Terminal.
+ 4. Go to the fio directory (source files).
+ 5. Run 'make clean'.
+ 6. Run 'make'.

 
 

-Before running fio you'll need to have a copy of cygserver running. Run 
-"/usr/bin/cygserver-config" from an elevated Cygwin shell (i.e. launch the
-Cygwin shell under the Administrator account) to configure it. Once
-configured, run "net start cygserver" to start it, or type
-"/usr/sbin/cygserver &" in the Cygwin shell to start a local copy. 
+To build fio on 32-bit Windows, download x86/pthreadGC2.dll instead and do
+'./configure --build-32bit-win=yes' before 'make'.

 
 

-If fio exits with the message "Bad system call" it normally means that
-Cygserver isn't running.
+It's recommended that once built or installed, fio be run in a Command Prompt
+or other 'native' console such as console2, since there are known to be display
+and signal issues when running it under a Cygwin shell
+(see http://code.google.com/p/mintty/issues/detail?id=56 for details).

 
 
 Command line
 
 
 Command line


@@ -129,23 +135,33 @@ Command line
 $ fio
        --debug                 Enable some debugging options (see below)
        --output                Write output to file
 $ fio
        --debug                 Enable some debugging options (see below)
        --output                Write output to file

-       --timeout               Runtime in seconds
-       --latency-log   Generate per-job latency logs
-       --bandwidth-log Generate per-job bandwidth logs
+       --runtime               Runtime in seconds
+       --latency-log           Generate per-job latency logs
+       --bandwidth-log         Generate per-job bandwidth logs

        --minimal               Minimal (terse) output
        --minimal               Minimal (terse) output

+       --output-format=type    Output format (terse,json,normal)
+       --terse-version=type    Terse version output format (default 3, or 2 or 4).

        --version               Print version info and exit
        --help                  Print this page
        --version               Print version info and exit
        --help                  Print this page

-       --cmdhelp=cmd   Print command help, "all" for all of them
+       --cpuclock-test         Perform test/validation of CPU clock
+       --cmdhelp=cmd           Print command help, "all" for all of them
+       --enghelp=engine        Print ioengine help, or list available ioengines
+       --enghelp=engine,cmd    Print help for an ioengine cmd

        --showcmd               Turn a job file into command line options
        --readonly              Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing
        --showcmd               Turn a job file into command line options
        --readonly              Turn on safety read-only checks, preventing

-                                       writes
+                               writes

        --eta=when              When ETA estimate should be printed
        --eta=when              When ETA estimate should be printed

-                                       May be "always", "never" or "auto"
-       --section=name  Only run specified section in job file. Multiple
-                               sections can be specified.
-       --alloc-size=kb Set smalloc pool to this size in kb (def 1024)
-       --warnings-fatal Fio parser warnings are fatal
+                               May be "always", "never" or "auto"
+       --section=name          Only run specified section in job file.
+                               Multiple sections can be specified.
+       --alloc-size=kb         Set smalloc pool to this size in kb (def 1024)
+       --warnings-fatal        Fio parser warnings are fatal

        --max-jobs              Maximum number of threads/processes to support
        --max-jobs              Maximum number of threads/processes to support

+       --server=args           Start backend server. See Client/Server section.
+       --client=host           Connect to specified backend.
+       --idle-prof=option      Report cpu idleness on a system or percpu basis
+                               (option=system,percpu) or run unit work
+                               calibration only (option=calibrate).

 
 
 Any parameters following the options will be assumed to be job files,
 
 
 Any parameters following the options will be assumed to be job files,


@@ -164,11 +180,11 @@ options in fio. Currently the options are:
 
        process         Dump info related to processes
        file            Dump info related to file actions
 
        process         Dump info related to processes
        file            Dump info related to file actions

-       io                      Dump info related to IO queuing
-       mem                     Dump info related to memory allocations
+       io              Dump info related to IO queuing
+       mem             Dump info related to memory allocations

        blktrace        Dump info related to blktrace setup
        verify          Dump info related to IO verification
        blktrace        Dump info related to blktrace setup
        verify          Dump info related to IO verification

-       all                     Enable all debug options
+       all             Enable all debug options

        random          Dump info related to random offset generation
        parse           Dump info related to option matching and parsing
        diskutil        Dump info related to disk utilization updates
        random          Dump info related to random offset generation
        parse           Dump info related to option matching and parsing
        diskutil        Dump info related to disk utilization updates


@@ -235,10 +251,11 @@ The job file parameters are:
                        readv/writev (with queuing emulation) mmap for mmap'ed
                        io, syslet-rw for syslet driven read/write, splice for
                        using splice/vmsplice, sg for direct SG_IO io, net
                        readv/writev (with queuing emulation) mmap for mmap'ed
                        io, syslet-rw for syslet driven read/write, splice for
                        using splice/vmsplice, sg for direct SG_IO io, net

-                       for network io, or cpuio for a cycler burner load. sg
-                       only works on Linux on SCSI (or SCSI-like devices, such
-                       as usb-storage or sata/libata driven) devices. Fio also
-                       has a null io engine, which is mainly used for testing
+                       for network io, rdma for RDMA io, or cpuio for a
+                       cycler burner load. sg only works on Linux on
+                       SCSI (or SCSI-like devices, such as usb-storage or
+                       sata/libata driven) devices. Fio also has a null
+                       io engine, which is mainly used for testing

                        fio itself.
 
        iodepth=x       For async io, allow 'x' ios in flight
                        fio itself.
 
        iodepth=x       For async io, allow 'x' ios in flight


@@ -257,6 +274,11 @@ The job file parameters are:
        ratecycle=x     ratemin averaged over x msecs
        cpumask=x       Only allow job to run on CPUs defined by mask.
        cpus_allowed=x  Like 'cpumask', but allow text setting of CPU affinity.
        ratecycle=x     ratemin averaged over x msecs
        cpumask=x       Only allow job to run on CPUs defined by mask.
        cpus_allowed=x  Like 'cpumask', but allow text setting of CPU affinity.

+       numa_cpu_nodes=x,y-z  Allow job to run on specified NUMA nodes' CPU.
+       numa_mem_policy=m:x,y-z  Setup numa memory allocation policy.
+                       'm' stands for policy, such as local, interleave,
+                       bind, prefer, local. 'x, y-z' are numa node(s) for
+                       memory allocation according to policy.

        fsync=x         If writing with buffered IO, fsync after every
                        'x' blocks have been written.
        end_fsync=x     If 'x', run fsync() after end-of-job.
        fsync=x         If writing with buffered IO, fsync after every
                        'x' blocks have been written.
        end_fsync=x     If 'x', run fsync() after end-of-job.


@@ -289,11 +311,8 @@ The job file parameters are:
                        can be used to gauge hard drive speed over the entire
                        platter, without reading everything. Both x/y can
                        include k/m/g suffix.
                        can be used to gauge hard drive speed over the entire
                        platter, without reading everything. Both x/y can
                        include k/m/g suffix.

-       iolog=x         Open and read io pattern from file 'x'. The file must
-                       contain one io action per line in the following format:
-                       rw, offset, length
-                       where with rw=0/1 for read/write, and the offset
-                       and length entries being in bytes.
+       read_iolog=x    Open and read io pattern from file 'x'. The file format
+                        is described in the HOWTO.

        write_iolog=x   Write an iolog to file 'x' in the same format as iolog.
                        The iolog options are exclusive, if both given the
                        read iolog will be performed.  Specify a separate file
        write_iolog=x   Write an iolog to file 'x' in the same format as iolog.
                        The iolog options are exclusive, if both given the
                        read iolog will be performed.  Specify a separate file


@@ -314,6 +333,63 @@ The job file parameters are:
 
 
 
 
 
 

+Client/server
+------------
+
+Normally you would run fio as a stand-alone application on the machine
+where the IO workload should be generated. However, it is also possible to
+run the frontend and backend of fio separately. This makes it possible to
+have a fio server running on the machine(s) where the IO workload should
+be running, while controlling it from another machine.
+
+To start the server, you would do:
+
+fio --server=args
+
+on that machine, where args defines what fio listens to. The arguments
+are of the form 'type,hostname or IP,port'. 'type' is either 'ip' (or ip4)
+for TCP/IP v4, 'ip6' for TCP/IP v6, or 'sock' for a local unix domain socket.
+'hostname' is either a hostname or IP address, and 'port' is the port to
+listen to (only valid for TCP/IP, not a local socket). Some examples:
+
+1) fio --server
+
+   Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on the default port (8765).
+
+2) fio --server=ip:hostname,4444
+
+   Start a fio server, listening on IP belonging to hostname and on port 4444.
+
+3) fio --server=ip6:::1,4444
+
+   Start a fio server, listening on IPv6 localhost ::1 and on port 4444.
+
+4) fio --server=,4444
+
+   Start a fio server, listening on all interfaces on port 4444.
+
+5) fio --server=1.2.3.4
+
+   Start a fio server, listening on IP 1.2.3.4 on the default port.
+
+6) fio --server=sock:/tmp/fio.sock
+
+   Start a fio server, listening on the local socket /tmp/fio.sock.
+
+When a server is running, you can connect to it from a client. The client
+is run with:
+
+fio --local-args --client=server --remote-args <job file(s)>
+
+where --local-args are arguments that are local to the client where it is
+running, 'server' is the connect string, and --remote-args and <job file(s)>
+are sent to the server. The 'server' string follows the same format as it
+does on the server side, to allow IP/hostname/socket and port strings.
+You can connect to multiple clients as well, to do that you could run:
+
+fio --client=server2 <job file(s)> --client=server2 <job file(s)>
+
+

 Platforms
 ---------
 
 Platforms
 ---------