-iv. Handling barrier cases
-A request with flags REQ_HARDBARRIER or REQ_SOFTBARRIER must not be ordered
-around. That is, they must be processed after all older requests, and before
-any newer ones. This includes merges!
-
-In AS and deadline schedulers, barriers have the effect of flushing the reorder
-queue. The performance cost of this will vary from nothing to a lot depending
-on i/o patterns and device characteristics. Obviously they won't improve
-performance, so their use should be kept to a minimum.
-
-v. Handling insertion position directives
-A request may be inserted with a position directive. The directives are one of
-ELEVATOR_INSERT_BACK, ELEVATOR_INSERT_FRONT, ELEVATOR_INSERT_SORT.
-
-ELEVATOR_INSERT_SORT is a general directive for non-barrier requests.
-ELEVATOR_INSERT_BACK is used to insert a barrier to the back of the queue.
-ELEVATOR_INSERT_FRONT is used to insert a barrier to the front of the queue, and
-overrides the ordering requested by any previous barriers. In practice this is
-harmless and required, because it is used for SCSI requeueing. This does not
-require flushing the reorder queue, so does not impose a performance penalty.
-
-vi. Plugging the queue to batch requests in anticipation of opportunities for
- merge/sort optimizations