On Thu, 29 May 2008 22:20:52 +1000 npiggin@xxxxxxx wrote: > Introduce a new get_user_pages_fast mm API, which is basically a get_user_pages > with a less general API (but still tends to be suited to the common case): > > - task and mm are always current and current->mm > - force is always 0 > - pages is always non-NULL > - don't pass back vmas > > This restricted API can be implemented in a much more scalable way on > many architectures when the ptes are present, by walking the page tables > locklessly (no mmap_sem or page table locks). When the ptes are not > populated, get_user_pages_fast() could be slower. > > This is implemented locklessly on x86, and used in some key direct IO call > sites, in later patches, which provides nearly 10% performance improvement > on a threaded database workload. > > Lots of other code could use this too, depending on use cases (eg. grep > drivers/). And it might inspire some new and clever ways to use it. > > ... > > --- linux-2.6.orig/include/linux/mm.h > +++ linux-2.6/include/linux/mm.h > @@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ > #include <linux/prio_tree.h> > #include <linux/debug_locks.h> > #include <linux/mm_types.h> > +#include <linux/uaccess.h> /* for __HAVE_ARCH_GET_USER_PAGES_FAST */ > That breaks ia64: In file included from include/linux/mm.h:15, from include/asm/uaccess.h:39, from include/linux/poll.h:13, from include/linux/rtc.h:113, from include/linux/efi.h:19, from include/asm/sal.h:40, from include/asm-ia64/mca.h:20, from arch/ia64/kernel/asm-offsets.c:17: include/linux/uaccess.h: In function `__copy_from_user_inatomic_nocache': include/linux/uaccess.h:46: error: implicit declaration of function `__copy_from_user_inatomic' include/linux/uaccess.h: In function `__copy_from_user_nocache': include/linux/uaccess.h:52: error: implicit declaration of function `__copy_from_user' It shouldn't have been a __HAVE_ARCH_whatever anyway - it should have been a CONFIG_whatever. I'll fix it. -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-arch" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html