Dear Mel, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions. I will drop this one and look on further improving direct_reclaim and compaction. Just few more comments below before I close. Also, during this patch, I feel that the hibernation_mode part in shrink_all_memory can be corrected. So, can I separately submit the below patch? That is instead of hard-coding the hibernation_mode, we can get hibernation status using: system_entering_hibernation() Please let me know your suggestion about this changes. -#ifdef CONFIG_HIBERNATION +#if defined CONFIG_HIBERNATION || CONFIG_SHRINK_MEMORY /* * Try to free `nr_to_reclaim' of memory, system-wide, and return the number of * freed pages. @@ -3576,12 +3580,16 @@ unsigned long shrink_all_memory(unsigned long nr_to_reclaim) .may_writepage = 1, .may_unmap = 1, .may_swap = 1, - .hibernation_mode = 1, }; struct zonelist *zonelist = node_zonelist(numa_node_id(), sc.gfp_mask); struct task_struct *p = current; unsigned long nr_reclaimed; + if (system_entering_hibernation()) + sc.hibernation_mode = 1; + else + sc.hibernation_mode = 0; + p->flags |= PF_MEMALLOC; lockdep_set_current_reclaim_state(sc.gfp_mask); reclaim_state.reclaimed_slab = 0; @@ -3597,6 +3605,28 @@ unsigned long shrink_all_memory(unsigned long nr_to_reclaim) } #endif /* CONFIG_HIBERNATION */ > -----Original Message----- > From: Mel Gorman [mailto:mgorman@xxxxxxx] > Sent: Monday, July 20, 2015 11:26 PM > To: PINTU KUMAR > Cc: akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; corbet@xxxxxxx; vbabka@xxxxxxx; > gorcunov@xxxxxxxxxx; mhocko@xxxxxxx; emunson@xxxxxxxxxx; > kirill.shutemov@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; standby24x7@xxxxxxxxx; > hannes@xxxxxxxxxxx; vdavydov@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; hughd@xxxxxxxxxx; > minchan@xxxxxxxxxx; tj@xxxxxxxxxx; rientjes@xxxxxxxxxx; > xypron.glpk@xxxxxx; dzickus@xxxxxxxxxx; prarit@xxxxxxxxxx; > ebiederm@xxxxxxxxxxxx; rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx; uobergfe@xxxxxxxxxx; > paulmck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; iamjoonsoo.kim@xxxxxxx; ddstreet@xxxxxxxx; > sasha.levin@xxxxxxxxxx; koct9i@xxxxxxxxx; cj@xxxxxxxxx; > opensource.ganesh@xxxxxxxxx; vinmenon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; linux- > doc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; linux-kernel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; linux-mm@xxxxxxxxx; linux- > pm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx; qiuxishi@xxxxxxxxxx; Valdis.Kletnieks@xxxxxx; > cpgs@xxxxxxxxxxx; pintu_agarwal@xxxxxxxxx; vishnu.ps@xxxxxxxxxxx; > rohit.kr@xxxxxxxxxxx; iqbal.ams@xxxxxxxxxxx; pintu.ping@xxxxxxxxx; > pintu.k@xxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: Re: [PATCH v3 1/1] kernel/sysctl.c: Add /proc/sys/vm/shrink_memory > feature > > On Mon, Jul 20, 2015 at 09:43:02PM +0530, PINTU KUMAR wrote: > > Hi, > > > > Thank you all for reviewing the patch and providing your valuable > > comments and suggestions. > > During the ELC conference many people suggested to release the patch > > to mainline, so this patch, to get others opinion. > > > > Unfortunately, in my opinion it runs the risk of creating a different set of > problems. Either it needs to be run frequently to keep memory free which incurs > one set of penalties or it is used too late when there are > unmovable/unreclaimable pages preventing allocations succeeding in which case > you are back at the original problem. Yes, I completely agree with you that it needs to be invoked at the right time. Running it too late is of no benefit. > I see what you did and why it would work in some cases > but I think the main reason it works is because it's run frequently > enough so memory is never used. Yes, we ran frequently, but not so frequently and only when required. Actually, it gives us best result when calling shrink_memory plus compaction together, once after boot, and once during order-4 failure from kernel, or during suspend state. It reduced the slowpath count drastically (during 30 application launch test). VMSTAT WITHOUT WITH slowpath_entered 16659 1859 allocstall 298 149 pageoutrun 2699 1108 compact_stall 244 37 nr_free_cma 2560 2505 Anyways, I agree that if reclaimable pages or SWAP free is not enough, it does not yield good results. > Grouping pages by mobility actually took > advantage of a similar property when it increased min_free_kbytes but that was > much more limited than adding a giant hammer for userspace to reclaim the > world. > > > If you have any more suggestions to experiment and verify please let me know. > > > > I believe I already did. If it's high-order reliability that is important then you need > to either reserve the memory or look at protecting the pages using grouping > pages by mobility. I pointed out what series to look at and the leader explains > how it could be adjusted further for the embedded case if necessary. Thanks. I would definitely look into grouping pages by mobility and those series. > > If it's latency you are interested in then reclaim/compaction needs to be modified > to be more aggressive when it is somehow detected that the high-order > allocation must succeed for functional correctness. In that case the relational > starting point would be to look at should_continue_reclaim and how it relates to > compaction. > Thanks. Definitely I will do a deep dive into should_continue_reclaim. > > The suggestion was only to open up the shrink_all_memory API for some use > cases. > > > > I am not saying that it needs to be called continuously. It can be > > used only on certain condition and only when deemed necessary. > > The same technique is already used in hibernation to reduce the RAM > > snapshot image size. > > Reducing memory usage is not the same as guaranteeing that high-order pages > are available for allocation. > > -- > Mel Gorman > SUSE Labs -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-doc" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html