Re: [PATCH 0/2] new API to allocate buffer-cache for superblock in non-movable area

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2014-07-31 오전 9:03, Jan Kara 쓴 글:
On Thu 31-07-14 08:54:40, Gioh Kim wrote:
2014-07-30 오후 7:11, Jan Kara 쓴 글:
On Wed 30-07-14 16:44:24, Gioh Kim wrote:
2014-07-22 오후 6:38, Jan Kara 쓴 글:
On Tue 22-07-14 09:30:05, Peter Zijlstra wrote:
On Tue, Jul 22, 2014 at 02:18:47PM +0900, Gioh Kim wrote:
Hello,

This patch try to solve problem that a long-lasting page cache of
ext4 superblock disturbs page migration.

I've been testing CMA feature on my ARM-based platform
and found some pages for page caches cannot be migrated.
Some of them are page caches of superblock of ext4 filesystem.

Current ext4 reads superblock with sb_bread(). sb_bread() allocates page
>from movable area. But the problem is that ext4 hold the page until
it is unmounted. If root filesystem is ext4 the page cannot be migrated forever.

I introduce a new API for allocating page from non-movable area.
It is useful for ext4 and others that want to hold page cache for a long time.

There's no word on why you can't teach ext4 to still migrate that page.
For all I know it might be impossible, but at least mention why.

I am very sorry for lacking of details.

In ext4_fill_super() the buffer-head of superblock is stored in sbi->s_sbh.
The page belongs to the buffer-head is allocated from movable area.
To migrate the page the buffer-head should be released via brelse().
But brelse() is not called until unmount.
   Hum, I don't see where in the code do we check buffer_head use count. Can
you please point me? Thanks.

Filesystem code does not check buffer_head use count.  sb_bread() returns
the buffer_head that is included in bh_lru and has non-zero use count.
You can see the bh_lru code in buffer.c: __find_get_clock() and
lookup_bh_lru().  bh_lru_install() inserts the buffer_head into the
bh_lru().  It first calls get_bh() to increase the use count and insert
bh into the lru array.

The buffer_head use count is non-zero until brelse() is called.
   So I probably didn't phrase the question precisely enough. What I was
asking about is where exactly *migration* code checks buffer use count?
Because as I'm looking at buffer_migrate_page() we lock the buffers on a
migrated page but we don't look at buffer use counts... So it seems to me
that migration of a page with buffers should succeed even if buffer head
has an elevated use count. Now I think that it *should* check the buffer
use counts (it is dangerous to migrate buffers someone holds reference to)
but I just cannot find that place. Or does CMA use some other migration
function for buffer pages than buffer_migrate_page()?

CMA allocation function is cma_alloc().
Function flow is alloc_contig_range() -> __alloc_contig_migrate_range() -> migrate_pages -> unmap_and_move
-> __unmap_and_move -> try_to_free_buffers -> drop_buffers -> buffer_busy.

The buffer_busy() is checking b_count.
If buffer is busy buffer-cache cannot be removed.
So the page that includes buffer_head and the page that is refered by buffer_head are not movable.

Is this what you need?


								Honza

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