On Wed, Oct 30, 2024 at 03:51:08PM GMT, Joanne Koong wrote: > On Wed, Oct 30, 2024 at 3:17 PM Bernd Schubert > <bernd.schubert@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > > > > > > On 10/30/24 22:56, Shakeel Butt wrote: > > > On Wed, Oct 30, 2024 at 10:35:47AM GMT, Joanne Koong wrote: > > >> On Wed, Oct 30, 2024 at 10:27 AM Bernd Schubert > > >> <bernd.schubert@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> Hmm, if tmp pages can be compacted, isn't that a problem for splice? > > >>> I.e. I don't understand what the difference between tmp page and > > >>> write-back page for migration. > > >>> > > >> > > >> That's a great question! I have no idea how compaction works for pages > > >> being used in splice. Shakeel, do you know the answer to this? > > >> > > > > > > Sorry for the late response. I still have to go through other unanswered > > > questions but let me answer this one quickly. From the way the tmp pages > > > are allocated, it does not seem like they are movable and thus are not > > > target for migration/compaction. > > > > > > The page with the writeback bit set is actually just a user memory page > > > cache which is moveable but due to, at the moment, under writeback it > > > temporarily becomes unmovable to not cause corruption. > > > > Thanks a lot for your quick reply Shakeel! (Actually very fast!). > > > > With that, it confirms what I wrote earlier - removing tmp and ignoring > > fuse writeback pages in migration should not make any difference > > regarding overall system performance. Unless I miss something, > > more on the contrary as additional memory pressure expensive page > > copying is being removed. > > > > Thanks for the information Shakeel, and thanks Bernd for bringing up > this point of discussion. > > Before I celebrate too prematurely, a few additional questions: You are asking hard questions, so CCed couple more folks to correct me if I am wrong. > > Are tmp pages (eg from folio_alloc(GFP_NOFS | __GFP_HIGHMEM, 0)) and > page cache pages allocated from the same memory pool? Or are tmp pages > allocated from a special memory pool that isn't meant to be > compacted/optimized? Memory pool is a bit confusing term here. Most probably you are asking about the migrate type of the page block from which tmp page is allocated from. In a normal system, tmp page would be allocated from page block with MIGRATE_UNMOVABLE migrate type while the page cache page, it depends on what gfp flag was used for its allocation. What does fuse fs use? GFP_HIGHUSER_MOVABLE or something else? Under low memory situation allocations can get mixed up with different migrate types. > > If they are allocated from the same memory pool, then it seems like > there's no difference between tmp pages blocking a memory range from > being compacted vs. a page cache page blocking a memory range from > being compacted (by not clearing writeback). But if they are not > allocated from the same pool, then it seems like the page cache page > blocking migration could adversely affect general system performance > in a way that the tmp page doesn't? I think irrespective of where the page is coming from, the page under writeback is non-movable and can fragment the memory. The question that is that worse than a tmp page fragmenting the memory, I am not sure.
