On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 10:22:31AM -0700, Greg Thelen wrote: > Call cond_resched() from shrink_dentry_list() to preserve > shrink_dcache_parent() interactivity. > > void shrink_dcache_parent(struct dentry * parent) > { > while ((found = select_parent(parent, &dispose)) != 0) > shrink_dentry_list(&dispose); > } > > select_parent() populates the dispose list with dentries which > shrink_dentry_list() then deletes. select_parent() carefully uses > need_resched() to avoid doing too much work at once. But neither > shrink_dcache_parent() nor its called functions call cond_resched(). > So once need_resched() is set select_parent() will return single > dentry dispose list which is then deleted by shrink_dentry_list(). > This is inefficient when there are a lot of dentry to process. This > can cause softlockup and hurts interactivity on non preemptable > kernels. Hi Greg, I can see how this coul dcause problems, but isn't the problem then that shrink_dcache_parent()/select_parent() itself is mishandling the need for rescheduling rather than being a problem with the shrink_dentry_list() implementation? i.e. select_parent() is aborting batching based on a need for rescheduling, but then not doing that itself and assuming that someone else will do the reschedule for it? Perhaps this is a better approach: - while ((found = select_parent(parent, &dispose)) != 0) + while ((found = select_parent(parent, &dispose)) != 0) { shrink_dentry_list(&dispose); + cond_resched(); + } With this, select_parent() stops batching when a resched is needed, we dispose of the list as a single batch and only then resched if it was needed before we go and grab the next batch. That should fix the "small batch" problem without the potential for changing the shrink_dentry_list() behaviour adversely for other users.... Cheers, Dave. -- Dave Chinner david@xxxxxxxxxxxxx -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-fsdevel" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html