Hello Mike, On 4/2/20 4:08 AM, Mike Christie wrote: > This patch documents the PR_SET_IO_FLUSHER and PR_GET_IO_FLUSHER > prctl commands added to the linux kernel for 5.6 in commit: > > commit 8d19f1c8e1937baf74e1962aae9f90fa3aeab463 > Author: Mike Christie <mchristi@xxxxxxxxxx> > Date: Mon Nov 11 18:19:00 2019 -0600> > prctl: PR_{G,S}ET_IO_FLUSHER to support controlling memory reclaim > > Signed-off-by: Mike Christie <mchristi@xxxxxxxxxx> I've applied this patch, but I have some questions: (a) What happens to the IO_FLUSHER setting in the child of fork(2)? (b) What happens to the IO_FLUSHER setting during an execve(2)? (Is it preserved, reset, something else?) Thanks, Michael > --- > > V4: > - Remove internal details. > - Add CAP_SYS_RESOURCE requirement info. > > V3: > - Replace emulation device example. > > V2: > - My initial patch for this was very bad. This version is almost 100% > taken word for word from Dave Chinner's review comments. > > Signed-off-by: Mike Christie <mchristi@xxxxxxxxxx> > > man2/prctl.2 | 26 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > 1 file changed, 26 insertions(+) > > diff --git a/man2/prctl.2 b/man2/prctl.2 > index 720ec04e4..3c3355439 100644 > --- a/man2/prctl.2 > +++ b/man2/prctl.2 > @@ -1381,6 +1381,31 @@ system call on Tru64). > for information on versions and architectures.) > Return unaligned access control bits, in the location pointed to by > .IR "(unsigned int\ *) arg2" . > +.TP > +.B PR_SET_IO_FLUSHER (Since Linux 5.6) > +If a user process is involved in the block layer or file system IO path, > +and can allocate memory while processing IO requests it must set > +\fIarg2\fP to 1. This will put the process in the IO_FLUSHER state which > +allows it special treatment to make progress when allocating memory. > +If \fIarg2\fP is 0, the process will clear the IO_FLUSHER state, and > +the default behavior will be used. > + > +The calling process must have the > +.BR CAP_SYS_RESOURCE > +capability. > + > +Examples of IO_FLUSHER applications are FUSE daemons, SCSI device > +emulation daemons, and daemons that perform error handling like multipath > +path recovery applications. > + > +.TP > +.B PR_GET_IO_FLUSHER (Since Linux 5.6) > +Return as the function result 1 if the caller is in the IO_FLUSHER state and > +0 if not. > + > +The calling process must have the > +.BR CAP_SYS_RESOURCE > +capability. > .SH RETURN VALUE > On success, > .BR PR_GET_DUMPABLE , > @@ -1395,6 +1420,7 @@ On success, > .BR PR_GET_SPECULATION_CTRL , > .BR PR_MCE_KILL_GET , > .BR PR_CAP_AMBIENT + PR_CAP_AMBIENT_IS_SET , > +.BR PR_GET_IO_FLUSHER , > and (if it returns) > .BR PR_GET_SECCOMP > return the nonnegative values described above. > -- Michael Kerrisk Linux man-pages maintainer; http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/ Linux/UNIX System Programming Training: http://man7.org/training/