The dirty_ratio was siliently limited in global_dirty_limits() to >= 5%. This is not a user expected behavior. And it's inconsistent with calc_period_shift(), which uses the plain vm_dirty_ratio value. Let's rip the internal bound. At the same time, fix balance_dirty_pages() to work with the dirty_thresh=0 case. This allows applications to proceed when dirty+writeback pages are all cleaned. And ">" fits with the name "exceeded" better than ">=" does. Neil think it is an aesthetic improvement as well as a functional one :) v2: convert the background writeback checks, too. Just to be sure. CC: Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx> Proposed-by: Con Kolivas <kernel@xxxxxxxxxxx> Acked-by: Peter Zijlstra <a.p.zijlstra@xxxxxxxxx> Reviewed-by: Rik van Riel <riel@xxxxxxxxxx> Reviewed-by: Neil Brown <neilb@xxxxxxx> Reviewed-by: KOSAKI Motohiro <kosaki.motohiro@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@xxxxxxxxx> --- fs/fs-writeback.c | 2 +- mm/page-writeback.c | 16 +++++----------- 2 files changed, 6 insertions(+), 12 deletions(-) --- linux-next.orig/mm/page-writeback.c 2010-08-29 08:10:30.000000000 +0800 +++ linux-next/mm/page-writeback.c 2010-08-29 08:12:08.000000000 +0800 @@ -415,14 +415,8 @@ void global_dirty_limits(unsigned long * if (vm_dirty_bytes) dirty = DIV_ROUND_UP(vm_dirty_bytes, PAGE_SIZE); - else { - int dirty_ratio; - - dirty_ratio = vm_dirty_ratio; - if (dirty_ratio < 5) - dirty_ratio = 5; - dirty = (dirty_ratio * available_memory) / 100; - } + else + dirty = (vm_dirty_ratio * available_memory) / 100; if (dirty_background_bytes) background = DIV_ROUND_UP(dirty_background_bytes, PAGE_SIZE); @@ -510,7 +504,7 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a * catch-up. This avoids (excessively) small writeouts * when the bdi limits are ramping up. */ - if (nr_reclaimable + nr_writeback < + if (nr_reclaimable + nr_writeback <= (background_thresh + dirty_thresh) / 2) break; @@ -542,8 +536,8 @@ static void balance_dirty_pages(struct a * the last resort safeguard. */ dirty_exceeded = - (bdi_nr_reclaimable + bdi_nr_writeback >= bdi_thresh) - || (nr_reclaimable + nr_writeback >= dirty_thresh); + (bdi_nr_reclaimable + bdi_nr_writeback > bdi_thresh) + || (nr_reclaimable + nr_writeback > dirty_thresh); if (!dirty_exceeded) break; --- linux-next.orig/fs/fs-writeback.c 2010-08-29 08:12:51.000000000 +0800 +++ linux-next/fs/fs-writeback.c 2010-08-29 08:12:53.000000000 +0800 @@ -574,7 +574,7 @@ static inline bool over_bground_thresh(v global_dirty_limits(&background_thresh, &dirty_thresh); return (global_page_state(NR_FILE_DIRTY) + - global_page_state(NR_UNSTABLE_NFS) >= background_thresh); + global_page_state(NR_UNSTABLE_NFS) > background_thresh); } /* -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxx For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx"> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>