If a page is about to be dirtied then the page allocator attempts to limit the total number of dirty pages that exists in any given zone. The call to node_dirty_ok is expensive so this patch records if the last pgdat examined hit the dirty limits. In some cases, this reduces the number of calls to node_dirty_ok(). Signed-off-by: Mel Gorman <mgorman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- mm/page_alloc.c | 13 +++++++++++-- 1 file changed, 11 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/mm/page_alloc.c b/mm/page_alloc.c index 125f344ff105..d0ca26152716 100644 --- a/mm/page_alloc.c +++ b/mm/page_alloc.c @@ -2889,6 +2889,8 @@ get_page_from_freelist(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order, int alloc_flags, { struct zoneref *z = ac->preferred_zoneref; struct zone *zone; + struct pglist_data *last_pgdat_dirty_limit = NULL; + /* * Scan zonelist, looking for a zone with enough free. * See also __cpuset_node_allowed() comment in kernel/cpuset.c. @@ -2921,8 +2923,15 @@ get_page_from_freelist(gfp_t gfp_mask, unsigned int order, int alloc_flags, * will require awareness of nodes in the * dirty-throttling and the flusher threads. */ - if (ac->spread_dirty_pages && !node_dirty_ok(zone->zone_pgdat)) - continue; + if (ac->spread_dirty_pages) { + if (last_pgdat_dirty_limit == zone->zone_pgdat) + continue; + + if (!node_dirty_ok(zone->zone_pgdat)) { + last_pgdat_dirty_limit = zone->zone_pgdat; + continue; + } + } mark = zone->watermark[alloc_flags & ALLOC_WMARK_MASK]; if (!zone_watermark_fast(zone, order, mark, -- 2.6.4 -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxx. For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx"> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>