The change is virtually a no-op for the majority users that use the default 10/20 background/dirty ratios. For others don't know why they are setting background ratio close enough to dirty ratio. Someone must set background ratio equal to dirty ratio, but no one seems to notice or complain that it's then silently halved under the hood.. Signed-off-by: Wu Fengguang <fengguang.wu@xxxxxxxxx> --- mm/page-writeback.c | 11 +++++++++-- 1 file changed, 9 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) --- linux-next.orig/mm/page-writeback.c 2010-11-15 13:12:50.000000000 +0800 +++ linux-next/mm/page-writeback.c 2010-11-15 13:13:42.000000000 +0800 @@ -403,8 +403,15 @@ void global_dirty_limits(unsigned long * else background = (dirty_background_ratio * available_memory) / 100; - if (background >= dirty) - background = dirty / 2; + /* + * Ensure at least 1/4 gap between background and dirty thresholds, so + * that when dirty throttling starts at (background + dirty)/2, it's at + * the entrance of bdi soft throttle threshold, so as to avoid being + * hard throttled. + */ + if (background > dirty - dirty * 2 / BDI_SOFT_DIRTY_LIMIT) + background = dirty - dirty * 2 / BDI_SOFT_DIRTY_LIMIT; + tsk = current; if (tsk->flags & PF_LESS_THROTTLE || rt_task(tsk)) { background += background / 4; -- 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/ . Fight unfair telecom policy in Canada: sign http://dissolvethecrtc.ca/ Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx"> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>